Yesterday was the annual day for LGBT Catholics to wear rainbow sashes as they approached their priests to receive communion.

"Beginning in 1997 in England, some Catholics have worn the sashes over their left shoulder to Mass each year on Pentecost, the day on which the New Testament says the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus' disciples. Because the holiday is a celebration of God's gifts, "we think it is an appropriate time to celebrate the gift of our sexuality," said Brian McNeill, a rainbow-sash organizer in Minneapolis.

"For a few years, sash-wearers were allowed to receive Communion in some U.S. cities, including Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Rochester, N.Y. But since 2004, most U.S. bishops have cracked down on the movement.

"Last year, Cardinal Francis Arinze, head of the Vatican department in charge of worship, wrote a letter to Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul, stating that the rainbow sash is a sign of protest against the church's teachings on sexuality and that the Mass is “not an appropriate forum for protests.”

"The movement's leaders insist that wearing the sash is not an act of protest. "When Archbishop Flynn and Cardinal Arinze say it's a protest, I say, 'But you guys aren't the ones wearing it -- we are, and we see it as a celebration,' " McNeill said. "The premise of the sash is that gay people are part of the Catholic community, part of the people of God. We are there proudly celebrating Mass."

Well, yesterday, some 50+ folks wearing rainbow-colored sashes were denied Holy Communion at a Pentecost service at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in St. Paul, Minn. But it didn’t stop there. As the Washington Post noted...

"In an act that some witnesses called a "sacrilege" and others called a sign of "solidarity," a man who was not wearing a sash received a Communion wafer from a priest, broke it into pieces and handed it to some of the sash wearers, who consumed it on the spot.

"Ushers threatened to call the police, and a church employee burst into tears when the unidentified man re-distributed the consecrated wafer, which Catholics consider the body of Christ.

"But the Mass was not interrupted, and the incident ended peacefully, said Dennis McGrath, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
"It was confrontational, but we decided not to try to arrest the guy," he said."

(This was compiled and edited from a story that appeared in today’s Washington Post., by Alan Cooperman)

Two thoughts:

1. Sharing the body of Christ in an unconventional way is something that could get someone ARRESTED? Give me a break. I don’t call what he did sacrilege or solidarity…I call it sacramental.

2. The celebration of the Lord’s Supper is “not an appropriate forum for protests”?
Since when? Best I can tell, what we proclaim at the table is an act of protest…an act of protest against the Powers and Principalities, an act of protest against death, an act of protest against sectarianism…an act of protest against want and scarcity and hopelessness.

I just don’t get it.