The Asociación de Transexualidad Clínica de España has called on the US Episcopal Church to authorize and an American Bishop to carry out a Confirmation ritual for a transsexual in Illora.

Church goer, 56-year-old, Manuela Rute from Illora was refused the Holy Sacrament through Confirmation because she had been born a man.

Finding all the doors closed in Spain, the said association has written to the Primate of the Protestant Espiscopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori to authorize a bishop in Gibraltar to carry out the ceremony.

The Episcopal Church, which describes itself as being “Protestant, yet Catholic,” is present in Europe through its Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe and co-exists with the Church of England’s Diocese of Gibraltar and with the Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain.

To be fair, the local priest in Illora, where Manuela is a regular church goer, would be only too happy to carry out the Communion using Manuela’s original male identity in the church register, but the Spanish Catholic Church does not recognize sex changes.

(News: Illora, Poniente de Granada, Andalucia)