Niederauer regrets Communion incident

SAN FRANCISCO — It was a typical Sunday Mass until two men in heavy makeup and nuns' habits received Holy Communion from the city's top Catholic official.

On Oct. 7, Archbishop George Niederauer — former bishop of the Salt Lake Diocese — delivered the Eucharist to members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — an activist group whose motto is "go forth and sin some more" — prompting cries of outrage from conservatives across the country and Catholics in San Francisco.

In response to a request for comment, Archbishop Niederauer released a letter of apology addressed to "Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco and to Catholics at large" in which he said he did not realize his mistake until after the Mass at Most Holy Redeemer Church in the Castro district.

"At Communion time, toward the end of the line, two strangely dressed persons came to receive Communion," Archbishop Niederauer wrote. "As I recall, one of them wore a large flowered hat or garland."

He said that although he was familiar with the group because its actions had been condemned by his predecessors, he had never encountered any of the group's members until that Sunday.

"These two people have long made a practice of mocking the Catholic Church in general and religious women in particular. Someone who dresses in a mock religious habit to attend Mass does so to make a point (that) was intended as a provocative gesture," he said in the letter, which will be published in this Friday's issue of Catholic San Francisco, a diocesan newspaper.

Archbishop Niederauer was bishop of the Salt Lake Diocese for 11 years before being named archbishop of San Francisco in 2005.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, founded in San Francisco in 1979, are known for their white face paint, outrageous costumes and theatrics. The group did not identify the two members who took the wafers but did issue a statement Wednesday.

"We are dismayed that a moment of genuine communion during sacred worship is being twisted for political gain by the forces of hatred and dissension," said Sister Edith Myflesh, abbess of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

"Our hearts go out to the parishioners of Most Holy Redeemer and to the Archbishop who have been unfairly stigmatized by these disingenuous campaigns . . . ," the statement continued.