Dutch walk out over homophobic communion
Monday 01 March 2010
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EmailHundreds of people walked out of a Catholic church in the Netherlands on Sunday in protest at a priest's refusal to give communion to a man on the grounds that he was homosexual.
People shouted and sang as they walked out of the Sint-Jan church in 's-Hertogenbosch a month after a priest in the nearby town of Reusel declined to give a communion wafer to an openly gay man during pre-lent celebrations.
Most Dutch people support equality for gay people, but the Catholic church insists on teaching that homosexual activity is sinful.
The man who was refused communion in Reusel said that all he wanted was to be treated the same as other Catholic congregants.
He said that if he was refused communion because he was a sinner, other sinners of all kinds should also have been banned from receiving the sacrament.
But 's-Hertogenbosch priest Antoine Bodar insisted that "receiving the wafer is not a right - someone is looking for a confrontation here."
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