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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear List:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Right-wingers are handing progressives a great
issue to organize around. The question is whether the left will be
smart/brave enough to use it to its advantage.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Brian Dauth</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Queer Buddhist Resister</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The NY Times has two articles (links below) and the
following is from cnn.com</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT size=3>Gay supporters denied communion at
Chicago Mass</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT size=3>Minnesota Catholics blocked at
altar</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
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Monday, May 31, 2004 Posted: 8:03 AM EDT (1203 GMT)
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<P>CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Parishioners who wore rainbow-colored sashes to
Mass in support of gays and lesbians were denied communion in Chicago, while
laymen in Minnesota tried to prevent gay Roman Catholics from getting the
sacrament.</P>
<P>Priests at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago refused to give the Eucharist to
about 10 people wearing the sashes at Sunday Mass. One priest shook each
person's hand; another made the sign of the cross on their foreheads.</P>
<P>"The priest told me you cannot receive communion if you're wearing a sash, as
per the Cardinal's direction," said James Luxton, a Chicago member of the
Rainbow Sash Movement, an organization of Catholic gay-rights supporters with
chapters around the country.</P>
<P>An internal memo from Chicago Cardinal Francis George that became public last
week instructed priests not to give communion to people wearing the sashes,
which the group's members wear every year for Pentecost. </P>
<P>The memo says the sashes are a symbol of opposition to the church's doctrine
on homosexuality and exploit the communion ritual.</P>
<P>"The Rainbow Sash movement wants its members to be fully accepted by the
Church not on the same conditions as any Catholic but precisely as gay," George
wrote. "With this comes the requirement that the Church change her moral
teaching."</P>
<P>Rainbow Sash Movement spokesman Joe Murray was among those denied communion
in Chicago. He said members wearing the sashes should be seen no differently
than a uniformed police officer or Boy Scout seeking communion.</P>
<P>"What we saw today in the cathedral is discrimination at the Eucharistic
table, and that shouldn't be happening," Murray said. Those denied communion
returned to their pews, but stood while the rest of the congregation knelt.</P>
<P>The movement, which started about five years ago in England, also has members
in Dallas, Texas; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York and Rochester, New York.</P>
<P>In St. Paul, Minnesota, people wearing the rainbow-colored sashes were given
communion Sunday despite protests from some parishioners who kneeled in front of
the altar blocking their way.</P>
<P>The Rev. Michael Skluzacek said in a written statement that both sides were
"mistakenly using the Mass and the Eucharist to make their own personal
statements."</P>
<P>Brian McNeill, organizer of the Rainbow Sash Alliance of the Twin Cities,
said the local group has worn the sashes every Pentecost at St. Paul Cathedral
since 2001, but the group had never experienced such a confrontation.</P>
<P>A Vatican doctrinal decree last year directed at Catholic politicians said a
well-formed conscience forbids support for any law that contradicts
"fundamental" morality, with abortion listed first among relevant issues. A
second Vatican statement said it is "gravely immoral" not to oppose legalization
of same-sex unions.</P>
<P><A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/31/national/31gays.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/31/national/31gays.html</A></P>
<P><A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/31/national/31catholics.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/31/national/31catholics.html</A></FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>