OPINION:
In June 2004, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was trying to work out what to do about Catholic politicians who were receiving Holy Communion while obstinately persisting in grave sin by supporting and campaigning in favor of abortion.
Most prominently at the time it was John Kerry who was running for president. To help the USCCB, then-Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, sent a memo giving direction on the question. The solution was contained in a single sentence in the Code of Canon Law, number 915: “Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion.”
Cardinal Ratzinger further clarified it for them in his memo, Paragraph Number 5: “Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person’s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his Pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.”
It looks like no priest or bishop has had the courage — or loved Mr. Biden enough — to have this little chat with him.
Ratzinger continues: Number 6: “When ‘these precautionary measures have not had their effect or in which they were not possible,’ and the person in question, with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, ‘the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it.’”
That seems clear enough. But the memo was only sent to two bishops, then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, then Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, D.C., who has since been forced to resign from the College of Cardinals and reduced to the lay state (i.e. kicked out of the priesthood) for flagrant sexual abuse and misconduct. The other bishop was then-Bishop Wilton Gregory, then-president of the USCCB, and now Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, D.C.
McCarrick was charged with sharing the contents of Ratzinger’s memo with the U.S. Bishops. McCarrick grossly distorted and misrepresented the contents of the memo, leaving the bishops with the impression that the question was a matter for the individual bishops to decide for their own dioceses.
The full contents of Ratzinger’s memo did not come out until a month later, in July, when it was published in an Italian newspaper by Vatican journalist Sandro Magister. But the damage had been done. Now, Cardinal Gregory has announced in a recent interview that he would give Communion to President-elect Joe Biden. Mr. Biden fits the description of the obstinate pro-abortion Catholic politician like a glove.
This has caused great consternation among Catholics who feel this causes scandal. Gregory has explained that he wants to keep the door open for dialogue with the future president for matters on which they can agree. But Catholics believe that the church is a higher authority than the state, in this case, specifically the president, on matters of faith and morals, and that it is the president, in these matters, in his personal, spiritual and public life who must bend the knee before God, represented by the church, not vice versa.
Weighing in on this situation comes Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M Cap, widely recognized as one of the most intelligent, most respected and greatly beloved by the faithful among the American bishops.
Archbishop Chaput, in an article in the December issue of First Things magazine, titled “Mr. Biden and the Matter of Scandal,” wrote, “Public figures who identify as ‘Catholic’ give scandal to the faithful when receiving Communion by creating the impression that the moral laws of the Church are optional. And bishops give similar scandal by not speaking up publicly about the issue and danger of sacrilege. Thus it’s also worth revisiting the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the evil — and the grave damage — of scandal:
“2284. Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.”
He continues, “Those bishops who publicly indicate in advance that they will undertake their own dialogue with President-elect Joseph Biden and allow him Communion effectively undermine the work of the task force established at the November bishops’ conference meeting to deal precisely with this and related issues. This gives scandal to their brother bishops and priests, and to the many Catholics who struggle to stay faithful to Church teaching. It does damage to the bishops’ conference, to the meaning of collegiality, and to the fruitfulness of the conference’s advocacy work with the incoming administration.”
We can understand McCarrick’s motives in hiding the contents of Ratzinger’s memo, he is now living in disgrace, tragically but rightly stripped of his red cardinal’s hat and stripped of his priesthood.
But we don’t know why Cardinal Gregory did not reveal it to his brother bishops.
Over the past few years during the endless phony investigations of President Trump, we have been bombarded with the truism that “no one is above the law.” We are now dealing with God’s law. Is Mr. Biden above God’s law? It would seem he is — or thinks he is — as he flouts God’s law and goes to Communion when he is clearly out of Communion with The Catholic Church. What of the priest or bishop who makes it appear that Biden is above the law when knowingly giving him Communion, when, in the church’s eyes, he is “obstinately persisting in manifest grave sin”?
Archbishop Chaput said, “[M]any of [Biden’s] actions and words have also supported or smoothed the way for grave moral evils in our public life that have resulted in the destruction of millions of innocent lives. Mr. Biden has said that he will continue to advance those same policies as president, and thus should not receive Holy Communion. His stated intention requires a strong and consistent response from Church leaders and faithful.”
Refusing Communion is not political but pastoral. The bishop’s responsibility includes guiding Mr. Biden to Salvation. The refusal of Communion is — among other things — to get his attention that something is very wrong and is jeopardizing his immortal soul.
Mr. Biden is fond of saying he is “fighting for the soul of this nation.” Observant Catholics wish — and pray — he would look after his own.
• John Mallon is former contributing editor for Inside the Vatican magazine. His personal website may be found at https://johnmallon.LIFE.
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