Oh, the irony. If you’ve been reading the Gospels along with us, you’ve seen countless accounts of Jesus healing those with demons, and leprosy, and paralysis, and withered hands, and the list goes on and on. Once you understand Jesus’ compassion for the sick and disabled, this story become all the more bewildering.

A Catholic church in Texas turned away an 8-year-old boy from his First Communion because the boy has cerebral palsy.

“When the Rev. Phil Henning of Sacred Heart Catholic Church denied Kevin his first reception of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, Henning said the boy had ‘the mental capacity of a 6-month old’ and didn’t have ‘sufficient knowledge of Christ’ to participate in the religious rite, even though Catholic doctrine doesn’t specify what level of knowledge is adequate.”

The boy, Kevin Castro, apparently had been preparing for months for the event, but instead was offered a ritual for the sick.