Amid an ongoing standoff between Spain’s government and ecclesiastical leaders, the country’s equality minister said Saturday a parish priest could face criminal charges for prohibiting a small-town mayor in a same-sex relationship from receiving the Eucharist.

But the priest’s diocese has said that he did not commit a criminal act of discrimination by acting in accord with the Church’s disciplinary norms regarding the administration of Holy Communion.
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“[Denying communion] is contrary to the Spanish constitution” Minister of Equality Ana Redondo said during a Jan. 18 interview, adding that the Church “cannot, even if there is no specific law, be subtracted from the constitutional rules, the principle of equality and non-discrimination of Article 14.”
“You can not discriminate against an LGTBI citizen and require him to choose either his faith or his sexual condition. This is clearly discriminatory and I hope there will be a [legal] challenge,” she added.
The minister’s remarks come after a Jan. 11 statement from Rubén García, mayor of Segovian small town Torrecaballeros.
Garcia said that his parish priest denied him the Eucharist because of his public same-sex relationship, prompting local party officials in Spain’s leading Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party — the PSOE — to immediately accuse the Church of violating the country’s anti-discrimination laws.
In a twitter.com post, García said that “the pastor of Torrecaballeros told me I cannot receive Holy Communion…due to my sexual condition and because I live with my partner.”
García, the mayor, said he had been a lector until two years ago, when he claims to have been told he could not continue for “political reasons,” because he is mayor, and a member of PSOE.
He also claimed that his parish pastor had been aware of his situation since the priest arrived to the parish in August, but prohibited him the Eucharist this month at the direction of the Segovia diocese
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The situation comes amid increasing tensions between the Spanish government and the Church.
The country’s ombudsman published in October 23 an abuse report that indicated somewhat fewer abuse cases in Spain as compared to some other countries: just over 2,000 in a space of 70 years. But reports have also revealed that many bishops in Spain did not cooperate with investigating authorities, and failed to canonically investigate complaints that reached them through the media or the authorities.
Until a few months ago, the bishops had been unwilling to create a compensation fund for victims, which the bishops had faced pressure to do, including from the ombudsman.
Another point of contention is the Valle de los Caídos, a controversial monument built during the Franco dictatorship as a monument to those killed in the Spanish Civil War.
The monument includes the tallest cross in the world, a basilica, and a Benedictine abbey.
The current Spanish government considers the Valle a monument to Franco, so it has changed its name, and one government minister has announced his intention to remove the Benedictine abbey from the area, and to turn the facility into a “lay center to explain the war and what came afterward.”
Some commentators and intellectuals have also proposed taking down the monument’s cross.
Cardinal José Cobo of Madrid is leading the negotiations on the Church’s behalf and said the two non-negotiables of the Church were the basilica and the Benedictine abbey.
Meanwhile, Redondo, the minister of equality, said she would meet the Spanish bishops this week due to a separate topic, as seven different Spanish dioceses were accused of sponsoring or supporting conversion therapies for gay people, for which institutions can be fined in Spain. Many dioceses outright denied that claim, saying that they merely hold talks and testimonies from people who previously engaged in homosexual relationships.
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In her Jan. 18 interview, Redondo said she would raise the topic of the denial of communion to the Spanish bishops, and said she expected the country’s Constitutional Court would be called upon “clarify in a ruling to what extent this affects the principle of equality and non-discrimination.”
“There is no law that forbids ecclesiastical rules, but these ecclesiastical rules must be interpreted under the Constitution and under the principle of equality,” she added.
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Another gay couple in a nearby town alleged they were denied communion by the same priest, the Congolese Fr. Felicien Malanza Munganga, who started serving the parishes in July 2024.
On Jan. 12, the Segovia PSOE published a statement in which they asked the newly incoming bishop of Segovia to “end sexual orientation-based discrimination in the Segovian Church.”
The party floated the possibility of legal action, saying that “legislation in our country has typified hate crimes based on sexual orientation and we are convinced that this situation will end at the root, since no one wants to walk down that path.”
The Diocese of Segovia published a statement in response denying that the priest acted in a “homophobic and discriminatory way.”
“In compliance with his ministry and following the rules of the universal Church on the reception of Holy Communion, [the priest] was forced to deny communion of same-sex people who live in a matrimonial way, which can also happen between heterosexual people without a matrimonial bond.”
“This is not homophobia or discrimination, as communion is not being denied because of the homosexual condition, but to defend the sacred character of the Eucharist,” the statement adds.
Lastly, the statement says that the request from the Segovia PSOE is a “defamatory judgment” and an “inadmissible interference in internal matters of the Church and an attack against religious freedom as guaranteed in the Constitution.”
“Catholics know that, to receive the Eucharist, whether they are homosexuals or heterosexual, some objective conditions of morality are required, and the Church has the authority to deny communion when they are not followed, especially if it causes a scandal among the faithful, as it happened in the Segovia cases.”
The diocese quoted both canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law and the 2023 declaration Fiducia supplicans, in which the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith explained that the blessing of people in gay couples should be avoided if it causes grave scandal or confusion among the faithful.
“Denying communion does not mean the exclusion of the ecclesial life or the participation in its worship, as the Church encourages those who cannot receive communion for various reasons to still participate in the community life,” the statement concluded.