Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Lesbian Woman Denied Communion at Mom’s Funeral

Lesbian Woman Denied Communion at Mom’s Funeral

Marvin Joseph/The Washington Publish/Getty Photographs

As her elderly mom was dying, Barbara Johnson lay subsequent to her on the hospital mattress, reciting the “Hail Mary.” Loetta Johnson, eighty five, had been a devout Catholic, raising her 4 youngsters in the church and sending them to Catholic faculties.

At her mother’s funeral soccer jersey cheap mass at the St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg, Md., a grieving Barbara Johnson was the first in line to receive communion.

What took place up coming shocked her. The priest refused Johnson, who is gay, the sacramental bread and wine.

“He lined the bowl with the Eucharist with his hand and appeared at me, and mentioned I can not give you communion because you reside with a female and that is a sin in the eyes of the church,” Johnson informed ABC Reports affiliate WJLA.

Her more mature brother, Larry Johnson, couldn’t think what he had observed.

“I walked to the aspect of the church to console her, due to the fact she was obviously distraught,” Johnson informed ABC News.

Larry Johnson explained his sister, who has been in a committed gay partnership for 19 many years, composed herself sufficient to give her mother’s eulogy, but then he was shocked at what transpired subsequent. The priest left the altar, Johnson said, and didn’t return until his sister was virtually completed speaking.

Loved ones members extra that the priest failed to arrive to the grave website, and the burial was attended by a substitute priest identified by the funeral director.

Larry Johnson and his sister ended up outraged at what occurred on “what would previously have been the worst day of my lifestyle,” he wholesale NFL jerseys mentioned.

They want the priest, the Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, removed from dealings with parishioners. They also imagine he owes them an apology.

“This isn’t about gay rights and it isn’t about Catholic bashing, it is simply about the perform of a reprehensible priest,” said Johnson.

But the head of DignityUSA, a group that focuses on gay and lesbian legal rights and the Catholic Church, sees the incident as element of a wider problem.

“The actuality is, in some approaches, it is very emblematic of the hierarchy’s technique to gay men and women, transgender men Cheap Jeremy Lin Jersey and women,” stated Marianne Duddy-Burke. “There are little messages of rejection that occur all the time.”

Guarnizo did not return an electronic mail inquiring for a remark about the incident.

The Archdiocese of Washington had no community remark about the priest’s behavior, but issued a statement that indicated Guarnizo really should have taken up the make a difference of whether wholesale soccer jerseys or not Johnson could NHL Jerseys Wholesale get communion in private.

“When queries occur about no matter whether or not an individual should existing on their own for communion,” the statement said, “it is not the coverage of the Archdiocese to Washington to publicly reprimand the man or woman.”

The archdiocese stated it is looking into the incident and that it would manage it as a personnel problem.

Duddy-Burke of DignityUSA believes the response misses the stage.

“I would hope that it gives a wake-up get in touch with to church leaders to make them see where the extremes of their coverage are top,” she explained. “My concern is they will just see this as an isolated incident and fall short to see the context.”

Both Larry and Barbara Johnson have obtained letters from the archdiocese of Washington apologizing “that what should have been a celebration of your mother’s lifestyle … was overshadowed by a lack of pastoral sensitivity.”

Larry Johnson appreciated the letters and the sentiment driving them.

But in his letter to the archdiocese, Johnson famous that the Church’s teachings in relation to personalized conduct are complicated concerns. And he wondered if the priest has any correct to determine who is ready to obtain communion “without any dialogue, perception or non secular consciousness” of the man or woman presenting their selves before him.
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