Denying Communion: A Priest And A Lesbian Set Off A Catholic Culture Clash

To Johnson’s family, turning her away from Communion was “disgusting” and violated their view that a Catholic’s relationship with God is a personal matter, not one that can be determined at a glance by a priest. (The archdiocese, in fact, apologized for the “lack of pastoral sensitivity” she encountered.)

From the article above.
The Johnson family obviously taught their daughter well about how to tread the path to hell.
A Caholic's relationship with God IS a personal matter but PULBIC BEHAVIOR at Mass and in life is NOT a personal matter no matter how much one babbles about one's personal sexual orientation.
The priest has the authority to withhold communion; he always has had the authority and always will.

I don’t find it a big deal not to get Communion at even a Catholic funeral. I get Communion at my own Church.

The Archdiocese of Washington has accused Guarnizo, a Russian-ordained traditionalist with powerful friends, of intimidating parish staff after the incident and suspended him from his priestly duties.

This is why many mainline denominations are dying off. They stand for nothing but the same mealy-mouth political correctness and popular psychology one can get from any sitcom. If the catholic church doesn't get its feet under it on these issues, it faces a bleak future.

Passing your responsibilities off to government and looking to the masses for direction flies in the face of what serving God is all about.

This whole incident is goofy. Everybody knows that only Catholics commune in Catholic churches. I, a former Lutheran and now a Nazarene, attended a catholic seminary for three years. The eucharist is off limits unless you are Catholic. What is so hard for this Buddhist woman to understand?

Re: 15

I disagree. You are conflating several points, in this passage of 1 Corinthians 11, and thereby missing some of the message. And also slipping in an islamic slur, which seems superfluous. God doesn't need anyone to defend Him, but it is for the believers to be zealous of His Word, and to be on guard for heresies that will slip into the Church, unawares. In the Fifth Chapter of this First Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul warns the Church of this self-congratulating air of 'tolerance'.

1 Corinthians 5
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us...
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

and in 2 Thessalonians 3
6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us....

and in Matthew 7
6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

But returning to these verses in 1 Corinthians 11
Verses 16-19 speak of divisions and heresies within the Church.
Verses 20-22 speak of one source of those divisions being the indulgent behavior of the wealthy members of the church who partake in a gluttonous manner while engaging in the communal 'love feast', while poorer members of the church had relative 'scraps' for their lunch. I agree that this behaviour is not worthy of the Church, but it is not describing the Lord's Supper.
Verses 23-26 describe the memorial of the Lord's Supper, and in verses 27-29 he gives the warning to those who would engage in the Lord's Supper unworthily.

Jesus came to save sinners - and not the self-righteous (who don't think they need saving) - and we are to love sinners as we were all once lost sinners. But that being said, the Church leaders should guard the administration of the Lord's Supper (our memorial of His death), knowing that those that partake without repentance and faith -- are heaping up upon themselves hot 'coals of juniper' (Psalm 120).

Below are a couple of other references that communicate the same message of warning:

Westminster Confession, Chapter 29. VIII
Although ignorant and wicked men receive the outward elements in this sacrament; yet, they receive not the thing signified thereby; but, by their unworthy coming thereunto, are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, to their own damnation. Wherefore, all ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy communion with Him, so are they unworthy of the Lord's table; and cannot, without great sin against Christ, while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries, or be admitted thereunto.

John Calvin
27. Therefore he who shall eat this bread unworthily. If the Lord requires gratitude from us in the receiving of this sacrament — if he would have us acknowledge his grace with the heart, and publish it with the mouth — that man will not go unpunished, who has put insult upon him rather than honor; for the Lord will not allow his commandment to be despised. Now, if we would catch the meaning of this declaration, we must know what it is to eat unworthily. Some restrict it to the Corinthians, and the abuse that had crept in among them, but I am of opinion that Paul here, according to his usual manner, passed on from the particular case to a general statement, or from one instance to an entire class. There was one fault that prevailed among the Corinthians. He takes occasion from this to speak of every kind of faulty administration or reception of the Supper. "God," says he, "will not allow this sacrament to be profaned without punishing it severely." To eat unworthily, then, is to pervert the pure and right use of it by our abuse of it. Hence there are various degrees of this unworthiness, so to speak; and some offend more grievously, others less so. Some fornicator, perhaps, or perjurer, or drunkard, or cheat, (1Co 5:11,) intrudes himself without repentance. As such downright contempt is a token of wanton insult against Christ, there can be no doubt that such a person, whoever he is, receives the Supper to his own destruction. Another, perhaps, will come forward, who is not addicted to any open or flagrant vice, but at the same time not so prepared in heart as became him. As this carelessness or negligence is a sign of irreverence, it is also deserving of punishment from God. As, then, there are various degrees of unworthy participation, so the Lord punishes some more slightly; on others he inflicts severer punishment.
28.... If you would wish to use aright the benefit afforded by Christ, bring faith and repentance. As to these two things, therefore, the trial must be made, if you would come duly prepared. Under repentance I include love; for the man who has learned to renounce himself, that he may give himself up wholly to Christ and his service, will also, without doubt, carefully maintain that unity which Christ has enjoined. At the same time, it is not a perfect faith or repentance that is required, as some, by urging beyond due bounds, a perfection that can nowhere be found, would shut out for ever from the Supper every individual of mankind. If, however, thou aspirest after the righteousness of God with the earnest desire of thy mind, and, trembled under a view of thy misery, dost wholly lean upon Christ’s grace, and rest upon it, know that thou art a worthy guest to approach the table — worthy I mean in this respect, that the Lord does not exclude thee, though in another point of view there is something in thee that is not as it ought to be. For faith, when it is but begun, makes those worthy who were unworthy.
29. He who shall eat unworthily, eateth judgment to himself. He had previously pointed out in express terms the heinousness of the crime, when he said that those who should eat unworthily would be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Now he alarms them, by denouncing punishment; for there are many that are not affected with the sin itself; unless they are struck down by the judgment of God. This, then, he does, when he declares that this food, otherwise health-giving, will turn out to their destruction, and will be converted into poison to those that eat unworthily He adds the reasons because they distinguish not the Lord's body, that is, as a sacred thing from a profane. "They handle the sacred body of Christ with unwashed hands, (Mr 7:2,) nay more, as if it were a thing of nought, they consider not how great is the value of it.They will therefore pay the penalty of so dreadful a profanation." Let my readers keep in mind what I stated a little ago, that the body is presented to them, though their unworthiness deprives them of a participation in it.