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Detroit-area Catholic leaders urge gay marriage supporters to skip Communion


Archbishop Allen Vigneron said to receive Communion and "deny the revelation Christ entrusted to the church is to try to say two contradictory things at once."
Ryan Garza/DFP

By Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
12:27 AM, April 9, 2013

A Detroit professor and legal adviser to the Vatican says Catholics who promote gay marriage should not try to receive holy Communion, a key part of Catholic identity.

And the archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron, told the Free Press Sunday that Catholics who receive Communion while advocating gay marriage would "logically bring shame for a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury."

The comments of Vigneron and Edward Peters, who teaches Catholic canon law at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, are part of a polarizing discussion about gay marriage that echoes debate over whether politicians who advocate abortion rights should receive Communion.

In a post on his blog last week, Peters said that Catholic teachings make it clear that marriage is between one man and one woman. And so, "Catholics who promote 'same-sex marriage' act contrary to" Catholic law "and should not approach for holy Communion," he wrote. "They also risk having holy Communion withheld from them ... being rebuked and/or being sanctioned."

Peters didn't specify a Catholic politician or public figure in his post. But he told the Free Press that a person's "public efforts to change society's definition of marriage ... amount to committing objectively wrong actions."

Peters, an attorney who holds the Edmund Cardinal Szoka Chair at Sacred Heart, was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 to be a referendary of the Apostolic Sinatura, which means he helps advise the top judicial authority in the Catholic Church. Peters' blog, "In Light of the Law," is popular among Catholic experts, but not everyone agrees with his traditional views.

"Most American bishops do not favor denying either politicians or voters Communion because of their positions on controversial issues," said Thomas Reese, a Catholic priest and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. Reese said that Peters' views are "in a minority among American canon lawyers."

But, Reese added, "about 30 or so bishops have said that pro-choice or pro-gay-marriage Catholics should not present themselves for Communion."

Peters has said before that liberal Catholic Democrats, such as U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, should be denied Communion because of their statements and positions.

In 2011, Peters said that Cuomo should not receive Communion because he is an outspoken proponent of gay marriage. Last month, Peters said, "Pelosi suffers from one of the most malformed consciences in the annals of American Catholic politics or ... she is simply hell-bent on using her Catholic identity to attack Catholic values at pretty much every opportunity."

In 2002, Catholic Jennifer Granholm's support of abortion rights became an issue in the gubernatorial race a month before the election, when Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida released a letter saying Catholic politicians had a "special moral obligation" to oppose abortion.

Last month, Vigneron said at a news conference that maintaining views that oppose abortion and support traditional marriage are important for Catholics.

"Were we to abandon them, we would be like physicians who didn't tell their patients that certain forms of behavior are not really in their best interest," said Vigneron, who oversees 1.3 million Catholics in southeastern Michigan.

Asked by the Free Press about Catholics who publicly advocate for gay marriage and receive Communion, Vigneron said Sunday: "For a Catholic to receive holy Communion and still deny the revelation Christ entrusted to the church is to try to say two contradictory things at once: 'I believe the church offers the saving truth of Jesus, and I reject what the church teaches.' In effect, they would contradict themselves. This sort of behavior would result in publicly renouncing one's integrity and logically bring shame for a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury."

Vigneron said the church wants to help Catholics "avoid this personal disaster."

Contact Niraj Warikoo: [e-mail] or 313-223-4792

http://www.freep.com/article/20130408/NEWS05/304080041/Detroit-area-Catholic-leaders-urge-gay-marriage-supporters-to-skip-Communion [with comments]


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Rick Santorum: It Would Be 'Suicidal' For GOP To Embrace Gay Marriage

By Nick Wing
Posted: 04/08/2013 7:01 pm EDT | Updated: 04/09/2013 10:51 am EDT

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) continued to bolster his social conservative platform on Monday, telling the Des Moines Register [ http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2013/04/08/santorum-supreme-court-wont-make-mistake-of-allowing-same-sex-marriage-rights/article ] that the GOP must maintain its opposition to marriage equality to avert political suicide. He also predicted that the Supreme Court would reject gay-marriage rights in upcoming rulings.

“I’m sure you could go back and read stories, oh, you know, ‘The Republican party’s going to change. This is the future.’ Obviously that didn’t happen,” Santorum said. “I think you’re going to see the same stories written now and it’s not going to happen. The Republican Party’s not going to change on this issue. In my opinion it would be suicidal if it did.”

While Santorum's advice echoes an argument made [ http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/social-conservatives-fight-back-89501.html ] by other social conservatives, it comes as some Republican commentators have urged the party to take a more libertarian stance on social issues in the wake of large electoral defeats in 2012. While many GOP lawmakers have so far been resistant to the idea of embracing gay marriage, Sens. Mark Kirk [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/mark-kirk-gay-marriage_n_2999668.html ] (R-Ill.) and Rob Portman [ http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2013/03/15/gay-couples-also-deserve-chance-to-get-married.html ] (R-Ohio) recently came out in favor of marriage equality. Portman announced that his decision was affected by his son, Will, who is gay.

Santorum also offered a prediction for Supreme Court rulings on the cases of California's Proposition 8 gay-marriage ban [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/supreme-court-proposition-8_n_2950615.html ] and the federal Defense of Marriage Act [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/supreme-court-doma_n_2952611.html ], both heard last month.

“I think you’ll see, hopefully, a chastened Supreme Court is not going to make the same mistake in the (current) cases as they did in Roe v. Wade,” Santorum told the Register, invoking the landmark 1973 ruling that confirmed a woman's right to an abortion. “I’m hopeful the Supreme Court learned its lesson about trying to predict where the American public is going on issues and trying to find rights in the Constitution that sit with the fancy of the day.”

The justices are expected to announce their rulings in June. Court observers have predicted [ http://theweek.com/article/index/242079/how-the-supreme-court-will-rule-on-gay-marriage-a-prediction ] that gay-marriage activists will be supportive of the eventual rulings.

While Santorum opposes gay marriage and abortion, seemingly suggesting that they are both flash-in-the-pan issues, recent polling actually shows the nation moving further away from his rigid conservative views. A number of [ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57576249/poll-53-of-americans-support-same-sex-marriage/ ] March surveys [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/03/18/National-Politics/Polling/question_10009.xml ] showed a majority of Americans now in favor of gay marriage, while an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken near the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade on Jan. 22 [ http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/21/16626932-nbcwsj-poll-majority-for-first-time-want-abortion-to-be-legal ] showed 54 percent of adults supporting legalized abortion in most or all cases, marking the first time a majority of Americans had expressed such a view in that survey.

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/rick-santorum-gop-gay-marriage_n_3040225.html [with embedded video report, and comments]


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