Archdiocese of Toledo clarifies priest’s letter on restrictions for receiving First Communion

Madrid, Spain, Jun 11, 2007 / 09:41 am

The Archdiocese of Toledo issued a clarification last week regarding a letter sent by a local pastor to his parishioners, in which he seemed to suggest that parents who do not conscientiously object to the government-sponsored “Education for Citizenship” course could not present their children to receive First Communion. 

The new government sponsored class is intended to teach school children to accept homosexuality as normal and promote abortion. The class also denies parents their right to educate their children on moral and religious values. One example of the material created for the course is a cartoon called, “Ali Baba and the 40 Gays.” 

In the statement of clarification, the pastor of the parish in question explained that he had not meant to exclude anyone from the reception of the sacraments and that First Communion “is not subject to exercise of conscientious objection on the part of parents” regarding the “Education for Citizenship” course. 

The Archdiocese of Toledo said the clarification represents “the actual meaning of his letter, and that it was not meant to exclude anyone—who fulfills the due conditions—from receiving the sacraments.”  “This is the true thinking and meaning” of the letter, the statement indicated.
 
Lastly, the statement notes that the bishops of Toledo emphasized in their last pastoral letter that conscientious objection to the course “is a right of parents that cannot be impeded or imposed.”