The mayor of a small town in Spain has blasted his local Catholic Church for denying him communion because he is gay and living with his partner.
On January 12, Rubén García de Andrés, the Socialist mayor of Torrecaballeros and a practicing Catholic, took to social media to call out his local parish priest who he says banned him from receiving holy communion.
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García de Andrés wrote that he’s spoken to his priest, who told him he would consult with the bishop of Segovia, the Spanish province in which Torrecaballeros is located. García de Andrés said that he later received a written response from the bishop in which he was told that church doctrine is clear and he would continue to be denied communion.
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The mayor also wrote that he was pressured to step away from his role as a lay preacher in Torrecaballeros two years ago for similar reasons.
García de Andrés said that the Church’s decision has caused him, his family, and his people pain, and that while he can forgive the pain it has caused him, he cannot forgive the pain it has caused his family.
According to U.K. outlet The Telegraph, Segovia’s Socialist party leader José Luis Aceves has asked incoming bishop Jesús Vidal Chamorro to reverse the decision, as well as a similar one affecting another gay couple in the area. The Telegraph reports that García de Andrés was only denied communion after he tried to intercede on the other couple’s behalf.
If Chamorro declines to allow García de Andrés and the other couple to receive communion, the party has threatened to bring charges of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, which constitutes a hate crime in Spain.
“Nobody wants to go down that road,” Aceves said.
In a statement, the bishopric of Segovia said that its decision stemmed not from homophobia, but from Catholic doctrine that denies communion to any couple living out of wedlock.
“This is not homophobia or discrimination, since communion is not denied on the basis of homosexuality, but rather to defend the sacred character of the Eucharist,” the statement read, according to The Telegraph.
In his January 12 post, García de Andrés wrote that he was told the Church’s decision may have been different if “I was just gay and followed a path of conversion.”
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