All of this is concocted.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Catholics are not supposed to present themselves for communion in a state of mortal sin.
2. Publicly supporting legalized slavery, puts one in a state of mortal sin.
3. If you publicly support slavery you shouldn’t present yourself for communion.
Pretty simple, right? Now, just switch out slavery and insert abortion.
The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson writes:
You don’t have to take my word for it. Back in 2004, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, wrote a memo entitled, “Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion: General Principles.” The letter was prompted by the presidential candidacy of then-Sen. John Kerry, a Catholic like Biden who insisted that his ongoing, unrepentant support for abortion shouldn’t bar him from taking communion.
To clear things up, Ratzinger sent a letter to the now-disgraced Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, at the time the head of a task force of U.S. bishops studying the question, and Bishop Wilton Gregory, then president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Ratzinger wrote:
Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person’s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.
When these precautionary measures have not had their effect or in which they were not possible, and the person in question, with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it.
As if anticipating the objections of people like Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post, that bishops who want to deny Biden the Eucharist have not taken the same stance against Catholic politicians who support the death penalty, Ratzinger wrote that “not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia… There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”
So, in short, all of this is already solved. Bishops have every right (even a responsibility) to warn Catholic politicians about the danger they’re putting their souls in with their support of killing the unborn.
But the media and Democrats are pretending that this is some kind of right wing hijacking of the USCCB. That is obviously insane. But it serves the narrative that the only opposition the left has are wild eyed radical insurrectionists. Demonizing the Catholic Church is almost always Plan A in the Democrats playbook.
U.S. House of Representatives Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), and Brendan Boyle (PA-02) led nearly 60 Catholic Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives in releasing a statement of principles, which essentially attempts to make equal the killing of the unborn with increasing education funding and healthcare.
So yeah, if you’re a Democrat you can be for killing children as long as you’re for educating them if they survive? Yeah, that makes sense.
“If they’re going to politically weaponize religion by ‘rebuking’ Democrats who support women’s reproductive choice, then a ‘rebuke’ of their tax-exempt status may be in order,” wrote Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat from California. (I mean, where else, right?)
Let’s be honest, if there’s something stupid to be said it will likely be said by a California congressperson first. And that’s not just because Nancy Pelosi is from there.
So, in short, I don’t truly understand why the bishops are going through with making a statement about something that is already obvious. They’re hemming and hawing about deciding whether they have a responsibility to refuse Communion to pro-abortion politicians which they clearly do. Or maybe I do understand. It’s all about cowardice.
Either they want strength in numbers before making a stand or they want it to fail. You choose.
But the media and Democrats (redundancy alert!!!) are attempting to vilify the Church. That is what I expect from them. I wish I expected otherwise from the bishops.
