The Catholic Archbishop of Detroit said earlier this week that individuals who support same-sex marriage should not present themselves to receive communion, supporting a Detroit seminary professor and Vatican advisor who made similar comments in a blog post.

But now, a retired auxiliary bishop from the archdiocese says, Nah, you’re good:

“If you look at it from a pastoral point of view where you’re trying to reach out to people, trying to draw them in, then the last thing you want to do is impose a penalty or make them feel like they have to impose a penalty upon themselves,” [Bishop Thomas] Gumbleton said.

The bishop says the church’s approach should be pastoral not punitive.  Just this week, he counseled a couple with a gay son.

“Husband, wife, raised seven children, Catholics all their lives, they’re in their eighties now, and the mother says to me, you know I can’t go to communion anymore,” said Gumbleton.  “They’re hurt and she’s crying because we can’t go communion and that means so much to them.”

Gumbleton says it’s a matter of conscience, which is deeply personal.

“Not everybody’s going to come to the same conclusion at the same time, so we have to keep on working with people and trusting people that they’re trying to do the right thing,” he remarked.

Gumbleton has clashed with other Catholic bishops on issues of gender and sexuality before his retirement in 2006. He has written extensive on homosexuality, notably in a 2002 essay in the Jesuit magazine America in which he chided Catholic leaders for blaming the clergy sexual abuse scandal on gay priests. He wrote:

Gay priests also can offer a depth of compassion not always shared in a comparable way by heterosexual priests. Gay people have often been treated as outcasts by society, church and even family. Because of this experience, they can develop an awareness and sensitivity to those who are being excluded and included in various situations. Such a gift of compassion surely enriches one who is called to minister to others.