Posted on 02/04/2009 11:59:01 AM PST by wagglebee
ROME, January 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop Raymond Burke, in an exclusive interview last week, told LifeSiteNews.com that the issue of pro-abortion politicians continuing to receive Holy Communion is still one of major concern and that it is the duty of bishops to ensure that they are refused.
He told LifeSiteNews.com, "I don't understand the continual debate that goes on about it. There's not a question that a Catholic who publicly, and after admonition, supports pro-abortion legislation is not to receive Holy Communion and is not to be given Holy Communion."
"The Church's law is very clear," said Archbishop Burke, who was appointed last year by Pope Benedict XVI as the head of the Church's highest court, the Apostolic Signatura. "The person who persists publicly in grave sin is to be denied Holy Communion, and it [Canon Law] doesn't say that the bishop shall decide this. It's an absolute."
Among the US bishops directly to address the issue, Archbishop Burke was one of around a dozen who vigorously supported a directive of the Vatican that said pro-abortion Catholic politicians "must be refused" Holy Communion if they attempt to receive at Mass. Others have refused to abide by the Vatican instruction and the Church's own Code of Canon Law, saying they would rather focus on "education" of such politicians.
Archbishop Burke called "nonsense" the accusation, regularly made by some bishops, that refusing Holy Communion "makes the Communion rail a [political] battle ground". In fact, he said, the precise opposite is true. The politician who insists on being seen receiving Holy Communion, despite his opposition to the Church's central teachings, is using that reception for political leverage.
In 2004, when self-proclaimed Catholic and candidate for the Democrat party, Sen. John Kerry, was frequently photographed receiving Holy Communion despite his vigorous support of abortion, the US Bishops Conference issued a document which said only that it is up to individual bishops whether to implement the Church's code of Canon Law and refuse Communion. The issue has remained prominent with the appointment of Joe Biden, another pro-abortion Catholic politician, as Vice President of the United States of America.
Archbishop Burke recalled previous experiences with Kerry, pointing to the several occasions when the senator was pictured in Time magazine receiving Communion from Papal representatives at various public events. Burke said that it is clear that Kerry was using his reception of Holy Communion to send a message.
"He wants to not only receive Holy Communion from a bishop but from the papal representative. I think that's what his point was. Get it in Time magazine, so people read it and say to themselves, 'He must be in good standing'."
"What are they doing? They're using the Eucharist as a political tool."
In refusing, far from politicising the Eucharist, the Church is returning the matter to its religious reality. The most important reasons to refuse, he said, are pastoral and religious in nature.
"The Holy Eucharist, the most sacred reality of our life in the Church, has to be protected against sacrilege. At the same time, individuals have to be protected for the sake of their own salvation from committing one of the gravest sins, namely to receive Holy Communion unworthily."
Archbishop Burke also dismissed the commonly proffered excuse that such politicians need more "education". Speaking from his own direct experience, he said that Catholic politicians who are informed by their pastors or bishops that their positions in support of pro-abortion legislation makes it impossible for them to receive Holy Communion, "I've always found that they don't come forward."
"When you talk to these people, they know," he said. "They know what they're doing is very wrong. They have to answer to God for that, but why through our pastoral negligence add on to that, that they have to answer to God for who knows how many unworthy receptions of Holy Communion?"
Archbishop Burke said that the issue had been debated enough. He rejected the idea that the matter should be left to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, saying the Conference has no authority in the matter. "This is a law of the universal Church and it should be applied."
"I think this argument too is being used by people who don't want to confront the issue, this whole 'wait 'til the Conference decides'...well the Conference has been discussing this since at least 2004. And nothing happens."
When asked what the solution was, he responded, "Individual bishops and priests simply have to do their duty. They have to confront politicians, Catholic politicians, who are sinning gravely and publicly in this regard. And that's their duty.
"And if they carry it out, not only can they not be reproached for that, but they should be praised for confronting this situation."
So what about all the pro-abortion non-politicians? How they going to smoke them out so they can’t take Communion?
I think the difference is that people who vote for pro-abortion politicians do not actually vote for abortion.
Catholic politicians are public sinners and must be publicly rebuked and punished because they are leading others astray (the voters). That’s why they could be publicly denied Communion.
Individual voters who knowingly vote for a pro-abortion politician when there is some other option will be sinning and have automatically excommunicated themselves. That is, they should repent, confess it and should not go to Communion until reconciled. They will need a lot more teaching, however. Publicly excommunicating pro-abortion politicians would go a long ways to helping Catholic voters understand the seriousness of this.
Someone needs to tell Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Doug Kmiec stat.
I would much rather them not know and be publicly denied the Eucharist.
See my reply #23. It’s because of the difference between being a public figure publicly doing something sinful and encouraging others to do the same, and a private individual who shouldn’t go to Communion until he repents. He is self-excommunicated, but does not at present need public excommunication as a disciplinary matter, whereas the politician does because he is publicly flouting the law of the Church and encouraging others to do the same.
Very well stated.
Then it is political, because the Church is singling out politicians and not ordinary people or other celebrities. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if the Democrats retaliated by threatening the Church's tax exempt status.
Rank and file Catholics who vote for pro-abortion politicians are not public in their defense of abortion. So they can’t be said to be causing scandal or confusion the way a public figure does.
They can't be. Until they are taken aside and given the opportunity to repent. You can't just excommunicate someone without giving them a private teaching and call to obey.
Thanks for the clarification.
I have no problem with the Church denying Holy Communion to abortion-promoting public elected officials. Abortion is a mortal sin which violates every moral precept of the Catholic Church. Obviously I would prefer pro-abortion private citizens to abstain from Holy Communion as well. In fact, one wonders why they come to Mass at all. But the problem is that many if not most people separate their religious practice from their political practice.
Let me give you an example. Our daughter use to attend our local Catholic school. Last Christmas we went to watch her sing Christmas carols at school. During the annoucements, the school principal proudly announced that BHO won the student mock election last Fall. We were so appalled, a CATHOLIC school of all places. We promptly removed our daughter from this school. If she is to be taught socialism, what better place than a public school?
The Church can retaliate by closing all of the Catholic hospitals in the US and put the final nails into the complete collapse of this nation’s economy.
No, it’s not political. It’s based on their blatant opposition to Church teaching, their promotion of policies that contradict Church teaching, and the fact that as persons in power and with leadership duties, they are misleading others (aside from the damage done by their votes for abortion).
Kings in the past were excommunicated over disputes with Church authorities for this same reason. It only affects things that relate to Church teaching, not to, say, policies on economics or something that falls into the secular political area.
Other public persons in unrepentant error, such as theologians, are publicly excommunicated for the same reason.
Please send this to the Bishop in San Francisco. ;-)
The Church needs to reinforce this doctrine at the parish level by an aggressive education campaign and let people know that they cannot reconcile the Church's teaching with their voting pattern. Catholics have an obligation to cleanse themselves of sin before accepting the Eucharist. Those that do not so so will have an issue between themselves and their God.
If they lose their tax status they may have to. Not to mention dumping all those parochial school students into the public school system. But if the church sanctions politicians then don't expect them to sit back and take it quietly.
That’s very true. I didn’t have my kids in Catholic school for the same reason - it was during the really, really heretical years, and I felt I’d rather have them misled in public school than in Catholic school!
I think if the Church does excommunicate some of these politicians, you’ll actually see it having a
trickle down effect. I hope, at least.
The Roman Catholics are absolutely correct on this point. Abortion is murder. It should not be sanctioned nor should anyone who supports it be given communion (without prior repentance). There are dark forces at work in this world that must be opposed.
Should have been in place 30 years ago.
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