Illinois Bishop Decrees No Communion, Funeral Rites For Same-Sex Spouses
Bishop Thomas Paprocki is telling priests in his diocese not to offer sacraments to people in same-sex marriages. A Catholic LGBT group calls the decree "mean-spirited and unchristian in the extreme."
A Catholic bishop has instructed priests in his central Illinois diocese to deny communion, last rites and funeral rites to people in same-sex marriages – unless they repent.
In the decree he sent to priests, deacons, seminarians and staff in his Springfield diocese last week, Bishop Thomas Paprocki sets forth a set of norms on same-sex marriage and related pastoral issues that he says are the policy of the diocese.
Paprocki's decree bans priests and parish staff from performing same-sex marriages or allowing same-sex weddings or
