Flynn bans Eucharist at homosexuality symposium

The New Ways Ministry (NWM) Sixth National Symposium on Catholicism and Homosexuality March 16-18 in a Minneapolis hotel, with 500 attendees and eminent speakers including Margaret Farley, Richard McBrien and Helen Prejean, was forbidden to celebrate Eucharist by local Archbishop Harry Flynn. After ignoring all NWM letters for a year, Flynn sprang the surprise ban by letter Feb. 23 — with copies to Archbishops William Levada, Vatican chief of the doctrinal commission, and Pietro Sambi, Vatican-U.S. nuncio. NWM director Francis DeBernardo said the three bishops speaking at the conference and slated to preside at Eucharist —Francis Hurley, Leroy Matthiesen and Joseph Sullivan—had tried to convince Flynn to let the profoundly Catholic assembly have Eucharist. NWM suspects the Vatican was behind Flynn's decision.

NWM urges letters to Flynn, Levada and Sambi. Details about the meeting and its follow-up are at www.newwaysministry.org