Yes the parade is about Irish culture, but it's also about St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland and the Catholic's have pulled out.
Irritating....
Irish culture is a very rich and thousand year tradition from the clothing they wear to the faith they have. Unlike any other on earth. Saints Pats day is a day to honor the ancestors -------Most of us non Irish do eat the corrned beef potatoes and cabbage to honor the culture as a huge building block in America.
A tradition we do to honor others that may be somewhere back in our DNA. Same as we French honor Prince spegetti day on Wendsday in Boston.
So the Irish want to have a parade to honor their faith and tradition, this is their day not the day of the anyone else.
I agree that the Church should pull out of a desceration of a ceremony to honor a church figure that was so much a part of life for the people.