Try not showing this to your ‘abuelita’ who might have a hard time assimilating this shameful event. An Argentinan mother took to Fabecook to denounce a priest from her local parish that rejected her daughter from getting her first communion.
The whole country is outraged over this case of alleged discrimination towards a child with Down Syndrome, who was not allowed to take part in her Catholic rite for not knowing the Lord’s Prayer. News of this broke out when the child’s mother, Raquel Martinez, published the story on her Facebook account, where it has already been shared more than 6,400 times.
https://www.facebook.com/raquel.martinez.7370013/posts/1560208184059975
The story goes like this, according to Martinez, last Friday, the same day the story was published, she received a phone call from a man claiming to be father Luis of the Iglesia Nuestra Señora del Rosario, to inform her that after two years of her daughter assisting catechism classes at the Rufino Ortega school and 3 months of seeing a private catechist on the father’s recommendations, Fernanda still didn’t gather the necessary conditions to have her first communion.
She explained that the reasons the priest gave for not letting her daughter take part of the liturgical ritual, was because Maria Fernanda didn’t know the Lord’s Prayer by heart. “What do you want from her mister?” asked the mother on Facebook. “Do you really expect an 11-year-old girl with Down Syndrome to read the lecture and pray the Lord’s Prayer without having a few mistakes?”
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1304928306254632&set=ecnf.100002124246036&type=3&theater
“You don’t realize the amount of damage that you have done… but rest assured that we will take this until the last consequences.” Sentenced Fernanda’s mother. Martinez also claimed that what hurt her the most was her daughter’s “illusion in doing her first communion, with her white dress, shoes, souvenirs and special cards, she had everything ready for that day.”
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1304926442921485&set=ecnf.100002124246036&type=3&theater
The mother didn’t just leave it there and threw a punch below the belt by using her case as an example of the current crises facing the Catholic church. “Then you start complaining why society criticizes you… You should be cast out of everywhere you put God’s word in your mouth. I have so much more to say, but out of respect I’ll hold back on the insults you well deserve. You disgust me!”
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1304924339588362&set=ecnf.100002124246036&type=3&theater
Article inspired by El Espectador // Por no saber el padre nuestro, niegan primera comunión a niña con síndrome de Down