CNS STORY: Vatican official says Sash wearers disqualified from Communion

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CNS Story:

ARINZE-SASH Feb-4-2005 (420 words) With photo. xxxi

Vatican official says Sash wearers disqualified from Communion

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican's top liturgy official said Rainbow Sash wearers disqualify themselves from receiving Holy Communion because they are demonstrating their opposition to church teaching on homosexuality.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, made the comment in a written response to Catholic News Service in early February.

Rainbow Sash, which describes itself as an organization of gay and lesbian Catholics and their families and friends, has criticized church statements on homosexuality, including the church's teaching that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered" and that homosexual orientation is "objectively disordered."

To underline their point, the group's members sometimes attend Mass and receive Communion wearing the sash.

Cardinal Arinze discussed the issue with at least one U.S. archbishop during U.S. bishops' visits to the Vatican in 2004. A Catholic Web site recently reported that in a private communication, Cardinal Arinze's secretary said the cardinal thought sash wearers should not receive Communion.

Asked about his position by CNS, Cardinal Arinze said: "Rainbow Sash wearers are showing their opposition to church teaching on a major issue of natural law and so disqualify themselves from being given holy Communion."

Cardinal Arinze did not elaborate, and he declined a request for an interview on the subject.

In December, Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis spoke with Cardinal Arinze about the Rainbow Sash question. Archbishop Flynn allows members wearing the sash to receive Communion, while some other bishops do not.

In an interview afterward, Archbishop Flynn said Cardinal Arinze did not ask for a change in his archdiocesan policy, but did express concern about the clarity of church teaching on the issue. In a statement issued in January, Archbishop Flynn said Cardinal Arinze also indicated that "ideally, all of the bishops who have pastoral care for the members of this movement should seek to adopt a uniform approach."

The church teaching that homosexual acts are contrary to natural law and that the homosexual inclination is "objectively disordered" is contained in the "Catechism of the Catholic Church," which was revised and corrected in 1997.

The church also teaches that homosexuals must be accepted with love and respect and that they should not be discriminated against.

Some bishops have denied the Eucharist to Rainbow Sash members on the grounds that they were using the Eucharist to manifest opposition to church teaching. Some Rainbow Sash members have said they consider their wearing of the sash an act of celebration, not protest.

END

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