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Use Sacraments as Anti-Gay Weapons
"Church leaders have banned us from Catholic churches and ordered priests not to say Mass for us. Bishops have used the Sacraments as a weapon to intimidate us into staying in the closet. They don't want us to speak out about the fact that we find our sexuality to be a blessing and a gift, and our relationships to be holy." "We support our sisters and brothers of Soulforce, and are deeply sorry for the pain that they feel due to our Church leaders' callous refusal of Communion to them. We believe that Jesus invites all to the table, and this is our practice whenever Dignity meets to celebrate Eucharist," continued Duddy. Among those arrested was a woman calling herself Kara, the Catholic co-chair for Soulforce. In an open letter describing her arrest experience, she writes: "I've been working and planning for our direct action in Washington, D.C. that took place last week. I wanted to take a moment to share with you what was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. "We had decided that because there did not appear to be an appropriate civil disobedience for this that we would simply vigil outside the Hyatt Hotel and outside the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception; not even hold a press conference this year. But it seems God had other plans. Never have I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in such a way before. "We started vigiling on Sunday from 5 to 7 p.m. and continued the next day, bright and early at 7am. We knew that there would be five other groups with plans to vigil, and I worried about how all of that would work together. "From the beginning, the synchronicity was truly amazing. None of us knew in advance the other's vigil schedule, but time and time again, as we would finish up our vigil schedule, one of the other groups would be coming on the scene. Never was there a sense of competition among the groups just a strong understanding that we were working together to bring our message of hope and love to our beloved church that had fallen into a quagmire. "Monday we vigiled from 7 to 9; 11:45 to 2 p.m. and at 4.p.m. Each time we celebrated the Liturgy of the Hours, and at noon, we blessed the gifts that we had brought for our homeless and disabled veterans. After the 4pm Liturgy, two of the three squads made their way over to the Shrine. "As Bill Carpenter and I traveled together, I confided to him that although I had been telling people there was no "planned" civil disobedience, I had had this persistent feeling that God would place something in front of us that we would be forced to respond to and how right I was. "Like last year, the three Catholics who were going to receive the Eucharist sat together in the same pew we had sat in last year. The three Catholics who were going to receive communion decided this year to not wear our Soulforce shirts, not wanting to create any kind of disruption. So we sat there with no sign that we were part of Soulforce, except that two of us wore our rainbow crosses. One other Soulforcee who was not Catholic sat with us and he did wear a Soulforce shirt, but he was not going to receiving communion, in respect to the printed rules within the program of the Mass.
"When it came time for communion the priest came to the aisle, the usher
indicated for us to get up and stand in line. There was a couple sitting to
my right, the man stood to receive communion, his female companion stood to
let us out, but not to receive. We couldn't see what was happening as he
approached the priest, but there was something afoot, because it took an
unusually long time before he moved on. Finally it was my time to receive
and I approached the priest with my hands cupped together in the appropriate
fashion. The priest blessed me and then indicated he was finished. I was
stunned, but knew, from being a Eucharistic Minister, myself, what this
meant. I stood in front of him and told him that I forgave him for the very
grievous sin he had just committed, and that this was the most painful
experience I had ever had in my church, and then I sat down.
"Mike followed me, and did not even receive the blessing, just a notice to move on. Ken followed and the priest indicated he would not give communion to Ken. Ken stood there as people behind us were directed to the right hand side of the aisle where communion was being distributed. He quietly dialogued with the priest, telling him that he could not believe he was being refused communion and stating over and over again, you don't know me, how can you refuse me. After approximately 5 minutes, Ken returned to his pew, but filled with an ever growing grief and anger, he got up, went to the center aisle, literally "brushed the dust from his shoes," and walked to the rear of the church loudly expressing his grief and anger and repeating again, "you don't know me, how can you refuse me communion." He was quickly escorted out of the Shrine. "Mike went down a side aisle to be sure that Ken was okay and to comfort him. I followed a few minutes later, found Mike holding a crying Ken in his arms, and returned to my pew because I knew from last year that the Bishops would walk right in front of where we were sitting. "As the Bishops processed out, I stood within a foot of them, tears streaming down my face, sobbing, and not one of them attempted to comfort me. WHERE WERE THE SHEPHERDS? It took every bit of strength in me to keep from shouting that out to them, but we had made a commitment not to disrupt the Mass. "After we returned to the hotel, we called an emergency meeting, and it was clear what we must do. The three of us Catholics, tired and grief stricken, crying at various points of the meeting, were absolutely clear, we had to go into the Hyatt Hotel the next day and insist that we would not leave the hotel until someone has given us communion. "The next day, at 11:30 as the Bishops meeting was disbursing, we entered the lobby of the hotel, knelt down and with a prepared statement, which Mel White, our leader read, we waited for Eucharist. We were clear that while approximately ten Soulforcees were there to stand with us, when the third warning was given by the police, all would leave except the three of us. The lobby was swarming with press and all eyes turned on us as we began. We thought we'd have only 3 minutes or so to tell our story of the previous night, but we had almost 25 minutes before the actual arrests. Although the lobby had been filled with priests and bishops, they all seemed to vanish as the action began and no one came forward to give us communion. Eventually, we were given our third warning, our fellow Soulforcees left and the three of us were handcuffed and arrested, and we were escorted from the Hyatt Hotel singing the Taize song, "Oh Lord Hear our Prayer." "Because I was the only woman, I was placed in an isolation cell. It was cold, with only a steel bunkbed, no mattress, no blanket, not even a toilet. I was held there for 20 hours and then the next morning moved to the courthouse where I was finally in population with approximately a dozen other women, all Afro-American and two Hispanic; not another white face could be seen except for a few guards. Ten more hours followed before we were finally brought up before the judge and released on our personal recognizance. At this point we are due back in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Nov. 21st for our first hearing. "This letter is much longer than I had intended, but I wanted to share with you this truly amazing experience. There are so many amazing little miracles that happened throughout this time, that I haven't shared, but I did want to share this awesome experience with you. If you wish to be hear more about this journey, simply write me and let me know. I'll create a special mailing for those who wish to receive it. This was indeed the hardest jail time I've ever experienced, but I felt as compelled to do this, as Mel and Gary felt about their move to Lynchburg. There just was nothing else I could do. And while it was difficult, as Rosa Parks said some 40+ years ago, "my feet are tired but my spirit is soaring." DignityUSA sponsored a Mass at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church on November 12. The Mass included a ritual of healing for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, and a celebration of ministries of those the Church does not affirm, including women, married priests and gay priests. "We welcomed straight and gay, young and old, rich and poor, people of every color to this Mass," said Duddy. "We hope this liturgy provided a source of healing to all who have been wounded by Church leaders who have abused their authority." |
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Executive Director of DignityUSA, Marianne Duddy