Posted on 02/20/2014 6:07:12 AM PST by marshmallow
A Catholic chaplain at MedStar Washington Hospital Center stopped delivering a 63-year-old heart attack patient Communion prayers and last rites after the man said he was gay, the patient said Wednesday, describing a dramatic bedside scene starting with him citing Pope Francis and ending with him swearing at the cleric.
Details of the exchange earlier this month between the Rev. Brian Coelho and retired travel agent Ronald Plishka couldn’t be confirmed with the priest, who did not respond to a direct e-mail or to requests left with the hospital and the archdiocese. The archdiocese of Washington, for whom he works, declined to comment and said Coelho “is not doing interviews.” The bedside discussion was first reported Monday in the Washington Blade.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Well Father would do the Blessing of the sick.Father would not give him Holy Communion.Obama will call this man and tell him how proud he is of him.
Perhaps a better headline should read:
Catholic priest makes heroic attempt to get sinner to heaven - the sinner refuses.
LOL...
“Bring Out yer Dead!”
Got it. Thanks.
Perhaps, but a priest or pastor visiting at the bedside might be that one last chance for that sinner to know God.
I saw a Baptist minister visit one of my patients who never really fully understood his need for Christ and had many regrets being near his death and all. The pastor spoke to him, and the patient accepted salvation at that point. The patient lingered another day and asked then no further strong measures be done for him as he accepted that he was going to die and felt that he no longer needed to struggle or worry. He slipped away peacefully that night.
Got it. Someone else pointed this out to me. Thank you for taking the time to offer additional insight.
I know many Lutherans who would agree with you. I was a Lutheran all my life until recently. There are many things in the Catholic Church I find comforting and that touch aspects of my soul that my Protestant faith never did.
God Bless.
You are the third person to remind me of this error. And you are correct. The temptation is not the sin, acting on it is. I’ll be more careful next time. :)
Thanks for taking the time to respond to me. I appreciate the thought.
So someone help me out here (I’m not Catholic and I went to public schools) - he was alive enough to complain about not being given last rights, so why did he need last rights?
"Plishka said that a few days after the incident he called the Basilica of the National Shrine, where he has attended Sunday noon Mass for at least a decade. He didn’t know any priests but asked for one on duty to call him back, Plishka said. The priest agreed with the chaplain, Plishka said."
"'He said, he can't give you [Communion] if you continue that lifestyle, if you're an active participant,' he said."
This is an indication of the state of the soul of this homosexual patient, who is now using a sympathetic press to club a good priest.
from the article:
“According to Plishka, he asked Coelho for Communion and last rites, more commonly called the anointing of the sick. Coelho asked whether he would like to say confession first and Plishka said he began to talk about his history, including his lifelong struggle with his sexuality. Plishka didn’t come out as gay until he was in his 50s.
Then we started talking about the pope, and I said I was so excited about him, because of what he said about gays. I said: "Does that bother you, that I'm gay?" And he said "no", Plishka said.
The conversation was interrupted by someone coming into the room, which he shared with another patient, Plishka recalled. After that, Coelho would not continue with the specific prayers and acts of Communion and anointing, he said. He said, "I will pray with you" but that’s all he'd do. That was it.
I just saw red. I cursed at a priest. I called him a hypocrite. As he was leaving I can't repeat what I said, but it was bad. I'm thinking Iˆ’m going to rot in hell now,ˆ” he said. ˆ“But after that, I became scared, fear settled in. I don’t have the rites, I didn’t get Communion. I believed in the sacraments; this is something we’re taught we need before we die."
So this homosexual asks to see a priest for the last rites. Then he brags about being an unrepentant homosexual. Then he curses at the priest and calls him a hypocrite. Then he calls all the newspapers to attack the priest.
If the priest was giving last rites, then I am assuming (yes I know the risk) that this patient wanted to confess, repent, and be right with his maker. (though I must admit I have seen and heard of more cases of last rites being done on folks very very near death and mostly non-responsive).
Sounds to me like this ‘patient’ was looking for a way to make a statement that had nothing to do with his eternal salvation
The patient bragged to the priest about being an unrepentant homosexual and then cursed the priest. That is not someone who wanted to confess and repent.
Except that the patient went to the local gay rag to complain and made it public
Sounds like Father was hearing his Confession and could not give Absolution and told him why.Father offered to pray with the gay man but he refused.This gay guy is no too bright.As a Chaplin Father will pray and offer comfort to all patients but as a Catholic priest you must be in a state of grace to receive Communion which at some point the man said he was not sorry and Father could not absolve him.
“Plishka said that a few days after the incident he called the Basilica of the National Shrine, where he has attended Sunday noon Mass for at least a decade. He didn’t know any priests but asked for one on duty to call him back, Plishka said. The priest agreed with the chaplain, Plishka said.
“He said, he can’t give you [Communion] if you continue that lifestyle, if you’re an active participant,” he said.”
This guy wants it both ways. He wants to continue in his behavior and thumb his nose at what his church teaches. Then he wants the solace that the church offers.
Actually, according to Scripture, in the end with these two opposite—but both wrong—attitudes and beliefs, both will end up in the Lake of Fire if they don’t mend their ways in this life, IMHO.
This guy will be hailed as a hero, like “Sandra Fluke” girl, by the left. Then Obama and his gang will force the church to give last rite to anybody at any conditions.
Talk about “discernment”!! The priest stopped the moment he realized this SOB wasn’t actually dying!
Anybody else think it a bit odd that the reporter wrote this without, apparently, interviewing the priest?
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