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Pope Offers Communion to Pro-Choice Politician in Italy

http://www.bruner.net/blog/archives/012600.shtml

"I'm listening to NPR's Fresh Air this evening, with the guest John Allen, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. Terry Gross asked him about the whole question of American Catholic bishops prohibiting pro-choice politicians (read John Kerry) from receiving communion. Allen notes something that the Pope doesn't seem to have a problem giving communion to pro-choice politicians, which he reported on earlier in this article:

In January 2001, Rome's outgoing mayor, Francesco Rutelli, was the candidate of Italy's center-left "Olive Tree" coalition to be the country's next Prime Minister. (Rutelli went on to lose to Silvio Berlusconi). Rutelli's political background was in the Radical Party, which had led the battle for legalized abortion in Italy. As he moved into the mainstream, Rutelli took the classic position of left-leaning Catholics in public life: personally opposed to abortion, but not willing to impose his stance through law.

On Jan. 6, Rutelli and his wife Barbara, who are regular Mass-goers, attended the final act of the Catholic Church's Jubilee Year: the closing of the Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica. Despite what in the United States would be termed his "pro-choice" stance, Rutelli came forward for Communion and received it from Pope John Paul II himself.

Pope doesn't seem to have a problem giving communion to pro-choice politicians, which he reported on earlier in this article:

I know the guidelines as they read are that Pro-abortion (which is the essence of Pro-choice) people are not to take Communion, having been in a state of serious Sin. Procuring an abortion is excommunicatable, advocating abortions is possibly a mortal sin (serious matter, full knowledge, act of will).

I know that a pastor is to counsel the Communicant if they are a notorious sinner, and then if they present themselves refuse them. Nobody, not even the Pope checks IDs. Assuming that the Pope is at the head of a line, he may or may not have recognized the persons in line, and even if he did, you don't know what goes on between them before Mass.

I agree, Catholicism and the Pro-abortion position are fundamentally incompatible. When you flip to the Abortion advocacy camp, you imperil your soul. It listed by the Holy Mother Church in the category of the Sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance.

Those are:
1) Murder of the innocent (Abortion)
2) Oppression of the poor
3) Deprivation of wages
4) Buggery (Homosexual Rape)

Clearly, the Priest doesn't check all four categories, we could only assume that if he knew of someone in any of these groups, a responsible Pastor would act. A skilled Pastor (what a blessing that is!) would never have to refuse Communion, because the confrontation would have been made in private in his office, and he could have repeated the admonition to not receive in the sacristy if the person presented himself.