Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois has decreed that Priests in the diocese may not distribute Holy Communion and are not to provide Catholic Funeral Rites to people in same sex unions, unless they show “some sings of repentance” for their relationships before death.
The Bishop has also mandated that people “living publicly” in same-sex marriages may not receive the Sacrament of Confirmation or be admitted to the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, a process by which many converts become Catholic, preparing them for baptism and confirmation.
At the same time, Paprocki has allowed that children living with a Catholic parent or parents in a same-sex marriage may be baptized. But when it comes to same-sex unions, Priests are not to bless couples, Church property cannot be used for ceremonies and diocesan employees are forbidden from participating.
The bishop’s decree has not yet been made public by the diocese, but was sent to clergy and diocesan staff in an email last week.
Although same-sex marriages have been legal across the United States since the Supreme Court 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, the decree reiterates Catholic teaching that marriage is a “covenant between one man and one woman.” Moreover, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.”
The 64-year-old bishop, trained as a lawyer as well as Priest, has served the Springfield diocese since 2010. He was previously a priest and auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The Bishop has defended the issuance of the decree saying, “These norms are necessary in light of changes in the law and in our culture regarding these issues.”
Meanwhile, other members of the hierarchy have also embraced a more welcoming approach. Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, the Archbishop of Newark, recently welcomed dozens of gay and lesbian Catholics to worship. “I am Joseph your brother,” Tobin told the group, according to a New York Times report. “I am your brother, as a disciple of Jesus. I am your brother, as a sinner who finds mercy with the Lord.”
The Rev. James Martin’s latest book — “Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the L.G.B.T. Community Can Enter Into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion and Sensitivity” — also calls for a gentler approach.
Of the Paprocki decree, the noted Jesuit author, said: “If Bishops ban members of same-sex marriages from receiving a Catholic funeral, they also have to be consistent. They must also ban divorced and remarried Catholics who have not received annulments, women who has or man who fathers a child out of wedlock, members of straight couples who are living together before marriage, and anyone using birth control. For those are all against church teaching as well. Moreover, they must ban anyone who does not care for the poor, or care for the environment, and anyone who supports torture, for those are church teachings too. More basically, they must ban people who are not loving, not forgiving and not merciful, for these represent the teachings of Jesus, the most fundamental of all church teachings. To focus only on LGBT people, without a similar focus on the moral and sexual behavior of straight people is, in the words of the Catechism, a “sign of unjust discrimination.”
Bishop Paprocki’s decree highlights again the deep division in the pastoral approaches the Catholic hierarchy have taken in addressing the morality of same sex unions, homosexuality, even the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Eucharist and Matrimony.
Unfortunately, for Bishop Paprocki, emotional sympathy for the homosexual community and those in irregular marital relationships has become so deeply ingrained in the American psyche and culture that the Bishop and those like him who choose to defend the traditional teachings of the Church have been labeled as uncaring and insensitive bigots and homophobes.
The Church cannot long endure the level of division among the Catholic hierarchy.
Soon, the negative impact of these gross divisions will appear in the growing absence of the Catholic faithful from the pews.
What a pity for Bishop Paprocki who is a good and decent Clergyman.
Where is this all heading? We must trust that the Holy Spirit will continue to provide the Church with the persons and the means to proclaim the Will of Our Heavenly Father for the salvation of the world.
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