Image via WikipediaBrooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has called on Catholic schools and parishes not to invite state legislators to speak at or attend any events, and to refuse any honors bestowed on them by the governor or any legislator responsible for the bill’s passage.
The sanctions, however, do not include refusing Governor Cuomo or other Catholic politicians who supported the passage of same-sex ‘marriage’ Holy Communion.
Msgr. Kieran Harrington, Vicar for Communications for the Diocese of Brooklyn, told LifeSiteNews that “there are no plans to deny Holy Communion to elected officials at this point.”
New York became the 6th and largest state in the country to permit same-sex marriage last month, when Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Marriage Equality Act into law just before midnight on June 24th, less than two hours after the bill was passed out of the State Senate.
In his strong statement decrying the bill’s passage, Bishop DiMarzio said: “Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature have deconstructed the single most important institution in human history.
“Republicans and Democrats alike succumbed to powerful political elites and have passed legislation that will undermine our families and as a consequence, our society. What is needed in our state is leadership and not political gamesmanship.”
The statement left some Catholics wondering whether the bishop would take the additional step of denying Communion to those responsible for the law.
Noted Catholic blogger Fr. John Zuhlsdorf called it “the missing piece” of the bishop’s statement, writing that “there may have to be an investigation or process before such a decision is made by a bishop.”
Canon law instructs priests to deny Communion to those who “obstinately persist in manifest grave sin.”
Gov. Cuomo, who has pushed to legalize same sex “marriage” since his election, has been in the spotlight before for his public reception of Holy Communion. Detroit canon lawyer Edward N. Peters, who is also a consultant to the Apostolic Signatura, made headlines in February when he called for the Governor to be denied Communion for living with his girlfriend, Food Network celebrity Sandra Lee.
