Dutch gays to force Roman Catholic Church to accept them for Holy Communion
February 23rd, 2010
From a Dutch article translated by an AM reader in the Netherlands, Peter Boswijk
From the Volkskrant, Amsterdam
Robèrt Cooijmans, a roman-catholic gay man, has filed a charge of discrimination against priest Luc Buyens. He wants the priest to be persecuted for discrimination, because he refuses practicing homosexuals for Holy Communion.
Cooijmans desires a principled decision by the judiciary: “My Church is not allowed to exclude anybody. There is no justification anywhere in the Bible to do that” His complaint fits the swelling protest under homosexuals against the rule of the Roman Catholic Church that judges practicing homosexuality a sin. The current stumbling block is the recent refusal by pastor Buyens to hand out the Holy Sacrament during the Carnaval Mass to the gay Prins Carnaval.
Cooijmans feels humiliated and speaks of unequal treatment. For years he attends another Roman Catholic Church in Cuijk where he is able to receive the Sacrament without any problems. “This means that there doesn’t have to be any problem when everybody just acts normally. But such a pastor as Buyens brings us back to the stone-age.” Henk Krol, chief editor of the Gaykrant, thinks that the pastor is a minority within the Roman Catholic Church. “In 2001 we did an enquiry under priests. Then more than 94 % did not see any problem in communicating practicing homosexuals.
Gay organisation COC and Emprace Pink have begun to muster as many members as possible to attend the High Mass next Sunday in the Cathedral Church of Den Bosch. That action follows a demonstration last Sunday, when a few dozen of homosexuals attended the mass in Reusel, by pastor Buyens, and wanted to go to Holy Communion. Consequently, Buyens was advised by the Bishop Hurkmans not to administer the Holy Communion, for the risk of desecrating the Sacrament was to big with so many open sinners in the church.
Because Buyens was acting on the advise of Bishop Hurkams, the revolt is now replacing itself to the Cathedral Church in Den Bosch. “We want to see whether our presence there will also cause the Holy Communion not to be administered,” says the director of Emprace Pink. “It is in the general public interest that the church acknowledges that homosexuality is a nature, which cannot be made subject of moral judgments.”
The protesters are planning to stay coming until the Roman Catholic Church changes its policy. “We are going to bring them in to a big state of confusion,” says Nijenhuis. In a reaction, the Diocese supported Buyens, saying that the Celebration of the Eucharist is not the place for demonstrations. “The Diocese asks all to respect the belief of the church that those who practice homosexuality are to abstain from receiving the Holy Communino.”
A spokesman of the Diocese was not willing to answer the question what the Dioces will do when a large number of homosexuals will try to receive the Holy Communion in the Cathedral Church. “We first want to see whether such will indeed be the case.”