Cardinal Weighs in on Rainbow Sash Debate (and Rainbow Sash Responds)

Star Tribune (Minneapolis) ^ | 2/8/05 | Matt McKinney

[marshmallow]

A Vatican official who is considered among the leading candidates to become the next pope has said activists who demonstrate support for gay Catholics by wearing a colored sash to mass are showing their opposition to church teaching and should not receive communion.

The statement from Cardinal Francis Arinze, the Vatican's head of liturgy, amounts to a rebuke of a practice that has quietly gained favor among gay activists in the Twin Cities, where Archbishop Harry Flynn has accepted Rainbow Sash wearers when they appear at mass.

A handful of people have appeared for the past four years wearing sashes at the St. Paul Cathedral on Pentecost Sunday.

Flynn declined Monday to comment directly on Arinze's statement. His office issued a letter he wrote Jan. 26 stating that further study was needed:

"Cardinal Arinze and I did discuss the difficult pastoral situation of the Rainbow Sash movement [during a private meeting in Rome in December]. His Eminence did not in fact suggest an immediate change to the policy in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. However, he did clearly indicate that this situation merits further study and that ideally all of the bishops who have pastoral care for the members of this movement should seek to adopt a uniform approach. This recommendation needs to be reviewed by those bishops involved in the near future."

[marshmallow]

"......It is a symbol of celebration. It is a call to dialogue. It is asking the church to honor our experience as gay people, GLBT people."

Sorry, Brian.

The Church doesn't celebrate sodomy.

The cardinal is correct. This is a rejection of Church teaching.

[the OlLine Rebel]

"A Vatican official who is considered among the leading candidates to become the next pope has said activists who demonstrate support for gay Catholics by wearing a colored sash to mass are showing their opposition to church teaching and should not receive communion"


THAT'S IT. WE'VE FOUND THE NEXT POPE.

[te lucis]

Archbishop Harry Flynn has accepted Rainbow Sash wearers when they appear at mass.

Didn't Flynn get clothed in robes of neo-traditionalism by the EWTN crowd recently for not allowing a homo to speak at one of his parishes?

[Dominick]

Shades of George Thorogood:
Woooo do ya truuust!

Cardinal Francis Arinze
activists who demonstrate support for gay Catholics by wearing a colored sash to mass are showing their opposition to church teaching and should not receive communion.

Bp. Flynn:
"Cardinal Arinze and I did discuss the difficult pastoral situation of the Rainbow Sash movement [during a private meeting in Rome in December]. His Eminence did not in fact suggest an immediate change to the policy in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. However, he did clearly indicate that this situation merits further study and that ideally all of the bishops who have pastoral care for the members of this movement should seek to adopt a uniform approach. This recommendation needs to be reviewed by those bishops involved in the near future."

WhoooOOOOOOOooo?

[te lucis]

His Eminence did not in fact suggest an immediate change to the policy in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. However, he did clearly indicate that this situation merits further study

HUH?!

[vox_freedom]

Didn't Flynn get clothed in robes of neo-traditionalism by the EWTN crowd recently...

Hehehehehehe.
Well said.

[Conservative til I die]

We could do worse than Arinze for Pope