I am sincerely curious. Is it the fact that these two applied for a marriage license or that they cohabit in a gay physical relationship without the benefit of marriage or that they cohabit in a physical relationship without reference to the orientation without the benefit of marriage which caused the problem? Are the rules the same for straight couples?
For us, any cohabitation with a physical element outside of marriage is sufficient to bar one from communion, and the other sacraments for that matter, though from what I see around here that isn’t true for the Latins. I confess I do not know about gay cohabitating couples in the Latin Church in the area but gays are certainly involved in the Latin parishes as they are in ours.
Under Catholic teaching, there are many types of mortal sin that would prevent someone from being in the state of grace necessary to receive Holy Communion. These include the sexual sins of fornication, adultery, homosexual actions, use of artificial contraception, and civil remarriage after a divorce without an annulment.However, Peters emphasized that the law only deals with “gravely wrong public behavior” and not cases where a priest must “read souls.” Obtaining a same-sex marriage license is both gravely wrong and public, he said.
If two unmarried people (of any combination of sexes) share the same address, seem to stick together and show up in church, the pastor may suspect a sexual aspect to exist in their relationship but he would not know unless they confess it. If they are involved sexually and still come to Communion, they commit a grave sin but outwardly there is no scandal: the sin remains private; the priest does not aggravate the situation by allowing them to Communion since he "cannot read souls".
If the same couple make a public act that makes their sexual involvement a publicly known fact, then the priest must not allow them communion because otherwise he, the priest, would be contributing to a scandal for the Church.
It is said sometimes that a private sin excommunicates by itself, whereas a public and obstinate sin requires a formal excommunication in order to not only rescue the sinner but also to avoid additional sin of giving scandal.