Willfully dishonest

Matthew Hoy
By Matthew Hoy on March 18, 2012

Late last month The Washington Post decided to make a cause célèbre out of the case of a woman who was denied communion [PDF format] at her mother’s funeral. At the bottom of the front page was a sympathetic story of how heart-broken Johnson was.

Oh, by the way, Johnson had talked to the priest before the funeral and introduced him to her lesbian lover.

The Post happily regurgitated a letter from Johnson to the priest which included this beaut:

You brought your politics, not your God into that Church yesterday, and you will pay dearly on the day of judgment for judging me. I will pray for your soul, but first I will do everything in my power to see that you are removed from parish life…"

Projection much?

And all of this talk about God and the day of judgment is a bit rich coming from Johnson…a Buddhist.

I’m a Christian, not Catholic, and even I know that I shouldn’t present myself for communion at a Catholic church. And Johnson, a Buddhist is demanding to be take part in a rite that in the eyes of God she has utter contempt for? And the Post is somehow treating communion as a public accommodation?

The priest, Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, has a duty not to imperil Johnson’s immortal soul, even if she and the Post demand it.

and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for[a] you. Do this in remembrance of me.”[b] 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. – I Corinthians 11:24-27

And Johnson pretends to think that she’ll be lecturing Guarnizo on a judgment day that she apparently as a Buddhist doesn’t believe exists, before a God she denies?

Johnson is an activist and wants to destroy the Catholic Church, of that I have no doubt. The Post is willfully aiding and abetting this—today they doubled down.

The moment was fleeting.

Barbara Johnson reached out to receive Holy Communion at her mother’s funeral Mass last month at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg. The Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, standing before her, placed his hand over the offering bowl, denying her the sacrament.

Those mere seconds between Johnson, no ordinary Catholic, and Guarnizo, no ordinary priest, have touched off a heated controversy among Catholics across the country — another battle in the seemingly endless cultural wars that have invaded nearly every corner of daily life, even funerals.

I love that. Johnson is “no ordinary Catholic.” Four paragraphs later:

But Johnson is also a Buddhist who supports gay marriage and other progressive causes.

Buddhists are “no ordinary Catholics?” One almost wants to hit reporters Michael S. Rosenwald and Michelle Boorstein with a clue-by-four. And their editors.

To Johnson’s family, turning her away from Communion was “disgusting” and violated their view that a Catholic’s relationship with God is a personal matter, not one that can be determined at a glance by a priest.

Tell me more. A Catholic priest “violated” the view of a lesbian Buddhist on what a Catholic priest should do? I’d roll on the floor laughing if this wasn’t so odious.

This isn’t a hard call. This should never have been a story. If I’d gone to a Buddhist wedding and demanded the monk say a prayer invoking Jesus Christ and when he refused I’d gone to the local newspaper, they’d laugh me out of the office.

This is no different. The Post is displaying nothing more than an anti-Catholic and anti-Christian bias. There’s only one group in America that you can demonize, and they joyfully do it.

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