His confirmation caused little debate, except among anti-abortion activists who decried Diaz’s support for Obama last fall. Diaz said he is “pro-life” and supports finding a common ground on the issue of abortion.

“I am very grateful to the Senate for this confirmation and to President Obama for the confidence he has invested in me,” he said in the statement Tuesday. “I am honored to be given the responsibility of representing the people of the United States to the Holy See.”

Fellow Minnesotan Sam Kaplan was also confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday for ambassador to Morocco.

Source: Michael Bayly

A group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Catholics won’t be receiving communion at the Cathedral of St. Paul this Pentecost Sunday, according to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Members of the Rainbow Sash movement, they will attempt to receive the Eucharist on Sunday anyway, in hopes of starting a dialogue with Archbishop John Nienstedt about the role of gays and lesbians in the church. But Nienstedt had strong words for the group, saying he won’t debate church teachings.

Rainbow Sash movement members, LGBT Catholics and friends, wear a rainbow sash each Pentecost to identify themselves as LGBT church members and supporters. If they are denied the Eucharist they go back to the pews and remain standing as acknowledgment of being denied. If they do receive the Eucharist, they kneel as they are expected to.

The archdiocese, which says the group is merely about disruptive protest, released this statement on Wednesday:

The archdiocese has received word that a group dissenting from the church’s teaching on sexuality will be wearing signs of protest (rainbow sashes) at the Cathedral of St. Paul on Pentecost Sunday during the noon Mass. Those wearing such sashes will not be allowed to receive Holy Communion, since they have publicly broken communion with the teachings of the church.

The Holy Eucharist should never be politicized by protesters in this way. Theirs is a sign of disrespect and irreverence to the body and blood of Jesus.

But Rainbow Sash members insist the sashes are not a protest.

“We cannot repeat too often that we attend Mass on Pentecost to celebrate who we are, not to protest,” said a statement on their website, which was part of a letter sent to Nienstedt. “We participate in Mass in the same way we do all the other days of the year. But on Pentecost we come out of the closet as LGBT Catholics, family and friends to remind our fellow Catholics that we too are part of God’s loving family.”

The group said it only seeks a dialogue with the archbishop. Nienstedt, who also urges other churchgoers to refrain from sharing communion with those wearing sashes, said the matter is not up for debate. In a letter to the group, he wrote:

With regard to the dialogue you request, it would first be essential that you state clearly that you hold with the conviction all that the Church teaches on matters of human sexuality. If you do not believe, then there cannot be dialogue, but only debate. The truths of our faith are not open to debate.

In the past, however, the issue has been up for debate. In 2004, former Archbishop Harry Flynn offered the group communion, setting off a firestorm among conservative members of the church. Flynn said it was part of pastoral care.

“We all stand very strong in our teaching concerning human sexuality, and what is right and what is wrong, and the teaching of the church concerning homosexuality, the teaching of the church concerning marriage between one man and one woman,” he said in 2004. “Then as you step away from the strong articulation of the teachings, you get into the pastoral practice of what do you do in some of these very difficult and challenging situations.”

But in 2005, he changed his mind and from then on LGBT Catholics who visibly identify themselves as such are denied the sacrament.

Those who identify themselves with the sashes do so for various reasons, as Lisa Nilles found when compiling a collection of responses from Rainbow Sash members on why they participate in the movement’s Pentecost observation each year. Many of them were parents or friends of LGBT church members.

“I have a son who is 6′2″ with dark curly hair, marvelous design skills, who is a plain old fashioned good person who just happens to be gay,” one parent said. “I am tired of ‘my’ Church ignoring his many qualities in order to focus on the mystery of his sexuality which, because they cannot understand, they chose to condemn. So I thought this a good way to show my unconditional support for him and all who share this mystery.”

Another parent spoke of wearing the sash “to celebrate the intrinsic goodness of my lesbian daughter and every other GLBT child of God. If solidarity with the marginalized is perceived as resistance to Church teaching, so be it.”

“This is, I think, the fourth year my wife and I attended this Pentecost service [at the cathedral],” he continued. “We are involved in a number of social justice issues and solidarity with GLBT persons is an important extension of that outreach, made more personal to us because we have a lesbian daughter. My daughter is right when she says, ‘My folks would be involved even if they didn’t have me because that’s who they are.’

“I am proud of that and will do anything nonviolently to counter the prejudice and bigotry of the Catholic Church.”

Diaz is a board member of the Catholic Theological Society and previously served as president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians. He also wrote “On Being Human: U.S. Hispanic and Rahnerian Perspectives” and edited “From the Heart of Our People: Latino/a Explorations in Catholic Systemic Theology.”

A Cuban-American, Diaz has built bridges between Latino communities and the Catholic church. He would be the first Latino ambassador to the Vatican from the United States.

But his nomination is sparking outcry from conservative Catholics because Diaz is not “pro-life” enough.

Diaz hasn’t weighed in on the issue of abortion very often. Last year, he told the Catholic News Agency, “Wherever we can, we should advance life at all stages.”

Lifesitenews.com, a clearinghouse for anti-abortion news, said Diaz “reportedly is pro-life but has compromised his views by backing Obama and others.”

The site continued, “That someone like Diaz can claim to follow the pro-life teachings of the Catholic Church and assist an abortion advocate in becoming president won’t go unnoticed as the Senate confirmation process takes place.”

The conservative Catholic League said, “It is a sad commentary on the Democratic party that out of the entire country they can’t field a candidate to represent the U.S. to the Vatican who is unequivocally opposed to abortion-on-demand.”

In the same breath the group said, “In choosing professor Miguel H. Diaz to be the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, President Obama has selected a man whose writings do not address such hot-button issues as abortion.”

Diaz is expected to have a swift confirmation in the U.S. Senate.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference, the lobbying group for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, hailed the DFL omnibus bill on Tuesday as promoting “dignity and the common good” and for supporting those most in need. “While the HHS Budget Omnibus bill contains hurtful cuts, it recognizes the importance of maintaining critical assistance for Minnesota’s poorest families — especially in our ailing economy,” the group said.

The group implied that Pawlenty should sign the bill. “Gov. Tim Pawlenty has until Friday, May 15 to sign or veto the HHS Budget Omnibus bill,” said the Conference. “While the bill contains $489 million in cuts for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010-11 and $742 million in cuts for FY 2012-13, it preserves many needed services for our sisters and brothers who are poor and vulnerable.”

Catholic Charities also weighed in on the bill this week. Kathy Tomlin, director of the Catholic Charities Office for Social Justice, said even the cuts passed by the legislature are too deep — and those proposed by Pawlenty would be devastating.

One of the most egregious cuts debated at the Minnesota Capi­tol were those that would strip services from General Assistance Medical Care, a health care program that serves very low-income persons. Thirty-two thousand people are on GAMC, some 350 are clients of Catholic Charities,” wrote Tomlin. “While the Pawlenty administration doesn’t propose cutting the whole program, many of its services would be eliminated, including in-patient hospital care, dental services, radiology, eyeglasses, occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy and audiology services.”

She said that the state can’t cut its way out of the deficit. “While it is true that the cost of health care is adding to the state’s fi­nan­cial woes, cutting those with the fewest resources from access to health care doesn’t seem to address the real heart of the problem.”

The Archdiocese has been outspoken about making sure cuts don’t impact the poor.

Archbishop John Nienstedt and the state’s other bishops sent a letter to legislators last month encouraging them to balance the budget with a mix of revenue increases and cuts. “We believe that resolving the budget deficit through spending cuts alone will do great harm to Minnesotans and our economy,” they wrote. “We urge you to support raising sufficient revenue as part of a comprehensive approach to resolving.”

The bishops said that cuts to health and human services should spare the poor. “Catholic social teaching upholds the role of government to assist individuals and communities when they cannot help themselves. In performing this role, the state is fulfilling its moral responsibility to promote the common good.”

“Our nation and new president will be challenged by ongoing wars, an economy in severe recession, ballooning deficits, high unemployment and an environment and health care system in crisis,” wrote the Rev. Michael Tegeder of St. Edward’s Church in Bloomington. “Yet at this very moment the Catholic bishops have declared that they have this more pressing need.”

That need is to organize a postcard campaign targeting legislators and Obama over abortion legislation.

FOCA will stir a heated debate in upcoming months. Obama pledged to sign it if Congress passes it. “The first thing I’d do, as president, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing that I’d do,” he told Planned Parenthood supporters at a campaign event in 2007.

FOCA would essentially codify the reproductive rights that were interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade.

The bill reads:

“A government may not deny or interfere with a woman’s right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after viability where termination is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman; or discriminate against the exercise of the rights set forth in paragraph in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information.”

Tegeder penned his opinion in a letter to the Star Tribune, targeting the bishops’ intent to pressure Obama on FOCA. Tegeder said that among the many problems with the postcard campaign, the bishops are attacking Obama instead of finding common ground.

“We can do many positive things. Indeed, Obama has stated that he wants to reduce the number of abortions. We should work with him on doing this,” Tegeder wrote. “During this season of goodwill, let us offer our new president some and hold back on the confrontation. And to the bishops: Your Graces, remember grace.”

Tegeder’s words directly confront his boss, the Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, John Neinstedt.

“When I signed up 35 years ago to be a priest, little did I realize that postcards would be an essential tool of ministry in the Catholic Church,” said Tegeder. He pointed to Neinstedt and his postcard campaigns pushing a Republican-led same-sex marriage ban several years ago.

“To someone who did not see this as necessary, it seemed a waste of time and money. It also generated some unnecessary ill will,” wrote Tegeder.

Neinstedt recently weighed in on the FOCA debate and seems to be enthusiastically in support of stopping the legislation. “In effect, FOCA would certainly be a boon to the abortion industry with the government forced to condone and promote such procedures,” Neinstedt wrote on the Archdiocese Web site. “It is hard to imagine a more radical piece of pro-abortion legislation.”

While the Archdiocese hasn’t publicly commented on Tegeder’s letter, members of the laity have. One Catholic blogger called for his excommunication.

Another is initiating a postcard campaign of her own, directed at Tegeder. “Reducing abortions is not an acceptable goal. Stopping abortion entirely is,” wrote a St. Paul Catholic blogger. “Education is a large part of the effort. Father [Tegeder] may need some help understanding this.”

Another Minnesota Catholic blog wrote that Tegeder “not only endangers his own immortal soul, but also those of his parishioners.”

Tegeder has been a controversial member of Minnesota’s Catholic hierarchy. He has supported moves toward inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church, opposes the church ban on priests marrying, and once called Neinstedt “self-righteous” and “a bully.”

Photo by Susan WD.

“We need something like human ecology, meant in the right way,” said the pontiff. “The Church speaks of human nature as ‘man’ or ‘woman’ and asks that this order is respected… The rain forests deserve our protection, but man as a creature indeed deserves no less.”

The Rev. Sharon Ferguson of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement took the Pope to task for his comments: “It is more the case that we need to be saved from his comments. It is comments like that that justify homophobic bullying that goes on in schools and it is comments like that that justify gay bashing.

“There are still so many instances of people being killed around the world, including in western society, purely and simply because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity.

“When you have religious leaders like that making that sort of statement then followers feel they are justified in behaving in an aggressive and violent way because they feel that they are doing God’s work in ridding the world of these people.”

“What would Jesus say today if he were telling the parable in our Gospel of Luke?,” asked Tibesar in an audio clip widely circulated on Catholic blogs. “Two people came into church to pray. One was a Catholic archbishop who refuses communion to Rainbow Sash people at the Cathedral on Pentecost Sunday who prayed: ‘I give you thanks, oh God, that I am not like others — greedy, dishonest or like others who need to make their dissent from official church teaching so public and divisive.”

“The others were Rainbow parents of GLBT people at the Cathedral on Pentecost who stood off on the side and prayed: ‘Oh God, be merciful to us for failing to attend our own churches more often; they say they love God then turn their backs on us in hate directly contrary to John 1:4 — whoever loves God must also love the neighbor. Jesus concluded the last ones went home more worthy in God’s sight than the first.’”The church’s “statement of reconciliation,” created in 1994, seems to be at the heart of recent criticisms. It reads, in part:

“As members of one body we are grieved by the separation of many of those Catholics who identify themselves as gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual from the Catholic Church. We are aware of the centuries of oppression that these brothers and sisters have suffered at the hands of civil and religious authorities. We are aware of recent attempts by our bishops to label our brothers and sisters as “objectively disordered,” and to fight against their being granted their full civil rights.”

St. Frances Cabrini Church and Tibesar ran afoul of the archdiocese in late October after the church had scheduled a talk by a lesbian and her Catholic father, who together wrote a book describing the spiritual journey of coming out and acceptance within the Catholic tradition. The archdiocese forbade the church from hosting the talk.

The Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, head of Human Life International, told LifeSite that Tibesar’s actions, and those of St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church, are anti-Catholic. “I can only say what the Scriptures say, this is an abomination. The blessing of homosexual partners is an abomination and the corruption of children is a scandal.”

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has not yet responded to complaints by Catholics against St. Frances Cabrini Church or Tibesar.