From The Pillar:
Amid an ongoing standoff between Spain’s government and ecclesiastical leaders, the country’s equality minister said Saturday a parish priest could face criminal charges for prohibiting a small-town mayor in a same-sex relationship from receiving the Eucharist.
But the priest’s diocese has said that he did not commit a criminal act of discrimination by acting in accord with the Church’s disciplinary norms regarding the administration of Holy Communion.
“[Denying communion] is contrary to the Spanish constitution” Minister of Equality Ana Redondo said during a Jan. 18 interview, adding that the Church “cannot, even if there is no specific law, be subtracted from the constitutional rules, the principle of equality and non-discrimination of Article 14.”
“You can not discriminate against an LGTBI citizen and require him to choose either his faith or his sexual condition. This is clearly discriminatory and I hope there will be a [legal] challenge,” she added.
The minister’s remarks come after a Jan. 11 statement from Rubén García, mayor of Segovian small town Torrecaballeros.
Garcia said that his parish priest denied him the Eucharist because of his public same-sex relationship, prompting local party officials in Spain’s leading Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party — the PSOE — to immediately accuse the Church of violating the country’s anti-discrimination laws.
