Archbishop John Myers of Newark just told Catholics in his diocese who support same-sex marriage that they should \u201crefrain from receiving Holy Communion\u201d and calls \u201ca proper backing of marriage\u201d a fundamental issue for Catholic voters heading into the election.\u00a0 Catholics in Minnesota will receive a letter this week<\/a> from the state\u2019s bishops encouraging them to donate money for television ads asking voters to approve a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.\u00a0 The new archbishop of San Francisco has said gays and lesbians who are in a sexual relationship of any kind should not receive Communion.\u00a0 In Omaha, the archbishop is encouraging priests to preach against<\/a> the city\u2019s recently passed sexual orientation anti-discrimination ordinance.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the Seattle archbishop, who is overseeing the Vatican crackdown<\/a> on Catholic nuns while he lobbies for an anti-gay marriage ballot initiative, cheerily warns<\/a> that \u201chuman society would be harmed beyond repair\u201d by same-sex marriage.[i]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Seattle archbishop did not need to invent his emotionally-charged words of doom; he borrowed them right out of Cardinal Ratzinger letter on same-sex marriages.<\/p>\n Not a week passes when I don\u2019t hear a horror story of how gay and lesbian Catholics have been openly abused by those who imagine themselves to be the self-appointed \u201cmorality police\u201d of fundamentalism.[ii]<\/a>\u00a0 Here are two illustrative cases:<\/p>\n Parker and Martin expressed their sadness that [Fr.] Kneib would choose to compound their grief by preventing them from participating fully in the funeral.\u00a0 \u201cIt was very important to me, my last opportunity to worship here at the church with her [my departed mother].\u201d [iv]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Upon noticing how many of those attending the funeral had declined to take Communion, Fr. Kneib later apologized to Parker for taking action “at the time of her mother’s funeral.” But the bond of trust had been broken:<\/p>\n The couple has found a new church to attend, one hour away.\u00a0 Parker said to Fox [News], \u201cMy faith is strong enough that I wasn’t going to let this deter me to go to church.”\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re all God\u2019s children, and we have every right to receive Communion,\u201d Parker told the News-Press.\u00a0 \u201cEven the pope has said, \u2018Who am I to judge?\u2019\u201d[v]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is the sad legacy of Ratzinger Doctrine that has infected Fr. Kneib.\u00a0 He takes Holy Communion and uses it as a way to bless the righteous and as a way to rebuke \u201csinners.\u201d\u00a0 And who are the “sinners” according to current Catholic practice?\u00a0 Those women who procure an abortion and those who assist her.\u00a0 Those who use any form of artificial birth control or make it possible for other to use birth control.\u00a0 Those who divorce and remarry (while their initial spouse is still alive) in a civil union.\u00a0 And, most recently, active homosexuals and anyone who supports same-sex civil marriages.\u00a0 It is these later persons that my book is most concerned with.<\/p>\n In the long history of the Catholic Church, “excommunication” was used in cases of grave sins that severely harmed individuals and harmed the community.\u00a0 Three sins in the first five centuries merited excommunication: idolatry, murder, and adultery.<\/p>\n Excommunication meant expulsion from the community and no contact with its assemblies.\u00a0 No\u00a0 excommunication was definitive, however.\u00a0 In fact, those who were repentant after having committed one the three unpardonable sins were admitted to the “order of penitents” which gave them the tools to rectify the causes and the effects of their grievous failing.\u00a0 After a suitable time of “purification,” penitents who were readmitted were again allowed to take part in all of the church assemblies, most especially, the Sunday Eucharist.<\/p>\n As time developed, various other practices limited the use of excommunication.\u00a0 Most especially, the emergence of private confession of sins to a priest in the fifth century and the penitential practices associated with Lent (the forty days prior to Easter) were of decisive importance.\u00a0 Now, a grave sinner could be tolerated within the community as long as they did not receive Holy Communion during the Eucharist.\u00a0 After confessing their sin to a priest, they were give a “penance” that may have lasted for years.\u00a0 Once they completed their penance, they were given absolution by their priest and allowed to receive Holy Communion again.\u00a0 Excommunications still did take place, but they were reserved for special cases where the nature of the crime was very pronounced and very public, e.g., the killing of a priest.<\/p>\n This helps to understand how and why the contemporary Church has used the denial of the right to take Holy Communion as a penetential discipline for someone committing a serious sin.\u00a0 In the past, each person examined their own conscience prior to going to the altar <\/span>to\u00a0 receive Holy Communion<\/span>.\u00a0 If one detected an unconfessed grave sin, then one did not approach the altar without going to confession first.\u00a0 In my youth, I was trained to go to Confession every Saturday afternoon so that I could\u00a0 receive Communion on the day following.\u00a0 Those who did not approach the altar were not assumed to be grave sinners.\u00a0 Far from it.\u00a0 If one did not abstain from eating and drinking from Saturday midnight onward, one was not permitted to approach the altar.<\/p>\n On an online discussion board, some of those affected by Fr. Kneib’s actions had a chance to express their views.\u00a0 Here is one such letter posted by\u00a0Bill O’Neill:<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We are all sinners, even Fr. Kneib. But how does he know the condition of anyone’s soul? He certainly hasn’t been listening to Pope Francis. . . . And those of us who believe we know who is or isn’t worthy to receive communion not only cut off others from an opportunity for grace and renewal with Jesus and his people, but also, and more importantly, deny themselves of the same opportunity to partake in the sharing of grace and christan love.\u00a0 Fr Kneib has much to learn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n After a lot of give and take, Martin takes issue with Bill.\u00a0 He writes as follows:<\/p>\n It may be hard to hear for some people, but Fr. Kneib did the right thing asking the woman who was in a sexually-active lesbian relationship from refraining from communion. . . . In 1 Corinthians, St. Paul warns (all of us!) about approaching the Eucharist unworthily.\u00a0 Fr. Kneib’s actions were in the woman’s best interests and out of love for her. Let us pray for her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There is some merit here.\u00a0 Martin gives voice to those Catholics who have been instructed [and innocently misled] by their bishops into believing that lesbian sex is always abjectively immoral. But, for just a brief moment, let’s leave this matter of morality aside and examine the whole tenor of Martin’s letter:<\/p>\n To begin with, it puzzles me how either Fr. Kneib or Martin know that these two women are in “a sexually-active lesbian relationship.”\u00a0 Do they spy into their bedroom at night?\u00a0 Or do they simply assume this because they themselves are obsessed with disturbing thoughts of sex every time anyone uses the word “lesbian”?\u00a0 But I notice that both women are in their late 60s.\u00a0 Is it not more probable that they are living as “sisters” and as “friends” without any active sex life?\u00a0 And, even if they are in “a sexually-active lesbian relationship,” how can either Fr. Kneib or Martin know whether the pair might have confessed their sins to another priest so that they would be free to receive Holy Communion at the funeral Mass?<\/p>\n It also puzzles me that\u00a0 Martin so easily comes to the conclusion that Fr. Kneib’s actions were done “in the woman’s best interests and out of love for her.”\u00a0 Has Martin revealed his hand here and presumed that “Father knows best”?\u00a0 Is this the ugly head of arrogant paternalism showing itself and presuming (without any clear evidence) that men always KNOW what’s in the best interests of a woman?<\/p>\n It also puzzles me that Martin affirms (again without any evidence) that Fr. Kneib acted “out of love.”\u00a0 So much evil has been done to women by men supposedly acting “out of love.”\u00a0 How does Martin really know Fr. Kneib’s motives?\u00a0 Maybe Fr. Kneib is just being a meddlesome busy-body.\u00a0 Does Martin himself feel uncomfortable with the thought that lesbians enjoy unsavory sex on Saturday night and then come to church on Sunday morning and desecrate the “body of Christ” with impure hands?\u00a0 If so, isn’t Martin exposing his own “dirty thoughts”?\u00a0 Isn’t\u00a0 he entirely ignorant of what truly are the “best interests” of Carol Parker?\u00a0 Is he not likewise entirely ignorant of the motives prompting Fr. Kneib and, as a result, his assertion that Fr. Kneib acted “out of love” is no more or less than his own “pious fantasy.”<\/p>\n It also puzzles me that Martin wants to believe (needs to\u00a0 believe) that priests are appointed by God as “morality police” who drive “known sinners” away from Holy Communion?\u00a0 And what of the “embezzlers,” the “wife beaters,” and “those fathers who terrorize their underage daughters into having sex on Saturday night”? Does Martin want Fr. Kneib to expose these “sinners” as well and to drive them away from Holy Communion?\u00a0 Martin’s letter is unclear on this point.<\/p>\n It puzzles me as to what prompts Martin to defend Fr. Kneib?\u00a0 Does Martin expect Fr. Kneib to do for him what he cannot himself do, namely, to drive a wedge between this sinning lesbian couple and their spiritual family?\u00a0 Paul’s letter clearly says, “Everyone ought to examine themselves” (1 Cor 22:28) before taking Holy Communion.\u00a0 Martin completely overlooks this aspect of Paul’s text.\u00a0 He wrongly assumes that Paul’s text authorizes Fr. Kneib to examine and to determine who is worthy to receive.\u00a0 But this is precluded by Paul: \u00a0“Everyone ought to examine themselves”<\/strong> (1 Cor 11:28).<\/p>\n Finally, Martin’s final appeal, “Let us pray for her,” makes me cringe. Martin is playing with fire here.\u00a0 We do well when we pray that God would bless those we love and bless our enemies (Matt 5:44) as well.\u00a0 But, in this context, I greatly fear that Martin might be offering his readers a piece of self-serving pious nonsense whereby he assumes that God somehow needs our prayers in order to either cure Carol Parker of her lesbian inclinations or to stop her from “loving” her partner.\u00a0 It never occurs to Martin that God loves Carol just as he made her and that the problem might be that Martin along with the Catholic bishops cannot see the “wonderful work” that God has already done is creating Carol just as she is.<\/p>\n In the “Hail Mary,” Catholics ask the mother of Jesus “to pray for us sinners.”\u00a0 We are the sinners.\u00a0 We are praying for ourselves!\u00a0 Jesus, Mary’s son, was also aware of the arrogance involved in praying for those “others” whom we regard as “sinners.”\u00a0 Recall how Jesus told the story of how “two men went up to the temple to pray” (Luke 18:10). \u00a0 Jesus let’s us hear in detail the prayers of both of these men.\u00a0 At the end, Jesus sternly warns us (his listeners) against those who exalt themselves in their prayers and who humiliate those who are not like us.\u00a0 With this, I give Jesus the final word.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Lifelong Catholic Ronald Plishka wasn’t sure that he that he would survive when an ambulance brought him to the emergency room of Washington, D.C.’s Washington Hospital Center to treat his heart attack, so he requested a priest to give him Communion and administer the Last Rites[vi]<\/a>.<\/p>\n . . . Plishka said that after his revelation, Coelho simply “would not continue” with the anointing of the sick sacrament or administration of Communion, offering Plishka no explanation.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said, \u2018I will pray with you,\u2019 but that\u2019s all he\u2019d do.\u00a0 That was it.\u201d\u00a0 Plishka was shocked and angered by Coelho’s reaction.\u00a0 He told The Blade<\/a>, “He wanted to pray.\u00a0 That\u2019s what he wanted to do.\u00a0 He said well I could pray with you.\u00a0 And I just told him to get the f*** out of here \u2014 excuse me.\u00a0 But that\u2019s what I told him.\u201d<\/p>\n . . . A spokesperson for the hospital, So Young Pak, released a statement to the Huffington Post that said, “MedStar Washington Hospital Center has taken our patient\u2019s concerns very seriously.\u00a0 While the priest is not an employee but rather is assigned by the Archdiocese of Washington to provide spiritual care at our hospital, it is our expectation that all who support our patients adhere to our values.\u00a0 This includes offering pastoral and spiritual support to all patients, regardless of their faith traditions.”<\/p>\n Pak continued, “Our hospital was recognized last year as a \u201cLeader in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality\u201d by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.\u00a0 We want to hold true to this important commitment to the LGBTQ community and to all of our patients.\u00a0 Our Department of Spiritual Care has reinforced our expectations with this particular priest and his superiors.”<\/p>\n After Plishka told Coelho to leave, “The doctors came in and told me to calm down or I\u2019m going to have another heart attack,” he said.<\/p>\n . . . The hospital sent a Methodist pastor to Plishka’s room, who prayed with him and gave him Communion. However, Plishka noted that “it\u2019s not the same.\u00a0 It\u2019s not my religion, you know?\u00a0 I\u2019ve been a Catholic all my life and for them to refuse me a sacrament and to refuse me Communion?\u00a0 It destroyed me.\u201d<\/p>\n Plishka chose to speak out about the experience in the hopes of making a difference.\u00a0 He said, \u201cI think there comes a time when as a gay man you have to take a stand, you know?\u00a0 It\u2019s just intolerable to be treated like you\u2019re nothing.\u00a0 And I could have died.\u00a0 And all I did was ask for the rites of the church that are due to me.\u00a0 But because I\u2019m gay I\u2019m denied that.\u201d[vii]<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is the tragic legacy of the Ratzinger Doctrine in action.<\/span>\u00a0 This priest and many others like him lose all sense of good pastoral judgment.\u00a0 Instead of allowing the rite for the Anointing of the Sick to bring the one suffering into the presence of a God in their time of anguish[viii]<\/a>, it would appear that, the stroke victim was effectively denied this sacrament because he is an unrepentant homosexual.\u00a0 This is not the true faith of the Catholic Church; it is the recent fanaticism of the few imposing themselves upon the whole<\/span>.<\/p>\n I and others will “thank you” for your contribution.\u00a0 If you are tempted to say more, I urge you to hold back.\u00a0 Your sense of safety and the safety of others is best protected by not getting overly wordy in the beginning.\u00a0<\/a> This will come after a few days or weeks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Endnotes and Leave a Reply~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n <\/a> [i] John Gehring, <\/strong>\u201cCatholic Bishops Rev Up Political Machine to Fight the Gays,\u201d Faith in Public Life<\/em><\/strong> 26 Sept 2012\u00a0 (http:\/\/www.faithinpubliclife.org\/blog\/catholic-bishops-rev-up-political-machine-to-fight-the-gays\/<\/a>).\u00a0 Notice here that I\u2019ve used a report from 2012 by way of indicating that the anti-gay fundamentalism within Catholicism is not a recent innovation.<\/p>\n [ii]<\/a> I write here \u201cguardians of fundamentalism.\u201d\u00a0 They, of course, see themselves as \u201cguardians of Church doctrine.\u201d\u00a0 The \u201cdoctrine\u201d they are endeavoring to impose upon the Catholic population, however, is largely limited to an ultra-conservative code of sexual purity that has become widespread only within the last fifty years.\u00a0\u00a0 In their eyes, however, this code expresses \u201cGod\u2019s will for us\u201d in these modern times and carries with it the approval of the last three popes.\u00a0 Hence, they feel obliged to impose it on themselves and on everyone else as well.\u00a0 For an example of how Catholic fundamentalists \u201ctie up heavy burdens<\/em>, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders\u201d (Matt. 23:4), see Monsignor Charles M. Mangan, \u201cMarried Couples Who Intentionally Chose Sterilization For Contraceptive Purposes and Lasting Repentance,\u201d Catholic Online<\/em><\/strong> (http:\/\/www.catholic.org\/featured\/headline.php?ID=655<\/a>).<\/p>\n [iii]<\/a> \u201cLesbian Couple Denied Communion At Mother’s Funeral By Catholic Priest; Carol Parker And Josie Martin ‘Shocked’,\u201d HuffPost<\/em><\/strong> 05 Feb 2014 (http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2014\/02\/05\/lesbian-denied-communion_n_4731562.html<\/a>).<\/p>\n [iv]<\/a> \u201cLesbian Couple Denied Communion.\u201d<\/p>\n [v]<\/a> \u201cLesbian Couple Denied Communion.\u201d<\/p>\n [vi]<\/a> The \u201clast rites\u201d is the older phrase because it refers to the sacrament of Extreme Unction (Latin, \u201cLast Anointing\u201d) prior to death.\u00a0 After Vatican II, this practice was altered and this sacrament was renamed \u201cAnointing of the Sick\u201d and the faithful were encouraged to make use of this sacrament in the case of any severe illness and not just when the patient was dying.\u00a0 Confession (a separate sacrament) can be administered prior to the Anointing of the Sick if the sick person requests it.\u00a0 If the person is alert, s\/he can request receiving Communion after the Anointing.<\/p>\n [vii]<\/a> Ronald Plishka, \u201cGay Heart Attack Patient, Says Catholic Priest Refused Him Last Rites,\u201d HuffPost<\/em><\/strong> 20 Feb 2014 (http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2014\/02\/20\/ronald-plishka-gay-heart-attack_n_4823914.html<\/a>).<\/p>\nPope Francis has nothing to do with encouraging bishops to avidly strike out at supporters of same-sex marriages inside and outside the Church.\u00a0 The image of the Church favored by the Pope is that of a \u201cfield hospital\u201d that welcomes in those injured and heals their wounds.\u00a0 Meanwhile, for fundamentalists, their image of the Church is \u201cthe fortress on the hilltop\u201d that protects the \u201ctrue believers\u201d and defends the true faith against all the enemies of God.\u00a0 However, Pope Francis, up to this point, has not taken any strong steps to discourage bishops like Archbishop Schnurr and Archbishop John Myers of Newark from punishing and humiliating the supporters of same-sex marriages.\u00a0 And, more to the point, when the U.S. bishops meet in their bi-annual meetings, there is no attempt to call for moderation and to challenge whether the excesses promoted by the zealots violates the Gospel of Love and denies the \u201cdignity\u201d that even Cardinal Ratzinger affirms for gays and lesbians.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Case #1 Father Kneib denies Communion to the mother of the deceased<\/h4>\n
Carol Parker and Josie Martin have been same-sex partners for twenty years.\u00a0 They had served as lector, cantor, and choir singer for twelve years at Columban Catholic Church in Chillicothe, Missouri.\u00a0 Then Carol\u2019s mother died.<\/p>\n
Their recently ordained parish priest, Father Benjamin Kneib [pic shown at his recent ordination], decided that, in conscience, he could not give the lesbian couple Communion at the funeral mass.\u00a0 Both of them were devastated: \u201cIt was a shock to hear him say that,\u201d Parker said to the News-Press.\u00a0 \u201cI never expected that, especially at my mother\u2019s funeral.\u201d[iii]<\/a>\u00a0 Many of those in the parish who know and respect the couple refused to accept communion themselves in solidarity with the grieving couple.<\/p>\n
Did Fr. Kneib deny communion for a just cause?<\/h4>\n
<\/a>Case #2 Father Coelho denies Anointing of the Sick to a stroke victim<\/h4>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.tldm.org\/news23\/fatherbriancoehlo.jpg\")
\u00a0Father Brian Coelho, a priest assigned to the hospital’s Department of Spiritual Care,<\/a> arrived at his bedside to perform the sacrament of anointing of the sick, but stopped preparing for Communion once he found out that Plishka was gay. . . \u00a0Plishka told The Blade that Coelho offered to take his confession before proceeding with Communion and sacramental last rites.\u00a0 \u201cWe started talking and I told him I was so happy with this new pope because of his comments about the gays and his accepting the gays<\/a>,\u201d Plishka said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I mentioned that I was gay.\u00a0 I said it and then I asked him does that bother you?\u00a0 And he said, \u2018Oh, no, that does not bother me.'”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.jesus4lesbians.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Wanting-to-be-someone-else-150x150.png\")
Those who want to interact with this blog are invited to “Leave a Reply” below.\u00a0 A solid way to begin doing this is to offer “readback lines.”<\/span>\u00a0 To do this, quickly glace back over the entire blog and pick out the one or two lines that have made a deep impression upon you.\u00a0 Copy them [CTRL-C] and then paste them\u00a0[CTRL-V] into an empty comment box below.\u00a0 If you wish, signal the emotion that you feel when reading your readback lines.\u00a0 The primary emotions are anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise.\u00a0\u00a0 No need to further explain yourself.\u00a0 It is enough to identify the text important to you and to name the emotion(s) that it evokes.\u00a0 All of this normally takes less than a few minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n