Catholic Hypocrisy!

I'm no longer a believer but despite my non-belief I've always had a soft spot for the Catholic Church, which is unusual, as most fallen-away Catholics tend to be very critical of the church.  But that soft spot is atrophying, rapidly. Today I heard of a lesbian who was publicly refused communion during the funeral mass for her mother.  The priest told the woman, who had her hands outstretched waiting for the wafer, that she was living with another women, and he would not give her communion.  Worse, if anything could be worse, he refused to conduct the internment ceremony at the cemetery. The daughter is now demanding that the priest be removed from parish duties.  I wish her success, although I doubt this will happen.

This is the same church that for decades denied the sexual abuse of children by priests, to the extent that such priests were moved from parish to parish to abuse again, and again; the same church that accepted Newt Gingrich, a serial fornicator, as a communicant; the same church that permits people who believe in, and advocate for, the death penalty (including Newt Gingrich) to receive communion.  Apparently, putting people to death trumps two women living together (and this despite the church's often stated view that the death penalty is intrinsically evil).

I am stimulated to question the church's humanity whenever I hear Rick Santorum spout his nonsense, all of which he attributes to Catholic teaching. (And since no Catholic bishops have publicly denied Santorum's declarations, they are guilty of compliance by their silence.)  Santorum, with a BA, MFA, and JD, suggests that people like Obama who urge others to seek higher education, are snobs.  Santorum's mother has a graduate degree--has he told her she's a snob?  Is his wife a snob? Women with children should not work.  (Will he support their families while they stay at home?)  Children should be home schooled, unlike his own attendance at school while his mother worked.  He compares gay sex to bestiality. When he first read JFK's speech on the separation of church and state Santorum says he wanted to vomit.

None of the above resembles the Catholic Church I knew when growing up or the lifelong practicing Catholics that I loved, like my late mother.  She was horrified by the death penalty, always went to work even with small children at home (we needed the money), sent us to Catholic schools, and worshipped JFK.  I don't remember her ever commenting on gays (she never spoke about sex of any kind), but I know she would have been sympathetic if any of her children or grandchildren were to announce they were gay.

It's time for the Church to stand up to men like Rick Santorum and to the priest that denied communion to a gay member of his congregation.  Hatred has no place in the Church and so long as it doesn't stand up to the Santorums of this world, it merits the term "Catholic hypocrisy."