A 10-year-old girl was ready to take her Holy Communion, but the Catholic Church in Messina would not allow her to because she has autism. The priest insisted that the reason they refused to do the ceremony was because she was not ready to participate in this Catholic tradition and was unable to understand the significance of it. This case is not a unique incident in Italy; it is rather a routine practice by the Catholic Church, and it is proof of the church's ignorance, intolerance and discrimination against autistic people.