Bishop Bans Married Same-Sex Couples From Catholic Funeral Rites – Unless They Denounce Their Marriage Before Death

Forces LGBT Catholics to Choose Between Their Soul Mate and Their Soul

Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki has decreed anyone in a same-sex marriage will be banned from being given a Catholic funeral unless before death they denounce their marriage. Same-sex couples are also banned from holy communion, also until they offer “repentance.” Bishop Paprocki issued the declaration, a directive to the priests in his diocese, in a memo dated June 12 which the Washington Post reported and published. June happens to be Pride month for the LGBT community and allies.

Paprocki’s directive applies to anyone living publicly as a same-sex couple, suggesting those who are married but closeted will not be banned.  

“Unless they have given some signs of repentance before their death, deceased persons who had lived openly in a same-sex marriage giving public scandal to the faithful are to be deprived of ecclesiastical funeral rites,” the memo reads. 

Paprocki commands that “the Church has not only the authority, but the serious obligation, to affirm its authentic teaching on marriage and to preserve and foster the sacred value of the married state.”

Paprocki even responded to a challenge to his directive via Twitter:

The memo also directs Catholics in same-sex marriages to not present themselves for holy communion, and directs pastors to discuss the issue with them in private.

“Given the objectively immoral nature of the relationship created by same-sex marriages, persons in such unions should not present themselves for Holy Communion, nor should they be admitted to Holy Communion,” he says.

“In danger of death, a person living publically in a same-sex marriage may be given Holy Communion in the form of Viaticum if he or she expresses repentance for his or her sins.”

The memo does allow children being raised by parents in a same-sex marriage to be baptized “if there is a well-founded hope that he or she will be brought up in the Catholic faith.”

Bishop Paprocki is well-known to LGBT people across the country. 

In 2013, as the governor of Illinois signed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, Paprocki actually held an exorcism – of same-sex marriage. He accused Governor Pat Quinn of being “morally complicit” with the “Father of lies” – i.e., the Devil, or Satan – by bringing same-sex marriage to the Land of Lincoln. He called it, “institutionalizing an objectively sinful reality.”

“I exorcise you, every unclean spirit, every power of darkness, every incursion of the infernal enemy, every diabolical legion, cohort, and faction, in the name and power of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Paprocki said during the exorcism — while also speaking in Latin.

In 2011 Paprocki announced that any Catholic who votes for a Democrat very well may go to Hell. 

UPDATE: 2:55 PM EDT –
A group of Catholic parents with LGBT children posted an open letter denouncing Paprocki’s declaration, noting his memo was published one year to the day of the terror attack on Orlando’s Pulse nightclub.

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