About 10 members of the Rainbow Sash movement were denied communion at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago last Sunday. Cardinal Francis George had said communion would be refused to anyone wearing the Rainbow Sash. He said it was ‘politicizing’ a religious act, but those who opposed his view said it was the Cardinal and the church who were politicizing the services.
‘We come as is our tradition as open and honest individuals who acknowledge we are gay and lesbian, and to join in the Eucharistic Celebration of Pentecost as Catholics should with prayerful respect and dignity,’ the Rainbow Sash movement stated. ‘We will wear a Rainbow Sash as a symbol of our dignity, honesty, and integrity.’
At the Cathedral of St. Paul, Minn., a lay group called Ushers of the Eucharist blocked the path of about 100 Rainbow Sash wearers, who went around the protest and did ultimately receive communion.
‘The Rainbow Sash movement wants its members to be fully accepted in the Church not on the same conditions as any Catholic, but precisely as gay,’ Cardinal George wrote.
‘The Bishops who are threatening to withhold reception of Communion from politicians and voters who disagree with their political stance have lost their sense of direction and endanger our Church,’ stated Matthew Gallagher, executive director of DignityUSA. ‘These radical Bishops are ignoring the Catechism of the Catholic Church which recognizes as paramount that believers must act according to their consciences.’