For the first time in its history, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan, the nation’s oldest and biggest parade, allowed a gay contingent to march, alienating some Catholics and angering others who wanted more gay organizations to be included in the event.

New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan was this year’s grand marshal, leading the 254th annual procession for a ways on Fifth Avenue. He then returned to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, to review the parade from the steps of the church.

Earlier, he had been the main celebrant of a special noon Mass at the cathedral to honor St. Patrick, the fifth-century bishop, apostle of Ireland and patron saint of the New York Archdiocese.

Last September, organizers of the New York parade announced they would allow Out@NBCUniversal, an organization of gay employees of NBCUniversal, the parade broadcaster, to march.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who attended the Mass, boycotted the parade because more groups were not allowed to participate. He boycotted the event last year when he was newly elected to head the city.

This year, an estimated two million spectators turned out to watch the New York parade and about 250,000 people marched.

Other U.S. cities’ parades may not be as old or as big, but they are still major events in places like Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, New Orleans, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Diego.

“I’m as radiant as the sun, so thanks be to God for the honor and the joy,” Cardinal Dolan told CBS New York about his duties as grand marshal.

Last September, the parade’s organizers announced the cardinal would be grand marshal and also said a gay organization would be allowed to participate in 2015.

Cardinal Dolan in a statement at the time said he was honored to lead the parade and also said it was not up to him to decide who would march.

“The St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee continues to have my confidence and support,” he said. “Neither my predecessors as archbishop of New York nor I have ever determined who would or would not march in this parade – or any of the other parades that march along Fifth Avenue, for that matter – but have always appreciated the cooperation of parade organizers in keeping the parade close to its Catholic heritage.”

He said he hoped “the parade would continue to be a source of unity for all of us.”

Among critics of this year’s parade was Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, who pulled his group from the event because a pro-life group was not allowed to march under its own banner, like the gay group was permitted to do.

In an email to Catholic News Service (CNS) March 19, he said that during his 20-year association with the parade committee, “I defended the decision to exclude a gay group, saying that parade organizers refuse to allow any advocacy group to march under its own banner, including pro-life groups.”

When organizers asked Donahue if it was OK with him if they invited Out@NBCUniversal to march, Donahue told them yes, “provided that a pro-life group would also be allowed to march,” he told CNS. Organizers confirmed a pro-life group would be marching as well, but then he learned only the gay group would be included in the 2015 parade, so the Catholic League decided not to participate.

In Boston, the decision by parade organizers to allow two gay groups to march in that city’s March 15 parade riled the head of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts who said that including gay rights groups in the parade there dishonored St. Patrick in “historically Catholic South Boston.”

“A parade in honor of a Catholic saint was used to promote public acceptance of behaviors unequivocally condemned by the Catholic religion,” said the league’s executive director, C.J. Doyle.

The two groups which marched this year were Boston Pride, a gay equality group, and OutVets, which honors lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender military veterans.

According to Doyle, the groups have “zero interest in the ancient Catholic culture of Ireland and her patron saint” and “express pride in rejecting Catholic morality.” He said the two groups also consider the Church’s moral code “bigotry and prejudice.”

The Boston Archdiocese had a special noon St. Patrick’s Day Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross March 17, celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Robert F. Hennessey. The homilist was Msgr. Liam Bergin, a professor of theology at Boston College and a native of County Laois, Ireland.