Archbishop Flynn "Clarifies" Previous Remarks

In a Jan. 26 statement, Archbishop Flynn said he met in mid-December with Cardinal Francis Arinze, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, to discuss "the difficult pastoral situation" of Rainbow Sash.

Archbishop Flynn said he was issuing the statement to clarify remarks he made in an interview with Catholic News Service in December.

Cardinal Arinze "did not in fact suggest an immediate change to the policy in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis," Archbishop Flynn said in his statement.

"However, he did clearly indicate that this situation merits further study and that ideally all of the bishops who have pastoral care for the members of this movement should seek to adopt a uniform approach," the statement said. "This recommendation needs to be reviewed by those bishops involved in the near future."

Great! Further study is needed to develop a uniform approach in addressing those who proudly display their opposition to the Church and Church teaching yet still demand to receive Holy Communion. I suppose the Church has no guidelines regarding Holy Communion and manifest public sin and scandal?

I, for one, am no longer shocked to read stories such as this about those who appear to be in some sort of "damage control" mode because of a certain "nuancing" or "spinning" of certain facts.

I am fairly resigned these days to praying for those who hold positions of authority in the Church but fail to exercise that authority or fulfill their obligations.

CNS article here.