The last inter-blog argument between me and my brother was about the Catholic Church denying communion for political reasons. They are at it again. According to this story in Gapers Block, Cardinal George has ordered Chicago area priests to deny communion to anyone wearing a rainbow sash this Sunday. The message here is clear: the Catholic Church is happy to give homosexuals communion as long as they are quiet about it. If they have the audacity to publicly demonstrate that they want to be treated as equals by the Church, they are cut off. Vocal queers bad, discreet closeted queers good.

I humbly submit there is a better and ultimately more effective form of protest available to gays in the church. Rather than wearing rainbow sashes (or in addition to), get yourselves some pieces of rainbow paper at a stationary store. When it comes time for the offertory, give no cash but instead drop in an envelope containing your rainbow paper with a dollar figure written on it, the dollar figure that would have been your contribution. It's one thing to be hardassed at the communion bar about the sashes, it's another to be sitting in the office with an adding machine understanding the dollar costs to being out of touch with the needs of your parishioners. This is all academic to me, being neither gay nor Catholic. I do so hate bullies, though, and this pronouncement from Cardinal George and all these "denial of communion" attacks on parishioners strike me as exactly that.