Pro-abortion Catholic Democrats: Don’t deny us the Eucharist

Matt Hadro   By Matt Hadro for CNA

Nicole Glass Photography/Shutterstock

Washington D.C., Jun 18, 2021 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

Dozens of Catholic members of Congress issued a statement on Friday claiming that denial of Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians is a “weaponization of the Eucharist.”

In a “statement of principles,” 60 House Democrats – led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) – claimed their Catholic faith influences their actions in Congress, and that denial of Communion for their support of legal abortion would be “contradictory.”

“We solemnly urge you to not move forward and deny this most holy of all sacraments, the source and the summit of the whole work of the gospel over one issue,” they stated, addressing the “Church” in their statement.

“The Sacrament of Holy Communion is central to the life of practicing Catholics, and the weaponization of the Eucharist to Democratic lawmakers for their support of a woman’s safe and legal access to abortion is contradictory,” the lawmakers stated.

Rep. DeLauro, who led the letter, has supported taxpayer-funded of abortion through repealing the Hyde amendment. She chairs the House Appropriations Committee.

Among the other signers of the letter were Rep. Marie Newman (D-Ill.) – a pro-abortion member who unseated pro-life Democrat Dan Lipinski in a primary last year – as well as Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), recognized as a member who sometimes votes for pro-life policies but who was not endorsed by Democrats for Life of America in 2020.

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), who helped lead efforts in Congress to recognize the genocide against Iraqi Christians in 2016, signed the statement, as well as Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), who hosted Bishop Robert Barron for a meeting with lawmakers at the Capitol in 2019.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who signed the statement, tweeted at the U.S. bishops on Friday that he supported contraception, abortion, “treatments for infertility,” “the right for people to get a divorce,” and “the right of same sex marriage.”

“Next time I go to Church, I dare you to deny me Communion,” he stated.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is Catholic and pro-abortion, did not sign the statement. Her local ordinary, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, publicly rebuked her support for abortion in January.

Archbishop Cordileone, in a May 1 pastoral letter on the Eucharist, called on Catholic public officials to oppose abortion.

“You are in a position to do something concrete and decisive to stop the killing,” he said. “Please stop the killing. And please stop pretending that advocating for or practicing a grave moral evil – one that snuffs out an innocent human life, one that denies a fundamental human right – is somehow compatible with the Catholic faith. It is not. Please return home to the fullness of your Catholic faith.”

On Friday, Archbishop Cordileone stated, “Our God-given responsibility as bishops is to proclaim the truth as did St. Paul: the Eucharist is the real Body and Blood of Christ. We must confess our serious sins and seek reconciliation in the sacrament before presenting ourselves for Holy Communion.”

“I would exhort us all to remember the Eucharistic martyrs who died to protect the Most Blessed Sacrament from profanation,” he added.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2271 states, “From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person.”

“Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense,” the catechism states.

Then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in his 2004 letter to then-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, referred to a politician’s consistent “campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws” as “formal cooperation” in the “grave sin” of abortion

The 60 members pointed to other “policies contrary to the Church teachings,” including support for the death penalty, separation of immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border, denial of asylum, and reducing food assistance to the poor.

“No elected officials have been threatened with being denied the Eucharist” for supporting these policies, they stated.

“We believe the separation of church and state allows for our faith to inform our public duties and best serve our constituents,” they said.

The members issued their statement as the U.S. bishops met virtually this week for their annual spring general assembly. At their meeting, the bishops debated drafting a document on the Eucharist, which would include a sub-section on “Eucharistic coherence,” or worthiness to receive Communion.

In a proposed outline of the document, the bishops’ doctrine committee cited the special need for Catholic public officials to uphold Church teaching in public life.

On Friday, President Joe Biden was asked about a “resolution” of the U.S. bishops to deny him and other pro-abortion politicians Communion – even though their vote this week was on drafting the teaching document, not any national policy of denying Communion.

“That’s a private matter and I don’t think that is going to happen,” Biden said.

Individual bishops have made statements recently that, according to canon law, Catholic public officials cannot present themselves for Communion when they publicly support permissive laws on grave evils such as abortion and euthanasia.

According to a 2004 instruction by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, pastors and bishops must speak to such public officials in their jurisdictions, informing them that their positions are contrary to Church teaching and instructing them that they are not to receive Communion.

If the officials persist in their positions, then the minister of Communion must not distribute it to them, he said. Cardinal Ratzinger’s memo was an implementation of canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law.

The members, in Friday’s statement, stated that their faith informs their actions, through “helping the poor, disadvantaged, and the oppressed, protecting the least among us, and ensuring that all Americans of every faith are given meaningful opportunities to share in the blessings of this great country.”

“We believe the Church as a community is called to be in the vanguard of creating a more just America and world. And as such, we have a claim on the Church’s bearing as it does on ours,” they stated.

Citing the Second Vatican Council’s “renewed emphasis on the Eucharist,” they stated, “To pursue a blanket denial of the Holy Eucharist to certain elected officials would indeed grieve the Holy Spirit and deny the evolution of that individual, a Christian person who is never perfect, but living in the struggle to get there.”

The Vatican council’s constitution on the Church in the modern world, Gaudium et Spes, states, “Therefore from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes.”

The constitution on sacred liturgy also states that Catholics “should cooperate with divine grace lest they receive it [the Eucharist] in vain.”

The constitution Lumen Gentium states, “To the extent that they [believers] neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion.”

On the life issue, the members stated their support for promoting “alternatives to abortion.”

“Each of us is committed to reducing the number of unintended pregnancies and creating an environment with policies that encourage pregnancies to be carried to term and provide resources to raise healthy and secure children,” they stated.

“We believe this includes promoting alternatives to abortion, such as adoption, improving access to children’s healthcare and child care, and creating a child benefit through the expanded and improved Child Tax Credit.”

This article was updated on June 18 with new information.


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


About Catholic News Agency 10093 Articles
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

6 Comments

  1. “Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who signed the statement, tweeted at the U.S. bishops on Friday that he supported contraception, abortion, ‘treatments for infertility,’ ‘the right for people to get a divorce,’ and ‘the right of same sex marriage.’

    “’Next time I go to Church, I dare you to deny me Communion,’ he stated.”

    Remind me again who is weaponizing the Eucharist.

  2. Rep. Ted Lieu (D. Calif) protests: “Next time I go to Church, I dare you to deny me Communion.”

    The shoe is on the other foot. It is he and others who DENY THEMSELVES communion. St. Augustine, speaking honestly of his own earlier and similar state of denial, dissected the double-life this way:

    “It is no monstrous thing partly to will a thing and partly not to will it, but it is a SICKNESS IN THE MIND. Although it [the soul] is supported by truth, it does not wholly rise up, since it is heavily encumbered by habit” (Confessions. Bk. 8, Ch. 9:21).

    “But they [the double-lived] wish to be light, not in the Lord, but in THEMSELVES, and they think the soul’s nature to be that which is God [!!!]. Thus they have turned back farther from you, from you who are ‘the true light which enlightens every man that comes into the world’ [Jn 1:9]” (ibid., Bk. 8, Ch. 10:22).

  3. Catholicism’s adherence to Christ has morphed, for a culturally elitist political class, into a cult adhering to its own personal rationalizations. In effect a religion of self worship. They wish to possess the Eucharist as their right regardless of Church doctrine specified in canon law. “We solemnly urge you to not move forward and deny this most holy of all sacraments, the source and the summit of the whole work of the gospel over one issue” has an imperious tone, solemnly urging the Church to desist from its faithful practice, refusing what’s owed over a mere trifle, the murder of approx 70 million innocents since Roe v Wade. They live in an enclosed world bereft of “rules” except their own, with assumed license provided by separation of Church and State to dismiss timeless moral doctrine on life, family, and sexuality, mollified by their efforts to limit abortions, although ironically by expanding access to abortion including partial birth, and post abortion survivors. It would be more than remiss for the bishops to condone their receiving the Eucharist. It would be promoting sacrilege, drawing divine retribution upon themselves as well. Bishops, do your solemn duty and insist on their conversion to the truths of the faith first.

    • Yes Gilberta. We need Christ’s aid more than ever during this defining moment over true practice of the faith.

Leave a Reply to Gilberta Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*