CPCSM - Related News

130+ Rainbow Sash Wearers Receive Blessing
Instead of Eucharist on Pentecost Sunday
at Cathedral of St. Paul

Local Media Coverage

AT MASS, A QUIET CLASH OF VIEWS:
Gay Rights Backers Told to Remove Sashes to Get Communion
By Steve Scott
St. Paul Pioneer Press, May 16, 2005

Photo: Chris Polydoroff/Pioneer Press

Michael Fridgen of Hastings pins a rainbow sash, a symbol of support for gay rights, on Sister Gabriel Herbers on Sunday morning before noon Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Sister Gabriel, a nun for 65 years, said she is writing a letter to the pope regarding this issue. In the background is Ward Brennan, who said he received Communion earlier in the day at another Catholic church while wearing his sash. He would not say which parish.

Absent the Communion disruption that marked last year's Pentecost Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul, Sunday's noon service transpired peaceably.

Nevertheless, tears flowed on both sides of the aisle as more than 125 worshippers wearing rainbow-colored sashes in support of gay rights in the church were not permitted to receive Holy Communion.

"The Eucharist is the source and expression of our unity in Christ," the Rev. Michael Skluzacek said during the Communion prayer. "In the spirit of this unity, I would ask that anyone wearing a sash please remove it before coming forward to receive Communion as a sign of reverence for the Lord and a desire for unity."

Skluzacek, rector of the Cathedral, told worshippers that if they chose to not remove their sashes, they were welcome to come forward to receive a blessing.

"That's like 'don't ask, don't tell,' " said Tom White of Edina, who wore a sash. "You can come to Communion if you're not wearing a sash, but if you're honest, you're excluded."

Sunday's developments were expected after Archbishop Harry Flynn announced two weeks ago that he was changing previous policy, under which the sash-wearers had received Communion the past four years on Pentecost.

The Rainbow Sash Alliance USA has typically chosen that day -- when Christians celebrate the beginning of the church -- to wear sashes as a sign of solidarity with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics around the world.

Flynn said the practice was increasingly being seen as a protest against Catholic teaching and was unacceptable to the Vatican.

At least a few Catholics wearing sashes did receive Communion at St. Stephen's in Minneapolis, where the act was not seen as a protest but "an act of celebration," said a parishioner who asked not to be identified.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis would not speculate about a response, other than "some kind of serious dialogue."

Nearly everyone wearing a sash inside the Cathedral kept them on as they proceeded to Communion. Instead of offering them the Communion host -- which Catholics believe to be the body of Christ -- the ministers gave the sign of the cross and blessed them "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."

"We were brought up to believe that no one can be denied Communion if you go up there," Sister Brigid McDonald said.

Some of the sash-wearers returned to their pews with tears in their eyes. Dozens of them remained standing in the pews, rather than returning to the customary kneeling position. Only a few appeared to remove the sash before going forward.

"People had to do what the Spirit moved them to do," said Mary Murphy. "There was no set procedure. There were all different perspectives. A lot of people wanted to respect the archbishop yet were unsure how to handle it."

A parishioner sitting in the front row was visibly upset by the rainbow sashes. "Many souls are lost because they are misinformed," said the woman, who asked not to be identified. "To disobey the church is to deny Jesus. That's our life. It hurts me when people don't receive Communion ... I love them, but I cannot love them that way."

Tears rolled down her cheeks and turned to heavy sobs as she fell to her knees, clutching her rosary.

Tom Klein, who wore a sash, worried about the precedent of one group not receiving Communion.

"The question is what's next or who's next," he said. "What if you wear XYZ uniform or symbol, and the universal church can arbitrarily choose who it excludes?

"The story in Genesis says about all of creation that it was good. Period."

Last year, a group of Catholic men calling themselves the Ushers of the Eucharist stationed themselves in the aisles at the Cathedral to disrupt the procession of sash-wearers receiving Communion. The group did not return this year.

One woman who received the Communion host Sunday broke it and gave half to a man who was wearing a sash. Another woman attempted to offer her host to a sash-wearer, but a minister prevented her from doing so.

The sash-wearers ranged in age from grade-schoolers to the elderly. Many are friends or family of gay and lesbian Catholics.

"Many gays have left the church and are even angry that we're still around trying to change the church," said David McCaffrey. "It's the parents, grandparents and families that are left in the pews. There were a lot of those here today."

The Rainbow Sash movement identifies its members as those "publicly calling the Roman Catholic Church to a conversion of heart around the issues of human sexuality."

The Catholic Church teaches that same-gender orientation is not in itself sinful, but that sexual relations should occur only between men and women in marriage. It also holds that Communion is reserved for those who are in a state of grace with God.

Photo: Chris Polydoroff/Pioneer Press

Josh Madden, 12, waited to enter the cathedral for Mass on Sunday. A Minneapolis sixth-grader who attends a Catholic school, wore a sash in solidarity with others, including his mother. "I don't support people who are against gays," he said. "It's not very kind or fair." He said he was considering becoming a Buddhist, explaining that it's a religion based on kindness.

Steve Scott may be reached at sscott@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5526.

Copyright 2005 Saint Paul Pioneer Press

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No Communion for 150 in Sashes at Cathedral
By John Reinan
Star Tribune, May 16, 2005

                                                                                      Photo: Tom Sweeney, Star Tribune

More than 150 members of the Rainbow Sash Alliance were sent away from communion empty-handed at the Cathedral of St. Paul on Pentecost Sunday.

Wearing rainbow-colored sashes, members of the group sought to take part in the eucharist to celebrate what they called the God-given sexuality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Catholics.

But instead of a communion wafer, each sash-wearing worshiper received a blessing from the priests conducting the mass. The worshipers returned to their seats and stood, cupped hands outstretched, for the remainder of the service.

Earlier this month, Archbishop Harry Flynn advised all parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to deny communion to anyone wearing a rainbow-colored sash.

But at least two parishes in south Minneapolis -- St. Stephen's and St. Joan of Arc -- did give communion Sunday to sash-wearers, according to Brian McNeill, a leader of the Rainbow Sash Alliance.

Unlike last year, when a group of laymen blocked the aisles to thwart the sash demonstration, there were no counterprotests at the cathedral Sunday.

As uniformed security guards watched inside and St. Paul police maintained a standby presence outside, the mass proceeded without disruption.

Singing the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome," the sash-wearers filed into the cathedral just before noon. After the service, they repeated the song from the front steps of the church.

"Pentecost is traditionally a celebration of the gifts of the spirit," McNeill said. "On this day when we celebrate the gifts of the spirit, it is appropriate to celebrate our sexuality. God made us this way."

Archdiocese spokesman Dennis McGrath said the church's denial of communion had nothing to do with sexuality. Had they removed their sashes, he said, the Rainbow Alliance worshipers would have been given communion along with the rest of the congregation.

"It's about using the most sacred and profound part of our faith as a protest," McGrath said. "The eucharist is not the Washington Monument, where you can stage a demonstration.

"We have no litmus test for communion," McGrath said. "It's very painful for the archbishop and very painful for the church to deny the sacraments, but they [the protesters] are setting the ground rules."

Charles and Regina Nicolosi of Red Wing, Minn., wore sashes in support of their daughter, who is a lesbian.

"The reason we're here is in support of gay and lesbian human beings, which for us is a matter of biology, not morality," Charles Nicolosi said.

"Jesus gave communion and invited everybody to the table," Regina Nicolosi said. "Why focus on this, with all the other social issues that are so important?"

Other worshipers said the cathedral was the wrong place for a protest.

"I wish they would have kept it out of the church," said Kathleen Herkenhoff of St. Paul. "Whatever they do, however they live, is between them and God.

"I just wish they would have come to mass for Jesus, not for themselves."

John Reinan is at jreinan@startribune.com.

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Letters from readers
Star Tribune, May 22, 2005

Because of their baptism

In his May 15 Op Ex article, "Vatican takes a slash at the rainbow sash," B.R. Simon Rosser makes an important point about the irony of an edict issued by the Vatican and obeyed by Archbishop Harry Flynn, who banned rainbow sash wearers from receiving communion.

The irony is that another directive for Catholics comes from 1 Corinthians (12:13), the very passage that was read in all Catholic Churches on Pentecost. "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit."

For those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered, the sash affirms that because of their baptism, they too, are entitled to drink of one spirit. For those who support their GLBT brothers and sisters, it is an affirming witness of their baptism and our oneness with them in Christ. For the whole church, it is a clear testimonial that GLBT Catholics no longer need to live their faith-life in the shadows.

Connie Aligada, St. Paul.