The stats about how many Catholics have used birth control are pretty staggering and I think most that do use birth control aren't repentant about it. The confession during mass doesn't really count, although, personally, I count it :)

Is the rule against being a romantic couple or is that you can't have sex? There's a significant difference there. Engaged couples, for example, are romantic couples, but only the two people in the bedroom know if they are having sex.

Per the Catholic church, lustful thoughts are sinful and I don't think most people are truly repentant about those either. "Forgive me Father for I have sinned. I saw a man and thought 'he's hot!'" I just don't see that happening.

Yes, communion is given at funeral masses.

Well Dee, I don't think lustful thoughts are considered a mortal sin, which is an important distinction in the Roman Church.

A mortal sin is any sin whose matter is grave and which has been committed willfully and with knowledge of its seriousness. Grave matter includes, but is not limited to, murder, receiving or participating in an abortion, homosexual acts, having sexual intercourse outside of marriage or in an invalid marriage, and deliberately engaging in impure thoughts (Matt. 5:28–29)

http://www.catholic.com/tracts/who-c...eive-communion

Devil's Advocate
 

Devil's advocate.

Consider this: The priest learned about her homosexuality and called on her privately not to received communion. The lady did not agree, doesn't agree, that the all forgiving God can condemned her for loving another person. Since denying communion is a very serious matter (it literally means excommunication, declaring you out of communion), and since most priest tend to trust the discernment of the person who wishes to receive communion, hoping that there is true repentance, and don't usually deny communion, she stands to receive communion anyways. What should the priest do?

The way he acted was wrong, but wouldn't her actions be wrong as well. She had been told, but since no priest had denied her the communion before, she did not expect for that to happen.

The are a lot of assumptions being made in many comments in his thread. The article doesn't say anything about what happened or if something happened before. What the priest did, showed lack of pastoral care. Yet, we don't have all the information. We could have a prideful homosexual who met a prideful priest, and it became a test of wills.

We don't know if this is what happened, but the story with which I started is true, although this other priest managed it differently (and the person did not receive communion nor the public reprimand).

===

On another matter, in the west, after the sexual revolution cool down, most sins dealing with sex have lost the guilt that came with them, most sexual acts have lost the sinful connotation. That is why most of the Church's teaching on sexuality are ignored, since the Church is believed to be wrong (I am not saying it is or that it is not, I'm just stating a fact.), and that is why they don't see anything wrong with receiving communion. Yet, looking at numbers, Catholics in the east and in Latin America, Africa, Asia, etc. do feel remorse for not following Church's teachings, and even though they still commit the acts, they don't stand up to receive communion. In some way, both are right. If I don't agree that is sin, I have no reason not to receive communion. If I agree that is sin, I do (although the Church's teachings are pretty clear about what is sin).

BTW, impure thoughts are not "She is hot" or "He is sexy." Impure thoughts are reducing the other person to an object and enjoying a mental fantasy with them.

Who can or should receive communion? In the West, society has made it not so clear.