It's possible someone else has commented on this, but I haven't seen it, and it intrigues me. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable then I will look at this and analyze it. For now, you're stuck with me.

Apparently, in Minnesota, there is a Catholic Church that has banned a 13 year old and his mother from attending Mass. The reason? He's autistic, and the Parish Pastor has deemed him dangerous, disruptive, and a threat. Now, I understand that he might be disruptive, but any more so then any child in there under, say, 5? I had a different post up here before, but now I'm not so sure about any of this. It strikes me as wrong, because clearly the family still has an obligation to attend, and the mom is banned. It also seems like in this day and age there should be an option for autistic/disabled people the same as the signed Mass for the deaf. It seems like everyone in this situation is racing toward vilifying the other, and that, at the very least, is not Christian. Now, I'm obviously not qualified to speak to much of this, but it seems to me this is a lose-lose, for the simple reason that the government is now involved. Maybe the priest felt like he had to involve them to keep an actual danger away. Maybe the kid isn't quite a danger yet. I don't know. What I do know is that this is going to be bad-- for the priest, for the mom, for the kid, for the Church.