Detroit-area Catholic leaders urge gay marriage supporters to skip Communion

[rug]

April 8, 2013
By Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

A Detroit professor and legal adviser to the Vatican says Catholics who promote gay marriage should not try to receive holy Communion, a key part of Catholic identity.

And the archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron, said Sunday that Catholics who receive Communion while advocating gay marriage would "logically bring shame for a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury."

The comments of Vigneron and Edward Peters, who teaches Catholic canon law at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, are part of a polarizing discussion about gay marriage that echoes debate over whether politicians who advocate abortion rights should receive Communion.

In a post on his blog last week, Peters said that Catholic teachings make it clear that marriage is between one man and one woman. And so, "Catholics who promote 'same-sex marriage' act contrary to" Catholic law "and should not approach for holy Communion," he wrote. "They also risk having holy Communion withheld from them ... being rebuked and/or being sanctioned."

http://www.freep.com/article/20130408/NEWS05/304080041/Detroit-area-Catholic-leaders-urge-gay-marriage-supporters-to-skip-Communion

We have now heard from Moe and Larry. Word from Shemp is expected momentarily.

I have yet to see anything in the Catechism that addresses property rights, inheritance rights and the right to be with a loved one in the hospital. These boobs talk about sacramental marriage in a complete vacuum isolated from the civil aspects of a marriage.

"Perjury" my ass.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

1. In other words

The professor and bishop are saying, "If you disagree with me, you should excommunicate yourself."

The professor of canon law also clearly does not know canon law. But then, ignorance is a necessary part of bigotry.

[rug]

2. And they know damned well they can't make a case under Canon Law to deny Communion.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. Exactly

Incidentally, NO ONE is making a case that the Church should recognize gay marriage as sacramental -- certainly, no one at this time. The case is being made for civil recognition of gay marriage.

The Church does not recognize civil divorce as breaking a marriage, but I know for a fact that if someone requests an annulment, the first question is "Have you been divorced?"

[hedgehog]

4. Not to mention - they reduce marriage and sexuality

to bringing together parts needed for reproduction!

[UrbScotty]

5. UPDATE: They didn't mean to word it quite that way...

“For a Catholic to receive Holy Communion and still deny the revelation Christ entrusted to the church is to try to say two contradictory things at once: 'I believe the church offers the saving truth of Jesus, and I reject what the church teaches,’ ” Vigneron told the paper. “In effect, they would contradict themselves.”

On Monday, the archdiocese looked to step back and add context to the statement.

“The archbishop's focal point here is not ‘gay marriage’; it is a Catholic’s reception of Holy Communion,” Joe Kohn, the archdiocese spokesman, wrote in an e-mail to CNN. “If a Catholic publicly opposes the church on a serious matter of the church’s teaching, any serious matter - for example, whether it be a rejection of the divinity of Christ, racist beliefs, support for abortion or support for redefining marriage - that would contradict the public affirmation they would make of the church's beliefs by receiving Communion.”

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/08/detroit-archdiocese-dials-back-no-communion-for-same-sex-marriage-supporters/

Uh... in other words, they stand by what they said, but not the words they used.

Anyway, I have family in the Archdiocese. Next time I'm down there, I'm going to go to church with them, and then I'm going to take Communion. Let's see if they try to stop me.

[rug]

6. It's the same thing.

In short, the Church is incompetent to define the civil rights inherent in civil marriage. Or, more precisely, no more competent than anyone else in society. Its competence is in the realm of sacramental marriage, which cannot be a basis for defining civil marriage.

[rug]

8. What is infuriating is equating support for the civil right of same sex civil marriage with racism

or denying the divinity of Christ.

That is untenable with any concept of moral theology.

If it's the Archbishop handing out Communion, look him in the eye and say no thanks and go to the other line.

[47of74]

10. This is the same church that equated women's ordination with sexual abuse

[UrbScotty]

7. UPDATE II: Former Detroit auxiliary bishop says SSM supporters *should* receive Communion

If you look at it from a pastoral point of view where you're trying to reach out to people, trying to draw them in, then the last thing you want to do is impose a penalty or make them feel like they have to impose a penalty upon themselves," Gumbleton said.

The bishop says the church's approach should be pastoral not punitive. Just this week, he counseled a couple with a gay son.

"Husband, wife, raised seven children, Catholics all their lives, they're in their eighties now, and the mother says to me, you know I can't go to communion anymore," said Gumbleton. "They're hurt and she's crying because we can't go communion and that means so much to them."

Gumbleton says it's a matter of conscience, which is deeply personal.

http://wrbw.membercenter.worldnow.com/story/21948687/catholic-bishop-to-gay-marriage-supporters-keep-communing

Gumbleton was an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese from 1968 until shortly after his 75th birthday in 2006.

[demosincebirth]

9. Sorry, I won't do it.