RC church - Communion Not Available To Gay Couples

Leah Vader grew up in the Catholic church. She went to Catholic school. She took communion every week. But on March 1, she got a letter from the Rev. Cliff Jacobson, the pastor of St. Matthew’s Catholic Church, which she attends.

The letter said that “because of your union and your public advocacy of same-sex unions, that you are unable to receive communion.”

Vader and her spouse, Lynne Huskinson, were married in Canada. They’ve been outspoken advocates for gay rights. Vader brought Huskinson to the church and she was baptized in 2000. The two have been a fixture at the church since 1998.

“I went in the shower and stayed in there until the hot water ran out,” Vader said of that day.

Neither have been back to St. Matthew’s since receiving the letter. To Vader, communion is the holiest of sacraments, and to be denied it has devastated her.

“This is the one food we all need,” she said. “Of all the sacraments, it’s the one that should be taken frequently.”

To make matters worse, Lent is under way and Easter is fast approaching.

“It’s surprising that it’s so specific and personal and being done through this letter,” Vader said.

Indeed, the Catholic church has a very specific definition of marriage — between a man and a woman — and very specific rules about intimacy outside of marriage. And because the church does not recognize the couple’s marriage, Jacobson said they would be considered in a state of serious sin.

“The bishops are very strong on reaching out to homosexual persons and recognizing that inherent human dignity,” Jacobson said.

“But within that are the moral norms of the church.”

Jacobson said the main reason the church had taken action now, and the Cheyenne Diocese had weighed in on this decision, is that Vader and Huskinson have been so public in their advocacy in recent newspaper articles, speaking out against a same-sex marriage bill that would barred Wyoming from recognizing gay marriages from other states.

“We’re not the bedroom police. That ultimately comes between the person and God,” Jacobson said. “But it puts it in a much different light with a public nature.”

“It’s the idea of scandal, we profess our faith and belief as Catholics on one level, and practice something else at a public level.”

Vader sees the move as discriminatory.

“This is just so easy,” Vader said. “It sends a big fat message to gay people.”

Jacobson maintains that he is only following the teachings of the church.

Nevertheless, Vader and her spouse probably won’t return to St. Matthew’s. She says she doesn’t want to be a distraction.

Huskinson and Vader have gotten invitations from several other churches already. But it’s not quite the same.

“Catholicism gets in your blood,” she said. “There are things that look the same, but aren’t the same.”

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