Posted on 05/30/2004 3:21:39 PM PDT by miltonim
ST. PAUL - A group of Roman Catholic laymen tried to prevent gay Catholics and their supporters from taking Holy Communion on Sunday by standing and kneeling in the church aisles at the Cathedral of St. Paul.
About three dozen men calling themselves "Ushers of the Eucharist" confronted members of the Rainbow Sash Alliance, a group that donned rainbow-colored sashes and ribbons in support of a right for gay Catholics to receive communion.
The men took turns kneeling in front of the altar to block the path of those wearing rainbow sashes and ribbons. There were no physical altercations, but the 100 or so sash wearers and others attending Mass were forced to walk around them.
The priest allowed everyone to take Holy Communion and encouraged people to use the side aisles to approach the communion rail.
Although many of the worshippers knew a protest was planned, others were surprised to see television cameras and protesters inside the cathedral.
"I think we should keep politics out of the church," said Michael Hanzal, of West St. Paul. "People go to Mass to worship, not for the 5 o'clock news to be thrown in your face."
Mike and Lynne Naylon, of Maplewood, who attend the service at the cathedral every week, said it was sad to see people trying to prevent others from taking communion.
"I've never seen anything like this," Mike Naylon said.
Some in the audience came specifically to support one of the two sides.
Elaine Eyre, who was there to support the Rainbow Sash Alliance, said you can't judge people. "We don't know what's in someone's heart," she said.
Heather Siewart said she came to support the Ushers of the Eucharist, even though she's Protestant.
"A lifestyle that goes against the teachings of the Bible is not something we can accept," she said.
Groups gathered at least an hour before Mass to pray and discuss their strategies. A separate group, Catholics Against Sacrilege, gathered on the cathedral's steps and prayed in support of the Ushers of the Eucharist.
Fifteen minutes before the cathedral bells rang, the rainbow sash wearers and the Ushers of the Eucharist engaged in a friendly, but tense, debate.
"You are pushing homosexuality as a form of love. It is not," David Pence, who organized the Ushers of the Eucharist, told Brian McNeill, who led the Rainbow Sash Alliance.
Several alliance members shouted back: "Yes it is!"
Doug Hughes, a rainbow sash wearer, said gays have received the Eucharist on Pentecost Sunday for centuries.
"The only difference now is that we're known," he said.
After Mass, both group leaders said they were happy to express their views peacefully.
"We're not bullies. We were very tame," Pence said. "It was time to stand up and say, 'don't do this.'"
"Everyone received communion," McNeill said. "It's a challenge to love our brother and sister Catholics when they do this."
Pence said the group's goal for next year is to get the church to refuse Holy Communion to rainbow sash wearers.
In a written statement, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said that while only baptized Catholics should take Holy Communion, "the determination of a person's spiritual readiness rests with the individual conscience and honesty of individual worshippers."
The Rev. Michael Skluzacek, in a written statement handed to people as they entered the cathedral, said the groups were "mistakenly using the Mass and the Eucharist to make their own personal statements."
The rainbow sash group is not celibate, get your head out of the sand.
Of course there is a strange twist to this, the Bible says if you do not repent of your sin and go ahead and take communion( which represents Jesus blood and body), it is damnation to your soul and because of it some die (sleep). So if they start dropping dead do not be surprised! If they think they are going to rewrite the Bible and God is going to do what they want, they are in for one HE$$ OF a surprise.
Oh,wait a minute,could it be that some evil person hog-tied them and tatooed a coloeful rainbow sash on their forehead before they gave up their narcissistic experiment with "luv"? If that was the case,I am sorry and will have to rethink my position.
"The minute they put on that 'rainbow sash', they have declared themselves as active homosexuals, which is TOTALLY out of line with Catholic teaching."
Exactly. If they weren't interested in protesting by wearing the sash, they could humbly receive Comminion and then, of course, we would not know what was in their hearts, would we? But, they chose to wear their "hearts" on their sleeve . . .
proclaiming to all that they believe they have a right to engage actively in a sinful lifestyle AND receive Holy Communion; i.e. actively take part in sacrilege.
they are interested in CONFRONTATION, NOT Communion . . . In your face activism . . . there is NOTHING they will not use in their political activism to extend social approval to sodomy, including THE MOST HOLY EUCHARIST. That itself is more than enough to damn them . . . how can they NOT know what they are doing???
Well, I think the rainbow sash is a dead giveaway of their arrogance, defiance of the church and refusal to repent of their sin and that says a great deal about what is in their hearts. I should think that it would be revealing enough that a man of God might be inclined to deny communion for their own spiritual good. Withholding the sacrament is not meant as a punishment so much as a persuasion to repentance.
"For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." (1 Corin. 11:29)
The Rainbow "is a political symbol. By wearing it they are makes a political statement as surely as if they were wearing a swastika armband in a synagogue.
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Well, actually the rainbow is their political perversion of a spiritual symbol.
Well, they'd better, and they should start by refusing to vote for candidates who openly defy Christian (scriptural) teaching.
So the the Swastika. It is the Nazi version of an ancient religious symbol, the wheel of life, I think. Anyway, Hitler did not invent it.
Yes, clearly the priest (and the bishop) knew very well what the sash meant. And they didn't care.
That's got to be the answer! And the priest magically discerned this and gave them Communion, realizing the traumatic experience that had been inflicted upon them...
No, he said celibate, not active.
I think I said celibate, not active.
I didn't think that I said that they are...
The point of the sash is to take a private sinful act and make it a public declaration for the private act and then recieving approval from church and congregation.
They want their sin exposed as a means of pride. They want as many christian bretherin upset about this and fretting so that they can recruit a few off the sides.
Will homsexuals be next reading homosexual sex tips during the sermon.
I'd feel better about everything if the church had leaders who were more willing to go to the mat for what the church teaches. I fear things will only get worse unless they start drawing some lines.
Wearing a rainbow sash to church *is* a political statement. They are the ones who are politicizing the mass by so doing.
I think so too
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