Priest Denies Gays' Supporters Communion

PaulinCork

Priest Denies Gays' Supporters Communion
From: "Queer News Network" <qnn@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 19:11:14 -0700
Subject: [queernews] Priest Denies Gays' Supporters Communion

Priest Denies Gays' Supporters Communion

A Roman Catholic priest denied communion to more than 100 people Sunday, saying they could not receive the sacrament because they wore rainbow-colored sashes to church to show support for gay Catholics. Before offering communion, the Rev. Michael Sklucazek told the congregation at the Cathedral of St. Paul that anyone wearing a sash could come forward for a blessing but would not receive wine and bread. A group called the Rainbow Sash Alliance has encouraged supporters to wear the multicolored fabric bands since 2001 on each Pentecost Sunday, the day Catholics believe the Holy Spirit came to give power to Christians soon after Jesus ascended to heaven. But Sunday's service was the first time they had been denied communion at the altar.

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c...L&sn=002&sc=642

garthv

Ahh the catholic church....
Their new motto should be : "THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, YOU CAN GUARANTEE WE ARE GOING TO KEEP MOVING BACKWARDS!"

r@t

why anyone would want to be part of such a prejudice group of biggots is beyond me. ---down with things we don't know anything about says the church. --- let them revel in their ignorance.

rsynnott

You can apparently write to the local bishop to revoke your membership... (must get around to doing that)

leeroybrown

Perhaps it's an evil plot by the Vatican Bank to save money on communion wafers...

r3boot

rsynnott wrote:

You can apparently write to the local bishop to revoke your membership... (must get around to doing that)

If you don't are you automatically considered a member (cringes )

hope not ! Damn organised religions, insurance for the afterlife is all it is !!!!!

rsynnott

r3boot wrote:

If you don't are you automatically considered a member (cringes )

hope not ! Damn organised religions, insurance for the afterlife is all it is !!!!!

Only if you're baptised and such.

scoey

If these people's lifestyle is outside the guidelines of the Catholic Church then why do they want to be part of it? Why don't they find a different group that has no problem with gays? I mean, I think this is ridiculous, I'm not a practising Catholic but I think they are right not to give Communion to these people, who are pretty much protesting against one of the Churches most controversial issues, inside a Church, on a holy day...quite frankly I think it's pretty disrespectful. Anyway, seriously, why would gay people actually want to be part of a group that they see as bigoted and which clearly doesn't want them as members? As far as I see it, the Catholic Church is not a democracy or some sort of sunday chat group that should be forced to let everyone in, regardless of whether their lifestyles are blatently going against it's teachings. To be honest, if the Catholic Church started bowing to this sort of pressure, I think I'd have even less respect for them than I do now.

claire h

scoey wrote:

If these people's lifestyle is outside the guidelines of the Catholic Church then why do they want to be part of it?

Because it's selective prejudice on the church's part. *Most* people's lifestyle is "outside the guidelines of the Catholic church". People who use contraception, or get divorced, or have sex before marriage... and the basic tenet of Christianity, that whole 'love thy neighbour' bit, only seems to be revoked when it comes to gay people.

damien

I agree with scoey a bit actually. The Church is an equal opportunities bigot. I'm sure if someone arrived looking for communion wearing a sash which highlighted their support of abortion or contraception they'd be denied communion too.

It's not like the church soley bans homosexuals. Were there not recent cases of them denying communion to unmarried mothers or something? Funny how they don't believe in sex before marriage yet jesus was a bastard child.

Boston

scoey wrote:

If these people's lifestyle is outside the guidelines of the Catholic Church then why do they want to be part of it? Why don't they find a different group that has no problem with gays? I mean, I think this is ridiculous, I'm not a practising Catholic but I think they are right not to give Communion to these people, who are pretty much protesting against one of the Churches most controversial issues, inside a Church, on a holy day...quite frankly I think it's pretty disrespectful. Anyway, seriously, why would gay people actually want to be part of a group that they see as bigoted and which clearly doesn't want them as members? As far as I see it, the Catholic Church is not a democracy or some sort of sunday chat group that should be forced to let everyone in, regardless of whether their lifestyles are blatently going against it's teachings. To be honest, if the Catholic Church started bowing to this sort of pressure, I think I'd have even less respect for them than I do now.

You really have to ask yourselves why would anybody want to be a member of the catholic church, not just homosexuals. Here is an organization which In no small way, held back human evolution in the field of sciences, and economics for hundreds of years with their dogma, collaborated with the Nazi's and Hitler. On the home front established work houses, and "special schools" for troubled boys. An organisation that protected paedophiles and allowed them to pray on their innocent charges. An organisation to brainwashed young children into a life of servitude so some fat bishop somewhere could have a nice life. The organisation is rotten to the core, so really you have to ask why any decent, right minded, person has anything to do with them.

Answer: That's their faith, and as such they don't question it like you or I.

the_syco

damien.m wrote:

Funny how they don't believe in sex before marriage yet jesus was a bastard child.

Hehehe. Nice. /me adds it to signature.

=-=

I'd say Christanity will change to liking gays, just as fast as Islam, or any other major religon does... Some people actually switch to Islam, as has stricter rules, which some people feel they "need". Thus, are people going to try to get Islam to change? Thus far, yes, women have gained rights, etc, but its not due to a loosening of the churchs reins, its happened outside the churches scope. The church still says the womans place is at the home, just as it says that if gays f***, its a sin (living together celibrete is OK, tho), so I doubt it'll change at all, tbh.

r3boot

yeah but islam has such a big spectrum. You will find people who are just as bad if not worse than the catholic church; although most people aren't and in recent years (past 100) mainstream islam has becaome more orthodox.

cormie

rsynnott wrote:

You can apparently write to the local bishop to revoke your membership... (must get around to doing that)

Is this true? I was baptised, communed, comfirmed and all that but I don't believe a word of it now that I'm older. Don't practice or anything and if I could choose now, I would choose not to have been baptised. So what do you say in the letter and what do you need to confirm it's you? Looking forward to this!!

rsynnott

cormie wrote:

Is this true? I was baptised, communed, comfirmed and all that but I don't believe a word of it now that I'm older. Don't practice or anything and if I could choose now, I would choose not to have been baptised. So what do you say in the letter and what do you need to confirm it's you? Looking forward to this!!

There was a thread about this in the Religon forum a while back.

RE: the church having a right to refuse communion to people; certainly it does (tho note the use of the dreaded "lifestyle" in the original post; first sign of an idiot). It has a right to refuse communion to black people, or people with red hair, or people with abnormal numbers of ribs too! However it is probably a dangerous message for it to give to its people; that of an utterly undemocratic organisation which changes, all right, but only precisely when and how it wants to change, and which punishes people for their beliefs. Is this really the message it wants to be giving out as it loses support every day? I'm in many ways quite happy to see this has happened; it will hopefully open up more eyes to just what an unpleasant, superannuated organisation the catholic church really is.