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All the moral principles involved in Communion for the divorced-and-illicitly-remarried apply with respect to Communion for those publicly engaging in ANY kind of sin.
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The Most Reverend Blase J. Cupich
Archbishop of Chicago
PO Box 1979
Chicago, IL 60690-1979

Your Excellency:

I have viewed the video and read the transcript of your recent interview with Norah O’Donnell.

You declared that the reception of Communion is “a time of forgiveness of sins.” Since the specific sin at issue was the promotion of abortion, your statement implies that the reception of Communion forgives the sin of promoting abortion.

But this is impossible, since the reception of Communion forgives only venial sins.

It could not have been your intention to imply that promotion of abortion is only venially sinful.

Thus, it is your duty to make another public statement, clarifying both that: The promotion of abortion is mortally sinful; the reception of Communion does not forgive mortal sins.

Moreover, far from forgiving mortal sins, the reception of Communion in the state of mortal sin is the mortal sin of sacrilege. You did not mention this in the interview.

The other major assertion in your interview was that you reject the Church’s discipline of denying Communion to notorious grave sinners.

As Cardinal Burke established beyond a shadow of a doubt in his now-famous article on the subject, giving Communion to notorious sinners is always grave matter. It is always a source of grave scandal because it is a public sacrilegious act, and because it constitutes public approval of the notorious sin in question.http://tinyurl.com/canon915

Thus, giving Communion to a pro-abortion politician is to give public approval of his promotion of abortion, and, necessarily, abortion itself.

Canon 915 merely codifies this moral norm. The act prohibited by Canon 915 is always grave matter. You pledged to commit this act.

Having been reminded that giving Communion to persons who are obstinately persisting in manifest grave sin is itself a mortal sin, you are obliged to repudiate the pledge you made to Norah O’Donnell to commit that mortal sin.

Other bishops have made the same public pledge. And they have punished priests who refused to commit the same mortal sin.

Because no bishop has the authority to mandate that any minister of Communion commit this mortal sin—

4. Bearing in mind the nature of the above-cited norm (cfr. n. 1), no ecclesiastical authority may dispense the minister of Holy Communion from this obligation in any case, nor may he emanate directives that contradict it. http://tinyurl.com/pont915

—the priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago have the right to be reassured immediately that there is no possibility that you would punish a priest for obeying Canon 915. Indeed, it is your duty to remind them of their strict, grave obligation to obey it.

I am sure I need not elaborate on the extreme urgency of correcting the situation of a Catholic bishop’s pledging in public to commit mortal sin.