After a New Mexico state senator said he was denied Communion this weekend because of a political matter, his diocese responded that it had privately warned him he should not approach for Communion, due to his obstinate support for a pro-abortion bill.
In a tweet on Saturday, July 17, New Mexico state Sen. Joe Cervantes (D) wrote he “was denied communion last night by the Catholic bishop here in Las Cruces and based on my political office.”
“My new parish priest has indicated he will do the same after the last was run off,” Cervantes added. “Please pray for church authorities as Catholicism transitions under Pope Francis.” The senator represents New Mexico’s 31st district, around Las Cruces.
In response, Christopher Velasquez, director of communications for the Diocese of Las Cruces, told CNA on Monday that it is “unfortunate that a pastoral issue with a member of the local church be publicized.”
He explained that both Cervantes’ pastor and local ordinary tried to contact him several times previously regarding his support for an abortion bill, warning him he should not receive Communion. “It did not happen on the spur of the moment,” Velasquez said of the denial of Communion.
“In terms of the diocese, we regret the decision of Senator Cervantes to politicize this issue,” Velasquez said.
He noted that both Cervantes’ pastor and Bishop Peter Baldacchino reached out to Cervantes privately, in regards to his support for a pro-abortion bill that was signed into law earlier this year.
“Bishop Baldacchino did not receive a response from the senator,” Velasquez said, adding, “He [Cervantes] was contacted multiple times prior, letting him know that if he voted for Senate Bill 10, he should not present himself for communion.”
New Mexico’s Senate Bill 10, which Cervantes cosponsored, repealed a 1969 state law criminalizing abortions. That law has not been enforced since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide. However, supporters of SB 10 warned the ban could go back into effect if the Supreme Court were to repeal its Roe ruling.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed Senate Bill 10 into law earlier this year.
Velasquez said the decision to deny Cervantes Communion “has nothing to do with his office or politics, it has to do with Senate Bill 10…with this particular bill, because of what it entails.”
Bishop Baldacchino, Velasquez added, has “an open door policy” on Fridays if members of the faithful in the diocese have questions or concerns.
“He’s definitely made it a priority of his to make himself available,” Velasquez said.
Cervantes did not immediately respond to an interview request from CNA.
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Four men carry a statue of St. Bonaventure during a candlelight procession on July 14, 2023, in Bagnoregio, Italy, his birthplace, on the vigil of the saint’s feast day. / Patrick Leonard/CNA
Bagnoregio, Italy, Jul 15, 2023 / 12:15 pm (CNA).
The birthplace of St. Bonaventure, a 13th-century intellectual giant now revered as a doctor of the Church and the “second founder” of the Franciscans, paid homage to its patron Friday night on the vigil of his feast day with music, prayers, and a candlelight procession.
For the citizens of Bagnoregio, an idyllic town nestled in Italy’s Lazio region about a 1½ drive north of Rome, the July 15 feast is both a solemn holy day and a wellspring of civic pride. Bonaventure’s “braccio santo,” or holy arm — the only surviving relic of the saint — is kept in a silver, arm-shaped reliquary housed in a side chapel of Bagnoregio’s Cathedral of San Nicola and San Donato.
Friday’s procession, which commenced at the cathedral, was led by the town’s confraternities of the Most Blessed Sacrament, St. Francis, and St. Peter. Following them were a brass band, a statue of the saint adorned with flowers and carried by four men, and a priest carrying the holy arm. Then came Cardinal Fortunato Frezza, numerous priests, and this year’s first communicants, followed by other religious and residents.
As the participants made their way down the candlelit Via Roma, onlookers watched from windows, balconies, and restaurants bustling with patrons on a warm summer evening.
Arriving at the piazza Sant’Agostino, Cardinal Frezza, standing beneath a monument of Bonaventure, offered a brief reflection on the importance of the saint and of procession as a form of popular devotion.
The relic “gives us strength to sustain our weakness … It is a relic that is alive and active,” observed the cardinal, a noted biblical scholar. It is “an arm that teaches,” he said, the very right arm that “wrote his works of great intellect and wisdom.”
The cardinal closed his brief catechesis by saying “our life is a holy procession, an itinerary of the mind towards God.” Here he was playing on the title of one of Bonaventure’s most important theological works, Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, “The Journey of the Mind to God.” Following a benediction with the relic, the procession continued down Via Fidanza, looping around the main gate and then back up Via Roma to the cathedral. The faithful entered and Cardinal Frezza imparted the final blessing, again with the relic.
The Franciscans’ ‘second founder’
Born in 1217 (or 1221, according to some accounts) as Giovanni Fidanza in Civita di Bagnoregio (then in the territory of the Papal States), he displayed great acumen and intellectual curiosity. He was, however, plagued by ill health in his youth. His mother called upon the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi, and he was, according to the legend, miraculously cured.
The young Bonaventure studied at the nearby Franciscan convent. Given his great talent, at 18 he left Bagnoregio to study in Paris, then the intellectual capital of Europe.
He joined the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor in 1243. At the University of Paris, he studied under the renowned Franciscan theologian Alexander de Hales; in 1257 he earned his teaching license (magister cathedratus) in theology there. Bonaventure was a contemporary of St. Thomas Aquinas, whom he met as they were both teaching at the university. The two future doctors of the Church were united in defending the then-nascent Franciscan and Dominican orders, whose orthodoxy was called into question by the secular clergy.
Bonaventure’s teaching career was cut short; in 1257 when he was appointed minister general of the Franciscan order, which was then plagued by internal factionalism due to divergent understandings of Francis’ spirituality following his death.
To rectify this, Bonaventure spent much time traveling around Europe to help maintain the unity of the order. In 1260 went to Narbonne, France, to solidify the rule of the order and that same year he started writing (which was completed three years later in 1263) the Legenda Maior, “The Major Legend,” considered the definitive biography of St. Francis. For Bonaventure, the key to righting the order lie in Francis’ ideals of obedience, chastity, and poverty, which he re-established as the Franciscans’ guiding principles.
Enduring influence
In addition to his contributions as the “second founder” of the Franciscans, Bonaventure had a profound impact on the papacy. Following the chaos of the three-year conclave in Viterbo that elected Gregory X in 1271 (the longest papal election in the history of the Church), the new pontiff, also a Franciscan, entrusted Bonaventure with preparing many of the key documents for the Second Council of Lyon (1272-1274) which sought to unify the Latin and Greek Churches.
He was made a cardinal in the consistory of May 28, 1273. He did not, however, see the end of the council, as he died on July 15, 1274. He was canonized in 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV and proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pope Sixtus V in 1588.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI, who was a great admirer of Bonaventure, visited the saint’s birthplace to venerate the relic and address the faithful. In 2010 he dedicated three consecutive Wednesday audiences on the saint, outlining the importance of his governance of the Franciscans and his theological, philosophical, and mystical works. Bonaventure’s writings, Benedict observed, demonstrate that “Christ’s works do not go backwards, they do not fail but progress.”
“For St. Bonaventure, Christ was no longer the end of history, as he was for the Fathers of the Church, but rather its center; history does not end with Christ but begins a new period,” Benedict said.
“The following is another consequence: Until that moment the idea that the Fathers of the Church were the absolute summit of theology predominated, all successive generations could only be their disciples,” Pope Benedict explained.
“St. Bonaventure also recognized the Fathers as teachers forever, but the phenomenon of St. Francis assured him that the riches of Christ’s word are inexhaustible and that new light could also appear to the new generations,” he said. “The oneness of Christ also guarantees newness and renewal in all the periods of history.”
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CNA Staff, Mar 3, 2021 / 03:19 pm (CNA).- The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday reiterated the Vatican’s teaching on COVID-19 vaccines produced with the help of abortion-derived cell lines, after a […]
8 Comments
“. . . as Catholicism transitions under Pope Francis”. Huh?
Where is this guy getting his information?
Cervantes is the one who forced the Bishop to deny him Communion because of his pro abortion stance, Cervantes is the one who chose to politicize this issue and so Cervantes is the one to take credit/blame for this whole issue.
Well, bravo to this Bishop and pastor!! Its about time our leaders started to actually lead. Its also about time that leftist politicians who support abortion and CLAIM to be Catholics learn they have to make a REAL choice. Abortion is almost never required from a medical point of view. It is very often resorted to as a matter of personal convenience. In other words the timing of the pregnancy is inconvenient for the mother. Well, the time to have thought about that is before you agreed to engage in sex. Murder is not a solution to a lack of personal restraint. Its about time the politicians who support this noxious line of thought understand they are out of step with the church. Sadly I doubt being deprived of Communion will dismay most of them. But because they are giving scandal by supporting abortion while claiming to be Catholic, its past time they were brought up short. If they leave the church, so be it.
Cervantes was warned time and again of what would happen – he brought this on himself, so he hasn’t a leg to stand on.
This article is almost 3 years old – it would be interesting to know how & what he is doing now.
“. . . as Catholicism transitions under Pope Francis”. Huh?
Where is this guy getting his information?
Some people have absolutely no concept of immutable truths.
“Please pray for church authorities as Catholicism transitions under Pope Francis.”
Huh?? Catholicism doesn’t transition. Even under Pope Francis.
Pssst…hey, Senator Cervantes, it’s not based on a political matter. It’s based on a human rights matter.
Cervantes is the one who forced the Bishop to deny him Communion because of his pro abortion stance, Cervantes is the one who chose to politicize this issue and so Cervantes is the one to take credit/blame for this whole issue.
Cut and dry.
Well, bravo to this Bishop and pastor!! Its about time our leaders started to actually lead. Its also about time that leftist politicians who support abortion and CLAIM to be Catholics learn they have to make a REAL choice. Abortion is almost never required from a medical point of view. It is very often resorted to as a matter of personal convenience. In other words the timing of the pregnancy is inconvenient for the mother. Well, the time to have thought about that is before you agreed to engage in sex. Murder is not a solution to a lack of personal restraint. Its about time the politicians who support this noxious line of thought understand they are out of step with the church. Sadly I doubt being deprived of Communion will dismay most of them. But because they are giving scandal by supporting abortion while claiming to be Catholic, its past time they were brought up short. If they leave the church, so be it.
Finally, a crack in the wall of solidarity of inaction. Thank you, Bishop Baldacchino.
A “rigid” bishop.
And backed up by his Communications Dept.
Way to go!
Cervantes was warned time and again of what would happen – he brought this on himself, so he hasn’t a leg to stand on.
This article is almost 3 years old – it would be interesting to know how & what he is doing now.