MARYLAND
National Catholic Reporter
by Michael Sean Winters on Mar. 15, 2012 Distinctly Catholic
This morning’s Washington Post contains quotes from Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, the priest who made headlines for denying communion to a woman at her mother’s funeral because she was a lesbian. Late last week, he was stripped of his faculties by Cardinal Wuerl because of what the archdiocese termed “credible allegations” of “intimidating behavior” towards parishioners since the event.
Guarnizo not only challenges the woman’s accounts of the underlying event. He challenges the archdiocese, arguing that no subsequent activity of his warranted his being stripped of his faculties and that this is all really about his initial decision not to give communion to Barbara Johnson. So, he is calling everyone, except of course himself, a liar. Nice.
Guarnizo goes on to mention that he was soliciting affidavits from people. Hmmmm. I understand he has a right to defend himself, but if there is to be an investigation of the allegations against him, he doesn’t have the right to be his own D.A. He also says that the meetings in question did not involve intimidation, that they were civil. Of course, this is the same man who did not see a problem in denying communion to a grieving fellow Catholic, so I am not sure I would take his word as the characterization of human behavior.
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