God Hates Fags, Catholic Version

This has been bouncing around the blogs for a couple of days, made the front page of The Post today:

Deep in grief, Barbara Johnson stood first in the line for Communion at her mother’s funeral Saturday morning. But the priest in front of her immediately made it clear that she would not receive the sacramental bread and wine.

Johnson, an art-studio owner from the District, had come to St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg with her lesbian partner. The Rev. Marcel Guarnizo had learned of their relationship just before the service.

“He put his hand over the body of Christ and looked at me and said, ‘I can’t give you Communion because you live with a woman, and in the eyes of the church, that is a sin,’” she recalled Tuesday. D.C. archdiocese: Denying Communion to lesbian at funeral was against ‘policy’

The lady's mother had just died, and the priest chose that opportunity to make a statement that Jesus will not save the souls of lesbians.

Further...

Family members said the priest left the altar while Johnson, 51, was delivering a eulogy and did not attend the burial or find another priest to be there.

And here is the classic response:

Archdiocese officials would not comment. Instead, they issued a short statement saying that the priest’s actions were against “policy” and that they would look into it as a personnel issue.

“When questions arise about whether or not an individual should present themselves for communion, it is not the policy of the Archdiocese of Washington to publicly reprimand the person,” the statement said. “Any issues regarding the suitability of an individual to receive communion should be addressed by the priest with that person in a private, pastoral setting.”

Messages for Guarnizo and other parish staff were not returned. Neither he nor other parish leaders were at the church or the rectory Tuesday night.

When the clerk at Best Buy is rude to you, that's a personnel issue, when somebody sleeps on the job or shows up late. Of course the Church has a long sordid history of treating priests' dangerous behaviors as personnel issues. Let's hope there is some transparency here, and some accountability.

You may find the priest's bio interesting -- he's not a new guy or somebody who doesn't understand how the game is played. Here's a write-up at a site called the Conservative Insitute, apparently in Bratislava, Slovakia:

Rev. Marcel Guarnizo (USA) is an American by birth, he is a Catholic diocesan priest belonging to the Archdiocese of Moscow, Russia. Rev. Guarnizo studied theology and philosophy in Rome where he specialized in Metaphysics.

He became one of the first priests ordained in Russia since the fall of the wall. He is the founder and President of Aid to the Church in Russia an organization dedicated to the reconstruction of the Church patrimony destroyed by the communist in Russia.

He is also the founder and Chairman of the Educational Initiative for Central and Eastern Europe (EICEE) a foundation committed to the strengthening and promotion of free, just and democratic societies in Central and Eastern Europe.

Rev. Guarnizo has lectured and taught in many countries of the region and has worked with universities, students, and leaders in the region since 1993. As one of the speakers, Rev. Guarnizo have participated recently in several economic liberal forums, such as [lists several forums] Marcel Guarnizo: Economics, Philosophy and Foundations of Democracy

To have refused this woman communion at a normal Sunday-morning mass would have been a hateful gesture. To deny her the sacrament at her own mother's funeral, and then to abandon the burial, because the priest is personally repulsed by her sexual orientation, is a venomous expression of hate; what could be more hateful that believing it is appropriate to hurt the person when they are at their most vulnerable?