Two Catholic Leaders Advise Denying Communion to Marriage Equality Supporters

The archbishop of Detroit, as well as a professor and legal adviser to the Vatican, are urging Communion be denied to those in support of marriage equality.

Communion, the weekly sacrament performed by Catholics, is a key part of Catholic identity. But Allen Vigneron, the archbishop of Detroit, and Edward Peters, a professor of Catholic canon law at Detroit's Sacred Heart Major Seminar, want to deny Catholics the tradition if they support gay marriage, which the Vatican opposes. Those who promote same-sex marriage "risk having holy Communion withheld from them ... being rebuked and/or being sanctioned," Peters said in a recent blog post. Peters previously said California Rep. Nancy Pelosi and New York governor Andrew Cuomo, both Catholics who support marriage equality, should be denied Communion.

As an attorney, Peters was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 to help advise the top judicial authority in the Catholic Church.

Meanwhile, Vigneron has said those who advocate for marriage equality "logically bring shame for a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury."

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