The report said the boy has the mental capacity of a six month old, which goes way beyond CP. So yes, there would be an issue with his understanding of what he was doing if this were true. Also if true, I'm also not sure what the grandmother was doing to help him "to prepare."

She also doesn't seem to be that educated about her own religion. The priest offered the sacrament of anointing of the sick, which I don't think he should have done. She got offended and said that's what you do when someone is dying--that is last rites.

Read the church's actual position on the issue
http://www.ncpd.org/views-news-policy/policy/church/bishops/sacraments

If anyone wants to read a more recent story on this here's one: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/21/denum-ellarby_n_1220896.html

In this case the little boy has Down Syndrome. Evidently this happens more often than people think. Now the interesting thing to me is that the Eastern rite churches let children take communion from their baptism on...so they don't have the same "rules" as the Latin rite with respect to a person needing to have reached the "age of reason" or to have a specific set of priest interpreted abilities to understand what is going on. In other words this doesn't need to be the way the Latin rite church handles things, but for reasons that have nothing to do with Jesus they do it this way. They haven't always. It's cruel and a completely "man-made" if you will, rule.

Why put so much weight in what a priest decides is a person's spiritual awareness? How can we say that a cognitively delayed person isn't ahead of the rest of us in their spiritual development. At a minimum it seems best to err on the side of allowing the person to commune with Christ through the Eucharist and leave it to God to deal with whether or not the person understands as well as we think they should. After all Catholics think John the Baptist sensed the presence of Jesus as a fetus! It's another example of the male hierarchy sticking to their rules at the detriment of even innocent children. Wait, that sounds familiar, doesn't it!? I hope these families know that there are Catholic (Eastern rite) churches where their children can share in the Eucharist if they want to.

My 22 YO brother has CP and has a varying mental capacity depending on whether he's in an up phase or a down one, to use our layman's terms. It makes me sad to think he ccould be denied any sacrament because of his disability. I don't think Jesus put any conditions on whether you had to be sound of mind or body when he said, "do this in memory of me". Somehow I can't imagine Jesus turning my brother away from His table.

I think the chruch needs to rethink its rules on Communion inclusiveness. Instead of limiting it to those who qualify under their rules to participate - they should be trying to get anyone and everyone to receive God's grace in the form of the Eucharist. Not only would it do away with all this bad PR, but it could be the literal "communion" that person needs to jon or get back on track with their faith and with Catholicism.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, funny how there aren't any follow up news stories anywhere, just this local news article repeated all over the web. This family was just out to make the priest and the church look bad because they failed in their responsibility to their kid and their parish.

the priests actions stand on their own.

The constant refrain is getting old. The lesbian was setting up the priest at her mothers funeral, the Georgetown student was setting up Rush, and now this.

No these peoe are doing things that are important to them. How you or your religious representatives deal with that is their responsibility.

Who said anything about the priest being set up? Comparing this to the lesbian incident and Rush are ludicrous. Nobody set up Rush, he's an asshole all on his own.

If the child's first communion had really been important to the family, the child would not have been a stranger to the priest. The family would have communicated with the church and he would have been receiving religious instruction to prepare for the sacrament, either in classes with other kids or at home with permission/supervision and materials from the parish. The priest would have been aware of his condition and limitations, and the child would have been to his first reconciliation, which is another prerequisite for receiving communion. Communion isn't just important to individuals, it's a community and if someone who is not adequately prepared receives it, it tells the rest of the community that their beliefs are unimportant.

It's really telling that there are no follow up articles, no statements from the church, and nothing further from the family.

No, it's not really telling. Not everything in this world, even tragedy, gets national news attention. Sometimes it just gets a blurb on a local news station, just like this one. Lack of extensive media coverage does not determine the validity of a person's issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, funny how there aren't any follow up news stories anywhere, just this local news article repeated all over the web. This family was just out to make the priest and the church look bad because they failed in their responsibility to their kid and their parish.

the priests actions stand on their own.

The constant refrain is getting old. The lesbian was setting up the priest at her mothers funeral, the Georgetown student was setting up Rush, and now this.

No these peoe are doing things that are important to them. How you or your religious representatives deal with that is their responsibility.

Who said anything about the priest being set up? Comparing this to the lesbian incident and Rush are ludicrous. Nobody set up Rush, he's an asshole all on his own.

If the child's first communion had really been important to the family, the child would not have been a stranger to the priest. The family would have communicated with the church and he would have been receiving religious instruction to prepare for the sacrament, either in classes with other kids or at home with permission/supervision and materials from the parish. The priest would have been aware of his condition and limitations, and the child would have been to his first reconciliation, which is another prerequisite for receiving communion. Communion isn't just important to individuals, it's a community and if someone who is not adequately prepared receives it, it tells the rest of the community that their beliefs are unimportant.

It's really telling that there are no follow up articles, no statements from the church, and nothing further from the family.

You all are jumping to conclusions.
First communion isn't something you just show up and do. A child or adult, for that matter, must receive religious education first and also receive the sacrament of reconciliation. There is nothing in the article indicating that this child had done either. There are cases where kids receive their religious instruction at home, but it's still under the supervision and approval of their parish. If the mom it grandma had done what they were supposed to do, no way would a situation like this happen.

That's awful. When I read the title of the post I was wondering whether the boy had swallowing problems and the priest was concerned that he would choke or something. Obviously the situation is far less benign.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoa -- you have not a clue about the mother's soul. A priest was there but regardless the soul isn't punished by the daughter's sin. WTF is that about? The priest HAS been reprimanded and has been removed from ministering. The church pointed out very quickly that he was wrong. Did you miss all that?

Yes, link please?

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/12/10652416-priest-who-denied-communion-to-lesbian-suspended

I should have looked at the date of the original article. Clearly the OP was trying to bait us all into it.

OP here. Someone sent me a link to this article on Facebook. I didn't look at the date before posting it. I'm not trying to bait anyone. My child is special needs and THAT is my focus, not the Catholic Church. I don't see what relevance your link about the lesbian woman has to this story other than it's another priest being suspended. As I said in my original post, I just can't conceive of anyone behaving this way toward a child. Yes, now I can see that the story is a year old.

I don't know of any Catholic Church that doesn't have outreach/special classes for mentally handicapped parishoners. As Catholics we do not believe in abortion so you tend to have families in most parishes with special needs children. Meeting their spiritual needs is part of the doctrine of the Church. I did follow the link and am surprised by what may have happened. I was unable to find any followup so I do question exactly what went on.

The link for the article about the priest being suspended was in response to the poster talking about the local denial of communion. A PP had asked for a link to the follow up about the priest being suspended.

Glad to hear that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoa -- you have not a clue about the mother's soul. A priest was there but regardless the soul isn't punished by the daughter's sin. WTF is that about? The priest HAS been reprimanded and has been removed from ministering. The church pointed out very quickly that he was wrong. Did you miss all that?

Yes, link please?

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/12/10652416-priest-who-denied-communion-to-lesbian-suspended

I should have looked at the date of the original article. Clearly the OP was trying to bait us all into it.

OP here. Someone sent me a link to this article on Facebook. I didn't look at the date before posting it. I'm not trying to bait anyone. My child is special needs and THAT is my focus, not the Catholic Church. I don't see what relevance your link about the lesbian woman has to this story other than it's another priest being suspended. As I said in my original post, I just can't conceive of anyone behaving this way toward a child. Yes, now I can see that the story is a year old.

I don't know of any Catholic Church that doesn't have outreach/special classes for mentally handicapped parishoners. As Catholics we do not believe in abortion so you tend to have families in most parishes with special needs children. Meeting their spiritual needs is part of the doctrine of the Church. I did follow the link and am surprised by what may have happened. I was unable to find any followup so I do question exactly what went on.

The link for the article about the priest being suspended was in response to the poster talking about the local denial of communion. A PP had asked for a link to the follow up about the priest being suspended.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoa -- you have not a clue about the mother's soul. A priest was there but regardless the soul isn't punished by the daughter's sin. WTF is that about? The priest HAS been reprimanded and has been removed from ministering. The church pointed out very quickly that he was wrong. Did you miss all that?

Yes, link please?

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/12/10652416-priest-who-denied-communion-to-lesbian-suspended

I should have looked at the date of the original article. Clearly the OP was trying to bait us all into it.

OP here. Someone sent me a link to this article on Facebook. I didn't look at the date before posting it. I'm not trying to bait anyone. My child is special needs and THAT is my focus, not the Catholic Church. I don't see what relevance your link about the lesbian woman has to this story other than it's another priest being suspended. As I said in my original post, I just can't conceive of anyone behaving this way toward a child. Yes, now I can see that the story is a year old.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares if it's a year old? It happened and it's reprehensible.

It must be hard to get through life believing everything you read on the internet.

I believe anything like this crap with the catholic church. Yup, sure do.

Anonymous wrote:Who cares if it's a year old? It happened and it's reprehensible.

It must be hard to get through life believing everything you read on the internet.

Who cares if it's a year old? It happened and it's reprehensible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whoa -- you have not a clue about the mother's soul. A priest was there but regardless the soul isn't punished by the daughter's sin. WTF is that about? The priest HAS been reprimanded and has been removed from ministering. The church pointed out very quickly that he was wrong. Did you miss all that?

Yes, link please?

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/12/10652416-priest-who-denied-communion-to-lesbian-suspended

I should have looked at the date of the original article. Clearly the OP was trying to bait us all into it.