Posted on 03/17/2012 9:11:21 PM PDT by Steelfish
Denying Communion: A Priest And A Lesbian Set Off A Catholic Culture Clash
By Michael S. Rosenwald and Michelle Boorstein March 17
The moment was fleeting.
Barbara Johnson reached out to receive Holy Communion at her mother’s funeral Mass last month at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg. The Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, standing before her, placed his hand over the offering bowl, denying her the sacrament.
Those mere seconds between Johnson, no ordinary Catholic, and Guarnizo, no ordinary priest, have touched off a heated controversy among Catholics across the country — another battle in the seemingly endless cultural wars that have invadednearly every corner of daily life, even funerals.
Conservatives have accused Johnson, an openly gay woman, of promoting a liberal political agenda at her mother’s funeral, of all places. The Archdiocese of Washington has accused Guarnizo, a Russian-ordained traditionalist with powerful friends, of intimidating parish staff after the incident and suspended him from his priestly duties. He, in turn, has essentially accused church officials of lying.
What’s clear, amid all the dissension, is that distinctly different beliefs about Catholicism turned a random meeting of a grieving woman and priest into a theological collision.
Their roots are similar: Both Johnson, 51, and Guarnizo, 42, grew up in the Washington suburbs, come from devout Catholic families and attended Catholic schools.
But Johnson is also a Buddhist who supports gay marriage and other progressive causes. Guarnizo, by contrast, once signed an elaborate document denouncing Catholic politicians who support “morally repugnant” ideas such as gay marriage and was known as a particularly intimidating protester in weekly demonstrations outside a Germantown abortion clinic.
Johnson is an arts educator who travels in liberal circles.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Oh, why are they treating these gay Buddhists as though they are not Christians in good standing? /s
The conservative Catholics will win this one.
Love all the snarky little asides strewn through this piece. The Post has been turned away from the rectory at St John Neumann, and we parishioners have refused to speak to them; looks like they only roped one injudicious woman into speaking to them. They’re really determined to play Woodward and Bernstein and find something really, really naughty, aren’t they?
Of course, they interviewed his arch-enemy, the late-term abortionist and friend-to-demons Leroy Carhart. Note that Carhart employs the word “intimidating,” to Father Guarnizo, to help strengthen the case against him. But the idea that this little 150 pound guy could intimidate anybody is absurd. Father Guarnizo and the protesters at Carhart’s evil clinic never approach Carhart or his facility. It is not surprising that Carhart has lied, and even less surprising that the Post included his lies.
The Gay Buddhist is just looking for her 15 Flukes of Fame. I don’t know why this is news. Buddhists don’t do communion.
I believe that this “lesbian” girl decided to provoke a confrontation. She may or may not have been coached on what to do by the gay activists. However, she decided, for whatever reason, to pick this fight at her mother’s funeral. She decided, for whatever reason, to force the issue of the communion, and then when denied, go into “liberal outrage” mode over the incident, so as to attract sympathetic media coverage.
The question should not be, how can a priest deny someone communion at her mother’s funeral mass. The question should be what kind of person uses her own mother’s funeral to make her political statement.
I agree with the Priest.if he knows she is living a life that is in conflict with Church teachings then he should deny communion.
1 Corinthians 11:26-29
26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
Amen & Amen!
We know obedience is better than sacrifice(1 Samuel 15:22b)
And we know the next verse says: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubborness is as iniquity and idolatry.”.......(1 Samuel 15:23a)
Colossians tells us that our Lord Jesus was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Colossians 2:5-8)He He was obedient, and He was the sacrifice[for our sins]
Those verses that insruct us as to the order of the Lord’s Table[not our table] but His Table, let a man [or woman] examine himself [or herself].....
This is the kind of stuff going on daily but not always in the headlines. What I'm seeing is the conservative church being edged out and replaced by luke warm socialist Catholics that use the Church as a ruse to get more food stamps and welfare. A cardinal or the pope should make an example out of Hugo Chavez or Pelosi or any one of 20 Kennedy's and cut off the Sacraments until they publicly repent.
The daughter approached Fr. Marcel and introduced her Gay "Lover". Fr. Marcel advised her not to take communion. The daughter bypassed him and took communion anyway from the other priest there who did not know the situation.
Fr. Marcel has been thrown under the bus by the Archbishop. A letter removing him from giving communion was on the table before they spoke.
There is far more to this story that the Washington Post does with it's horribly biased reporting.
Read Fr. Marcel's letter here: http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/sf/page/28508/
>> ideas such as gay marriage
I don’t care who engages in civil contract, but to advance ‘homosexual marriage’ as a meaningful term is asinine. Marriage is a Holy sacrament between one man and one woman.
“It was written...”
He did the right thing. I would be denied Communion in a Catholic Church because I’m Protestant.
Your example is misleading without the verses that precede it. The main complaint was that the wealthy would make a spectacle of it and eat nice meals as part of the pomp and display to show they were “favored”. It is an admonishment that they should all show up as equals under the Lord. It has nothing to do with one being “worthy” of partaking in the Lord’s Supper - Jesus Himself hung with the sinners because the sick needed doctoring, not the healthy. Being in communion with Him has more potential to be helpful to them and zero potential of being harmful to Jesus - He isn’t the Muslim “god” who needs to be defended from men by men.
17 In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. 19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. 20 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, 21 for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!
Ching ching. Last Catholic funeral I went to the priest announced that anyone who was not Catholic could not receive communion, though we could get a blessing. Didn’t seem like a big deal to me.
The next step will be for Holder and the ACLU to file a lawsuit against the priest for a bias crime.
“It is not surprising that Carhart has lied,...”
No, it isn't surprising at all. At least in my mind, murder is much worse than lying, so, in for a penny, in for a pound.
sitetest
So two liberal Jews are gonna tell us Catholics how to run things?
Of course they are. Because they're journalists, you see; they went to J-school, live in Washington DC, and know the fashionable restaurants. They're more sophisticated than you and I can possibly imagine, superstitious rednecks that we are.
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