Courtesy of Tikkun
Is a”‘gay Catholic” a contradiction of terms?
Rev. Marcel Guarnizo certainly thinks so.
He recently made that clear to Barbara Johnson, a lesbian woman from D.C.
Johnson was attending her mother’s funeral in Gaithersburg, MD this past Saturday with Rev. Guarnizo presiding. When Johnson went up to receive the Catholic sacrament of communion, Guarnizo covered the chalice with his hand and said:
But Rev. Guarnizo was not finished.
When Johnson was delivering the closing eulogy for her mother, Rev Guarnizo decided to bolt. He then claimed he was too sick to preside over her mother’s burial.
Johnson received an apology letter from the Archdiocese expressing concern regarding the way she was treated and stating that an individual’s right to receive communion should not be addressed in a public setting.
While Johnson has stated that she doesn’t want to make the incident into a gay-rights issue, some gay-rights activists feel that there is a larger conflict within the isolated event.
On the other side of the issue, some Catholics are voicing support of Guarnizo. They say that the blame lies with Johnson, who should have known that her sexual orientation would not be warmly accepted by the Catholic Church.
Johnson seems to believe that this is simply a matter of common courtesy and respect. But is there more to it than that? Is this another example of the growing controversy regarding the rights of religious institutions vs. those of the individual?
Some of the reactions this incident has incited suggest that this Communion conflict might only be the appetizer of a much larger meal.
