sashes to ashes

By Diogenes ( articles ) | May 05, 2005

Archbishop Harry Flynn takes half a stand (via Amy Welborn).

Therefore, this is to notify you and the other members of the Minnesota Rainbow Sash group that I am asking you to remove your sashes before you receive Holy Communion. I ask you to observe this sign of respect for the Eucharist not only in the Cathedral but in all our parishes. No one wearing the sash will be permitted to receive the Blessed Sacrament.

Now that wasn't so hard, was it?

The fiction, a least for this Pentecost, is that the sash displayed in the pews is purely a fashion choice, and only becomes a statement of dissent when worn in the communion line. That relegates the sash-flashers to the status of curious interlopers -- false, but a lie the bishops can live with until an ill-conditioned worshiper with a swastika armband calls their bluff.