Riordan Treated No Different, Columnist Says

The Roman Catholic Church applied “no double standard” in its treatment of Mayor Richard Riordan when his friend Cardinal Roger M. Mahony served him Communion on the day of his inauguration, according to a column in the current issue of the Los Angeles archdiocesan weekly newspaper.

The column was in response to questions and complaints received about treatment of Riordan, a wealthy Catholic who has been divorced, remarried and is separated from his second wife. His first marriage was annulled by the church.

Church policies and teachings would not require denying Communion to Riordan because of his marital situation, or because of his campaign stance favoring legal abortion while personally opposing it, according to the article.

Father Gregory Coiro replied in the Aug. 1 issue of The Tidings to a self-described “ordinary divorced Catholic” from Downey who queried: “Given that the mayor has been married twice, is separated from his wife, has been keeping company with a married woman, and is ‘pro-choice’ regarding abortion, how can he receive Communion?”

Coiro said that the secular press has reported that Riordan’s first marriage was annulled and that he is separated from his second wife.

“Separated and divorced Catholics may continue to receive church sacraments, provided, of course, they do not attempt ‘remarriage’ while their rightful spouses are still living,” wrote Coiro, a priest in the Capuchin religious order who is also a special assistant in the archdiocese’s public affairs office.

Riordan was accompanied during inauguration events July 1 by an acknowledged close friend, Nancy Daly, who is also separated from her spouse.

“Charity demands that we avoid jumping to conclusions regarding the nature of this friendship,” Coiro wrote. “To do otherwise would be to ignore Jesus’ admonition: ‘Judge not lest you be judged.’ ”

As for Riordan’s campaign stance favoring legal abortions while personally opposing them, Coiro wrote: “I know of no authoritative church teaching that would deny him Communion because of it.”

A bishop may prohibit a politician from receiving the bread and wine of Communion because of his or her position on abortion, as the late Bishop Leo Maher of the San Diego diocese did in 1989 during Democrat Lucy Killea’s campaign for state senator. Maher’s action caused a storm of protest. But Coiro noted that almost all U.S. bishops have refrained from exercising that prerogative in favor of attempts at persuasion.

Before his June election as mayor, Riordan, a member of the Knights of Malta, an elite Catholic fraternal order, chaired the archdiocese’s education foundation, which reached three-quarters of its $100-million goal, served for eight years on Mahony’s high-level finance council, and was the principal donor of a $400,000 jet helicopter used by Mahony for two years.

“There is no double standard, as far as the church is concerned, in the way ‘celebrated’ and ‘ordinary’ Catholics are treated under canon (church) law,” Coiro wrote. “These perceptions are false and, many times, are fodder for anti-Catholicism.”

Asked in an interview whether Riordan has petitioned the archdiocese’s tribunal office for an annulment of his second marriage, Coiro said that it was unlikely “because the marriage tribunal always wants a civil divorce to occur first.”

Coiro also explained that the length of one’s marriage (Riordan’s first one lasted 23 years) is not a factor in granting annulments. The church tribunal process considers whether there were prenuptial conditions that doomed a valid marriage. “A problem that develops after the wedding cannot be grounds for an annulment,” he said.