"Double Standard" Update

Flynn the Wolf Accommodates Rainbow Sashers

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        One of the innumerable pestilences that afflict the Catholic Church in America is the so-called "Rainbow Sash" movement. This is a movement of "gay activists" whose members promote the sin of Sodom and then arrogantly stride up to the communion rail while wearing rainbow-colored sashes to signify their dissent from Church teaching against sodomy.

        During a February 11, 2005 appearance on EWTN, Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, reportedly stated that prelates such as Archbishop Harry Flynn of Minneapolis-St. Paul were not justified in allowing "rainbow-sashers" to receive Holy Communion, as these dissenters are public and notorious sinners. Arinze apparently made this remark to rebut Flynn’s suggestion that during an earlier meeting with Cardinal Arinze, the Cardinal had told Flynn that he was "open to allowing communion for Rainbow Sash activists." (LifeSite News, 2-16-05).

        Since the Cardinal’s EWTN appearance, Flynn has contrived what he no doubt thinks is a clever way to accommodate to the rainbow-sashers: they may still receive Holy Communion in his archdiocese, provided they remove their sashes first! In a letter to rainbow-sasher Brian McNeil on May 2, 2005 (posted at the remnantnewspaper.com website), Flynn stated "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."

        Of course, it is not merely the wearing of the sash, but membership in the dissident movement that Cardinal Arinze said was grounds for denying Holy Communion. But Flynn conveniently overlooked that point, concluding: "Therefore, this is to notify you and the other members of the Minnesota Rainbow Sash group that I am asking you to remove your sashes before you receive Holy Communion. … No one wearing the sash will be permitted to receive the Blessed Sacrament."

        So, these notorious sinners and dissenters from infallible Church teaching are perfectly free to receive Communion in the Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul, so long as the sash signifying their sinning and dissent is removed for a few moments at the communion rail. The Vatican’s response? Utter silence.

        So Flynn the Wolf is left in charge of his sheepfold. And throughout the Church, wolves that call themselves bishops are providing similar "protection" to the faithful. Meanwhile, over the past forty years the only bishops in the entire Church deemed excommunicated by the Vatican apparatus are Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the four bishops he consecrated to provide shepherds instead of wolves for the flock. Whether or not one thinks Archbishop Lefebvre acted rightly, this disparity remains absurd and intolerable. It lies at the very heart of the crisis in the Church.