Priest Who Denied Lesbian Communion Would Have Done Same To Drug Addict

The Maryland Catholic priest who has made national headlines for denying communion to a lesbian woman while he officiated at her mother’s funeral now says not only is he not sorry, but he would have done the same to someone else if they were or high on drugs. Father Marcel Guarnizo, a Vicar at Saint John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg, was suspended from his duties by a Washington, D.C.-based archdiocese and has come out attacking them as well.

WATCH: Lesbian Denied Communion At Mother’s Funeral Talks To Lawrence O’Donnell

Barbara Johnson was denied communion by Guarnizo last month, when not only did the priest refuse her, but then claimed he was ill and would not even travel to the burial.

The Washington Archdioscese apologized to Ms. Johnson and her family, and suspended Guarnizo — but adamantly claimed their action had nothing to do with his refusal to give communion.

“If someone had shown up in my sacristy drunk, or high on drugs, no communion would have been possible either,” Guarnizo said in a lengthy statement. “If a Catholic, divorced and remarried (without an annulment) would make that known in my sacristy, they too according to Catholic doctrine, would be impeded from receiving communion.”

Guarnizo adds that “Ms. Johnson was a guest in our parish, not the arbitrer of how sacraments are dispensed in the Catholic Church,” and then included Quakers, Lutherans and Buddhists among those he would deny also.

MSNBC adds:

In his statement, Guarnizo said Johnson came into the sacristy with another woman whom she announced as her “lover,” but Johnson’s brother calls this “an outrageous lie.”

“Her revelation was completely unsolicited,” the priest said.

In his statement, Guarnizo accused the archdiocese of treating him unfairly, and said “the lack of clarity on this most basic issue puts at risk other priests who wish to serve the Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.”

“I am once again deeply saddened by the actions of Father Marcel Guarnizo,” Barbara Johnson said in a statement. “At a time when my family should have been allowed to begin our mourning in peace, he has chosen instead to politicize my mother’s death once again, reopening the wounds he inflicted upon our family on February 25th.”

Guarnizo is an extreme anti-abortion crusader who is actually based in Moscow, Russia, and has attacked one women’s clinic in particular as a “veritable death camp.”