(LifeSiteNews) — A parish priest in Spain is being protested for preventing a homosexual from receiving Communion.
José Antonio Hurtado alleges that on May 30 a parish priest in his hometown, Villanueva del Rio and Mina, asked him to remain after Mass and informed him that although he had received Communion that day, he would no longer be permitted to receive the Eucharist because he is “married” to a man.
🇪🇸🏳️🌈 | Los vecinos de Villanueva del Río y Minas en Sevilla se manifiestan contra el párroco de la localidad por negar la comunión a una pareja homosexual.
El párroco se negó a dar la comunión a una pareja homosexual, cumpliendo con la doctrina católica, que considera las… pic.twitter.com/EXJMDonsJU
— ʜᴇʀQʟᴇs (@herqles_es) June 10, 2026
“He told me he had to talk to me about a subject that was a bit unpleasant,” Hurtado said in a Facebook post. “He manifested to me that he would never give me communion again.”
“He told me that when he was giving me communion he was giving me ‘poison’ and that both my husband and I were ‘unworthy’ people and were doomed to live eternally in purgatory,” Hurtado alleged.
Hurtado said that he immediately reacted to the priest’s words by raising his voice.
“I shouted to all present at the door of the parish what this man said with his mouth. I got very nervous and humiliated by my pastor,” Hurtado said. “In my 40 years of being a Christian, something so terribly strong has ever happened to me.”
“I would like to add that these words have not been used only with me. Many people have approached me to tell me that something similar had happened to them. People from different groups, divorced, actual couples, etc.,” added Hurtado, who then cited Pope Francis: “The Church is a home for everyone, everyone, everyone.”
According to a report by local news outlet Viva Seville, in a subsequent meeting between the parish priest and Hurtado, the priest didn’t back down:
On Tuesday, June 2 — several days after the incident — the priest contacted Hurtado by phone to apologize for the way he had spoken to him and to ask him to come to his office. However, according to the complainant’s account, the priest maintained his position during the meeting.
“He apologized, but he held to the same view. He reiterated that he could not give me Communion because I am publicly married to a man — the whole town knows about my marriage — and doing so would be tantamount to validating my position,” he explains.
Hurtado states that he also informed the priest of his intention to take the matter to the media. The response he received, according to his account, was that “it is very common for people like you to do this sort of thing” — a remark he interpreted as another reference to his sexual orientation.
The Archdiocese of Seville is reportedly gathering information about the incident in order to issue a statement.
This incident is similar to one in 2012 when a parish priest in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. covered the Host as a lesbian attending her mother’s funeral approached to receive the Eucharist. Harchdie told her, “I can’t give you Communion because you live with a woman, and in the eyes of the Church, that is a sin.”
The priest, Fr. Marcel Guarnizo, was soon stripped of his priestly faculties by then-Cardinal Archbishop of Washington Donald Wuerl.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that those with same-sex attraction “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” and “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided” (CCC 2358).
The Catechism also teaches: “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved” (CCC 2357).
When it comes to same-sex relationships, the Catechism makes distinctions between the person, the inclination, and the act. It labels sexual activity between people of the same sex, and the inclination to commit them, disordered. It does not, however, label any person disordered. Feeling attracted to people of the same sex is not a sin in and of itself, the Catechism teaches, but acting on it would be.