No Communion for those wearing rainbow sash, Archbishop Flynn says

Published: 2005-05-06

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis has advised a leader of Rainbow Sash, a gay rights group, that anyone wearing the group's sash will be refused Communion. He also asked that the group not use Pentecost, May 15, as a time to protest church teaching on homosexuality as Rainbow Sash has urged its members to do in a statement posted on its Web site. "The Vatican has communicated to me that it does indeed consider the wearing of the rainbow sash during reception of Communion to be unacceptable, a directive that I believe all bishops will adhere to," the archbishop said in a May 2 letter to Brian McNeil of Rainbow Sash Alliance USA in Minneapolis. Previously, Archbishop Flynn had said sash wearers would not be denied Communion because members of the movement had assured him in writing that their presence at Mass was not in protest of church teachings.

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