When Cardinal John Henry Newman died in 1890, his last request was to be buried next to his beloved Ambrose St. John. When St. John died, Newman described his grief as that of a husband losing a wife or a wife losing a husband. And he's been laid to rest beside his domestic partner for over a century now. But the Vatican's putting a stop to all that, as they're planning on digging up Newman's corpse. Gay rights groups have chastised the Vatican for attempting to cover up Newman's homosexuality, but the official reasoning is that exhumation is a normal step on the road to beatification. Apparently, any wannabe saint has to have his or her carcass fawned over by pilgrims before entering into one of the world's oldest social clubs. Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Also, as I understand it, the Church doesn't have a problem with homosexuality in and of itself, only with homosexual acts. So the church shouldn't have a problem with Newman's and St. John's eternal sleeping arrangements unless they were found to have carved glory holes in their caskets. More details here.
Gay Clergyman to be Exhumed
