Catholic Bishops Prohibit Mass for Gay, Lesbian Organization

Archbishop Mahony’s order forbidding priests to celebrate Mass for gay Catholics underscores a serious concern about the modern church: Why the preoccupation with sex?

The archbishop has not suggested excluding from the faith community those who fall in the other six “cardinal sins.” Or perhaps that’s next. Can we expect examining committees at the church door to turn away those who have succumbed to avarice, vanity, envy, gluttony, sloth and whatever the last vice is? Or will the archbishop continue to concentrate only on lust?

Then the righteous and self-satisfied can participate in the Eucharist by themselves. They won’t have to share meals with tax collectors and prostitutes. After all, no good Catholic would do that, would he?

ERIC STOLZ

Los Angeles