Bishop Patrick McGrath of San Jose, California, issued an open letter to "Father/Sister/Brother" June 29 in reaction to "recent news reports of policies and practices related to members of the LGBT community in other dioceses." The San Jose diocese's "pastoral response … remains just that: compassionate and pastoral," he wrote. "We will not refuse sacraments or Christian Burial to anyone who requests them in good faith." Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, recently decreed that persons in same-sex marriages are barred from Communion and a Catholic funeral in his diocese.— Dan Morris-Young