D.C. archdiocese: Denying Communion to lesbian at funeral was against ‘policy’

[steve2470]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-archdiocese-denying-communion-to-lesbian-at-funeral-was-against-policy/2012/02/28/gIQAlIxVgR_story.html?wprss&google_editors_picks=true

Deep in grief, Barbara Johnson stood first in the line for Communion at her mother’s funeral Saturday morning. But the priest in front of her immediately made it clear that she would not receive the sacramental bread and wine.

Johnson, an art-studio owner from the District, had come to St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg with her lesbian partner. The Rev. Marcel Guarnizo had learned of their relationship just before the service.

“He put his hand over the body of Christ and looked at me and said, ‘I can’t give you Communion because you live with a woman, and in the eyes of the church, that is a sin,’?” she recalled Tuesday.

She reacted with stunned silence. Her anger and outrage have now led her and members of her family to demand that Guarnizo be removed from his ministry.

[HillWilliam]

1. Muttering platitudes about "regret" aren't sufficient

I agree with Ms Johnson: nothing less than Guarnizo's removal would suffice. To use one of the most vulnerable moments in a person's life to insult them personally and categorically is despicable.

Hoddam I despise right-wing "religious" freaks with a purple passion.

[rurallib]

2. it's like the catholic clergy has thrown their lot in with

the Repub party. It will be bad for both.

[freshwest]

3. Jesus: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

The priest condemns himself. Note exactly who it is standing between the woman caught in adultery and her accusers, such as this priest.



From John 8 : 7, here is the Wikipedia entry:

The parable, and its messages of not being quick to condemn when one is not blameless and tempering justice with mercy, have endured in Christian thought. Both "he that is without sin, cast the first stone"[6] and "go, and sin no more"[7] have found their way into common usage.

The English idiomatic phrase to "cast the first stone" is derived from this passage.[8] The subject was fairly common in art, especially from the Renaissance onwards; Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery by Pieter Bruegel is a famous example. There was a medieval tradition, originating in a comment attributed to Ambrose, that the words written were terra terram accusat ("earth accuses earth&quot , which is shown in some depictions in art, for example the Codex Egberti. There have also been other suggestions as to what was written.[9] To some Christians not concerned with textual disputes, the passage has been taken as confirmation of the literacy of Jesus, otherwise only suggested by implication in the Gospels, but the word "???????" in 8:8 could mean "draw" as well as "write".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_and_the_woman_taken_in_adultery