I came across this just now. The headline: “Woman: Priest denied me Communion at mom’s funeral because I’m gay“. I grew up just outside Gaithersburg, my mother lives there now. I offer it without comment:
From the video in the piece (the embed code is mislabeled):
Anchor: “Take me back to when you first realized that the priest had an issue with you being a Lesbian”
Barbara Johnson: “The first moment that I realized that the priest had an issue with me being a Lesbian was when I was standing in front of him with my hand out to receive communion.”
From the piece:
Barbara Johnson knew last Saturday, the day of her mother’s funeral, would be difficult. But she and her lesbian partner of 20 years had no idea that the priest at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg, Md., would be a source of her grief.
Johnson, 51, of Washington, D.C, walked into the church, mourning the mom she described to msnbc.com as “a really cool woman; she was 85 going on 58.”
When Johnson and her partner arrived at the church — which her mom had attended, and her dad, too, before he died years prior — they were summoned by Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, a man they were meeting for the first time. He didn’t express his condolences, Johnson said, instead curtly getting down to business.
[snipped]
The day, already tense, was about to get significantly worse. Johnson said the priest denied her Communion at her own mother’s funeral, telling her he couldn’t give it to her because she was gay.When it came time to hand out bread and wine, Guarnizo “issued a strong admonition that only Catholics in a state of grace can receive Communion,” Johnson told msnbc.com. “I went up. I was standing next to my mother’s casket and he covered the bowl, and said, ‘I cannot give you Communion because you are with a woman, and in the eyes of the church, that is a sin.’ I stood there with my mouth open in a state of shock for — I don’t know how long.”
But he wasn’t finished, Johnson said. Guarnizo had finally agreed to allow two eulogies, but she said family members told her that he proceeded to walk out of the service in the middle of Johnson’s dedication to her mother – something he didn’t do during her niece’s eulogy.
As the final insult, Johnson told msnbc.com, Guarnizo failed to attend her mother’s burial: “When the funeral home director appears, he says, ‘Father Marcel has taken ill. He says he has a migraine and is unable to accompany your mother’s remains to the cemetery.’ This was, for me and my family, his most egregious act.”
[snipped]
I invite your responses.
is he priest *walked off* as the daughter gave a eulogy. That communion was denied is not that surprising, but that he couldn’t even be in the same room with her… after her mother died… while she gave some last words to her mother is absolutely unforgivable.
If there is a hell, I can’t imagine something like this doesn’t buy him a one way ticket. The church should immediately throw him out. Such intolerance goes way beyond dogma and into the territory of hatred and bigotry, merely for hatred and bigotry. At her own mother’s funeral!
Choosing which sinners to turn away based on personal animosity is bigotry.
Matthew 25:45 “Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.”
Yes, we’re all sinners, that’s part of the doctrine of Calvinism that American society was partly founded on:
but, (here is the mishmash) it was also the Calvinists like Jonathan Edwards who insisted that Communion was only for those in a state of grace in the church. This was the exact same argument that happened in Northampton almost 300 years ago, which Solomon Stoddard tried to compromise with the Halfway Covenant, which basically let everyone get Communion on the theory that it might help them receive Grace in the future. Then Edwards tried to restore the need for a true conversion experience:
So this argument is all still happening “in the now.” Anyhow, the fact that we are all sinners does not at all mean we all are in a state of grace to receive communion.
The Eucharist is preceded by a confession. In Catholic churches, this is typically private (hence the booths). In Episcopal churches, it is typically public (but can go either way). The congregant offers his or her confession. The priest pronounces absolution (on behalf of God). The congregant is now “cleansed”, and in a “state of grace” to receive communion.
When I married a woman born into a Catholic family some years ago, we chose to raise our children in the Episcopal church because our relationship was considered adulterous by the Catholic church (I had been previously married and divorced) and both of us would have had to confess our “sin” of being married before participating in the Eucharist each and every time (no bulk rate was available, we sinned all over again each time we had marital relations). We concluded that we wanted no part of the institution.
I don’t know about the Catholic practice, but the Episcopal church has been doing this for several centuries now. One Episcopal priest describes confession as “the way we wash our spiritual hands” before “coming to the Eucharistic table”.
The Episcopal confession is broad enough to cover just about anything anyone can do, so Ms. Johnson would not have had a problem in an Episcopal Church:
The fact that we are all sinners is precisely why we celebrate the Eucharist.
And things like living in adultery or with another woman are visible signs that a confession can’t wash away. After all, the confession is to confess private sins, of the heart, where we are all sinners, that’s why it takes place in private, and those things are very public sins. We aren’t all public sinners, we aren’t all adulterers or homosexuals, but we are all sinners in our hearts.
Like I said, it sounds like you missed some catechism classes.
Maybe some churches draw the distinction you attempt between “private sins, of the heart”, and “public sins” (apparently like “living in adultery” or “with another woman”). I’m quite certain that the Episcopal church does not. I will leave to those who are more versed in Catholic teachings to say whether the Catholic church draws this distinction. I suspect not, but I don’t claim to know.
The last time I checked, nobody in the Bible said anything about sins that “a confession can’t wash away”. Since confession and absolution are, for example, part of the last rites — offered even to murderers — I’m surprised by your claim.
I’m reasonably (but not absolutely) confident that confession followed by absolution clears every sin — mortal, venial, or other — that’s what the word “absolution” means after all.
Are you sure this isn’t a rule you’ve made up? Just saying …
Some churches, like the Catholic church and early Puritan churches, were quite strict about needing evidence of a conversion experience, or at least testimony, before granting full membership in the church and communion.
Read the wiki of Edwards in Northamptom, it’s pretty interesting, and maybe you’ll agree with my point here, that this argument about everyone deserving communion has been going on for a long time.
I am indeed making this up, from my own understanding, and haven’t taken any catechism classes. But the wikipedia on Edwards Faithful Narrative is probably correct, and it mentions “heart sins” too:
So see, true converts continue to experience “heart sins” even after their conversion, and that is what they confess, but true converts also desire to “leave sin behind” which means they can’t desire to keep sinning or living in sin, if they express desire to keep sinning (and committing adultery and living as a homosexual are certainly considered sins), then they obviously aren’t converted.
lest ye be judged.
Who is a good Catholic to follow, Jesus or the Pope?
…I know plenty of priests who would not act this way. Sure the Church teaches that homosexuality is a sin, but this is more about this priest’s bigotry than Church teaching.
My own mother was pointedly refused communion at her fathers funeral. It’s church doctrine that divorced women cannot receive communion. Oh, and by the way, the priest who refused her communion was her uncle, the brother-in-law of the deceased.
This is all about church teaching.
As I wrote upthread, this is consistent with what my then-fiance and I heard in 1990 from a priest at the North Shore parish my fiance’s family attended. He didn’t threaten to withhold communion; instead, he said that each of us would have to individually confess our “sin” (and promise to never do it again) each time we wanted to receive.
We chose the Episcopal tradition.
Christopher, it is clear that this priest is bigoted. I think the question of how the priest’s bigotry relates to “Church teaching” is very much open. I get, and appreciate, that for you personally, such bigotry is fundamentally incompatible with church teaching. Sadly, your personal understanding doesn’t count. As you and others have pointed out repeatedly, the Catholic church is not a democratic institution — the laity has essentially no voice in determining the meaning of “church teaching”.
Perhaps the best we can say is that the Catholic leadership will announce its understanding of “church teaching” on the matter, and we will each come to our individual conclusions about the same question.
According to the Washington Post.
As I’m sure you all know by now I am Protestant. As such Catholic law dictates that I am prohibited from receiving Communion as part of Catholic Mass. However, I have taken it when I’ve had the opportunity. My high school was Catholic so we had school Mass from time to time and I received Communion from people I’m sure knew that I am Protestant, including from one teacher/monk who just a few days prior had mentioned the prohibition. Other priests will serve divorcees, LGBT, etc. I get the distinct impression that on the record the answer is, “You absolutely must not partake” while the same people will then whisper off the record, “Psst…knock yourself out”.
I think when they give communion to people they know aren’t supposed to receive it, they do so out of “pastoral sensitivity” and “kindness” but they probably try to educate people so they learn to respect communion properly.
by canon law.
I was told by my priest, when I still had a priest, that the only time you shouldn’t receive communion is when you have committed a mortal sin, i.e. one of the 10 Commandments.
Priests have a lot of discretion on who they grant communion to. There are also cultural differences with communion. I knew a kid whose mom was from Ireland. She insisted that she go to confession before she went to communion. This isn’t a legal requirement unless she had committed a mortal sin. Her mom also said she couldn’t eat before communion.