Blessed are They Who Mourn?

February 29, 2012

DignityUSA

DignityUSA Executive Director was featured on the Washington Post On Faith Blog with the following column: <a href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/lesbian-denied-catholic-communion-blessed-are-they-who-mourn/2012/02/29/gIQAsofriR_blog.html>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/lesbian-denied-catholic-communion-blessed-are-they-who-mourn/2012/02/29/gIQAsofriR_blog.html</a> By Marianne Duddy Burke <div id=entrytext>  “Blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted.” --Jesus in <a data-xslt=_http href=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02371a.htm target=_blank>The Sermon on the Mount</a><a data-xslt=_http href=http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/5/ target=_blank>Matthew 5:4. </a> Imagine for just a moment being in the midst of the shock and grief of losing your mother and turning to your church for the comfort of the familiar rituals and sacraments associated with death and burial. <a data-xslt=_http href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-archdiocese-denying-communion-to-lesbian-at-funeral-was-against-policy/2012/02/28/gIQAlIxVgR_story.html target=_blank>As you approach the priest for Communion</a> he unexpectedly withholds the Host and tells you right there in the Communion line he will not give you the Sacrament because of who you love. Shaken you return to your pew and when you muster the strength to rise to deliver your mother’s eulogy the priest walks off the altar returning only when you have finished. Then as the mourners head to the burial site you are told the priest will not accompany your family to say the final prayers and conclude the rite. Instead of reassuring you in your time of mourning your church shunned and rejected you leaving you feeling even more alone. This is exactly what happened recently to a woman by the name of Barbara Johnson and to her family when their <a data-xslt=_http href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-archdiocese-denying-communion-to-lesbian-at-funeral-was-against-policy/2012/02/28/gIQAlIxVgR_story.html target=_blank>mother’s funeral Mass was held at the Saint John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg Maryland.</a> Father Marcel Guarnizo told Ms. Johnson he heard just before the funeral that she was romantically involved with another woman and saw her relationship as grounds to deny her Communion refuse to even be present during her grief-stricken eulogy and leave the entire family scrambling for a way to conclude their mother’s funeral rites. It is hard to imagine a more heart-wrenching failure on the part of our church. <img align=bottom border=0 src=http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_296w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/02/28/Local/Images/PHpriest01_1330467240.jpg?uuid=kbQuamJZEeGMqOnAN5ldeQ width=228 /> Barbara Johnson was denied communion and the priest walked out on her mother's funeral last Saturday after he found out Johnson was a lesbian. Johnson is photographed outside her home in Washington D.C. on February 28 2012. (Marvin Joseph - WASHINGTON POST) The reality is that this could happen to almost any one of us given the escalating conflicts between pastoral care and the demand for adherence to a handful of socially conservative aspects of doctrine being played out in Catholic churches across the country. Whether we Catholics use birth control have remarried after a divorce believe that women are qualified for official ministry or support lesbian gay bisexual and transgender equality most of us hold several views that contradict official Roman Catholic teaching. Could any of us be the next Barbara Johnson? Recently U.S. bishops have claimed loudly that our church is under siege from public forces that would deny Catholics the ability to practice our faith as we believe we should. In reality it is far more often church leaders who deny Catholics the opportunity to live out our faith. It is the bishops who instruct priests to read statements opposing access to sometimes life-saving contraception from the pulpit or who insert prayers that denounce same-sex couples and those who love and support them into Mass. It is church leaders who ban politicians with contrary views from Communion or from addressing college students. There is no external force firing beloved church workers who dare to raise questions for discussion or who expel the children of lesbian and gay children from Catholic schools. National studies have shown that one-third of all adults who were raised Catholic have left the church. These people were not forced out by acts of Congress or the decisions of the courts. Most have left because they no longer find our church to be a place of spiritual nourishment or credible moral guidance. And this is tragic. With each departure our church is diminished. We lose the gifts and talents love and hopes challenges and insights that person represents. We lose a little bit of divine light. I love our church and agree with our leaders that it is facing a potentially devastating crisis. However it seems as if the threat is not that the church will succumb to any external attack but rather that it will tear itself apart by continuing to tell Catholics that we are not welcome. In the Catholic faith the Communion table represents the Great Feast left to us by Jesus Christ and is the place where we pray for the unity of the church. The tragedy of Barbara Johnson’s exclusion from the table at a moment she most needed the community of faith provides a wake-up call to Catholics laity and leadership alike. As a way of atoning for this sin of omission let us find ways to come together. We may never all agree on some issues but we share a faith and a commitment to the ongoing mission and ministry of Jesus. This should compel us to imagine and live into a church where all are truly welcome.   Marianne Duddy Burke is executive director of<a data-xslt=_http href=http://www.dignityusa.org/ target=_blank> Dignity USA an organization of gay and lesbian Catholics .</a> </div>

Blessed are They Who Mourn?

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