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<h1 class="gmail-art-title">George Weigel: Allowing Joe Biden to receive Holy Communion is a ‘crisis’ for the Church</h1>
<div class="gmail-art-subtitle"><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>The scandal of a public
official defying <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Church teaching</span> on abortion while receiving <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the Blessed
Sacrament</span></b></span> diminishes 'Eucharistic coherence.'</div>
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<span class="gmail-art-date">Fri Feb 5, 2021 - 6:46 pm EST</span>
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<a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/george-weigel-allowing-joe-biden-to-receive-holy-communion-is-a-crisis-for-the-church">https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/george-weigel-allowing-joe-biden-to-receive-holy-communion-is-a-crisis-for-the-church</a>
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</div><br></div><div> <span class="gmail-author-name gmail-author-name-lg">By Dorothy Cummings McLean</span><div class="gmail-single-article-ctr"><div class="gmail-single-article-author-lg gmail-col-sm-2"><div class="gmail-author gmail-author-large"><em><span></span></em></div></div><div class="gmail-col-sm-10"><div class="gmail-article-text-wrapper gmail-single-article-body">
<p>SAN FRANCISCO, California, February 5, 2021 <a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com">(LifeSiteNews)</a>
— <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Catholic author George Weigel pointed out</span> </b></span>that <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>allowing Joseph Biden
to receive <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Holy Communion</span> diminishes <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the Catholic Church.</span></b></span></p>
<p>In an essay appearing in <a href="https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/02/03/the-challenge-of-eucharistic-coherence/">Catholic World Report</a>
on Wednesday, February 3, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the distinguished biographer of St. Pope John
Paul II recalled the saint’s teaching that the “Church draws her life
from the Eucharist</b></span>”<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> and brought readers’ attention to the Latin American
bishops’ 2007 insistence on “Eucharistic coherence.”</b></span></p>
<p>“... (A)ccording to those bishops (whose number included the man who
would become pope six years later),<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> the Church’s Eucharistic coherence
required that holy communion not <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">be distributed to those Catholics in
politics and medical practice who were not</span> in full communion with the
Church </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>because </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>they were facilitating or participating in such grave
moral evils as abortion and euthanasia,</b></span>" Weigel wrote. </p>
<p>The scandal of Catholic politicians who promote abortion receiving
Holy Communion has become more obvious than ever in the United States
since Biden, who was baptized in the Catholic Church and continues to
identify as a Catholic, was inaugurated as president of the United
States. </p>
<p>“<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Less than 48 hours after Mr. Biden took the presidential oath of
office, the White House issued a statement </b><b>celebrating the 48th
anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that
summarily mandated today’s American abortion license </b></span>– one of the most
radical in the world,” Weigel recalled. </p>
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</div></form></div></div></div></div></div><p>“The White House <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>statement also pledged that the administration would
codify Roe’s abortion license in federal law,</b></span>" he continued. <br>
“What is the challenge to Eucharistic coherence here?”</p>
<p>Weigel compared Roe v. Wade to the pro-slavery Dred Scott decision of
1857, pointing out that both violated “the bedrock Catholic social
justice principle of the inalienable dignity of every human life” and
both <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>upheld the “biologically false and morally unsustainable” claim
that <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the lives </span>in question “were not <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">really human</span>.”</b></span></p>
<p>“It is impossible to be a coherent Catholic and to affirm the degradation of human dignity that underwrites Roe v. Wade,” the <em>Witness to Hope</em> author stated. </p><div class="gmail-inset-ctr" id="embedpetition213549-342"><div class="gmail-petition-main-ctr"><div class="gmail-petition-form-ctr"><div class="gmail-inset-bottom"><div class="gmail-bottom-form-ctr">
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<p>“<span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">And incoherent Catholics receiving Holy Communion </span>make for a
Eucharistically incoherent and thus evangelically diminished Church.”</p>
<p>Weigel listed a number of reasons why this “incoherence” is allowed
to go on, beginning with “inadequate catechesis” and not excluding the
failures of bishops to challenge the people God has entrusted to them to
a “deeper conversion in Christ.” He also pointed out that Catholic
laypeople have failed to “fraternally correct inherent fellow
Catholics.”</p>
<p>The author characterized <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the seemingly never-ending scandal of
pro-abortion American politicians receiving <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the Eucharist</span> as a “crisis.”</b></span></p>
<p>“The word ‘crisis’ is vastly overused today,” he admitted. </p>
<p>“But if Eucharistic incoherence in a Church that 'draws her life from the Eucharist’ isn’t a crisis, what is?”</p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Catholics believe, with St. Paul of Tarsus, that <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">whoever receives</span>
Holy Communion<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> </span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>unworthily is “eating and drinking damnation to himself” </b></span>
(1 Cor. 11). <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Catholics who are in a state of serious or “mortal” sin </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>are
discouraged from</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> receiving</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the Blessed Sacrament. The Catholic Church
considers</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> the direct killing of </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>an unborn child </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>so heinous that whoever
commits or procures one, or encourages the killing <a href="https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/automatic-excommunication-for-those-who-procure-abortion.html">in any way</a>, is <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">automatically excommunicated.</span></b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>In the past, any Catholic who confessed to <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">having procured an
abortion </span>had to <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">receive absolution from a bishop</span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">. </span></b><b>However, Pope Francis
waived <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">this requirement</span> in 2016, <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">leading</span> some to <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">believe erroneously
that </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the Catholic Church</span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">had ceased to take the mortal sin</span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">as seriously
as it has before. </span></b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>The Catholic Church has never held <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">the direct killing of</span> the unborn
child to be anything but <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">evil.</span></b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>A Christian catechism called the <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/didache-roberts.html">Didache</a>,
which may have been written as early as the first century AD, and
certainly no later than the second, clearly forbids<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> abortion and
infanticide</span>. It states “ ... (Y)ou shall not <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">murder </span>a child <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">by abortion
nor kill</span> that which is born.”</b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>For this reason</b></span>, <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>such pro-abortion “Catholic” groups as “Catholics
for Choice”</b></span><b> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">cannot</span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">be considered Catholic</span></b> <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>but <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">rather anti-Catholic
institutions</span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> </span>i<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>ntent on contradicting and somehow abolishing</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the
perennially Catholic doctrine on the sanctity of innocent human life</b></span>. <br>
The Catholic bishops of the United States have been divided on the
question of whether or not to give Holy Communion to such high-profile
and powerful Catholics as Biden. <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>In December, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of
Washington, D.C., who, as Biden’s bishop, <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">bears spiritually
responsibility for</span> him, announced that he would not </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>deny</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> him</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Holy
Communion</span>.</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>However, Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver has indicated,
in effect, that he will not </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>permit Biden “to eat and drink damnation”</b></span> to
himself in the Colorado diocese. </p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Cardinal Raymond Burke, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, and Archbishop
Gerhard Müller have likewise expressed opposition<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> t</span></b><b>o</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> the pro-abortion
Biden being permitted to receive</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the Blessed Sacrament of the altar</b></span>. In
an interview last September<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>, Burke was clear that</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Catholics who say they
are “devout” and yet promote abortion are false witnesses to</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the
faith. </b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>“If someone says, ‘I’m a devout Catholic,’ and at the same time is
promoting abortion, it gives the impression to others that it’s
acceptable for Catholic to be in favor of abortion,” </b></span>Burke told Thomas
McKenna of Catholic Faith and Family. </p>
<p><b>“<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">And, of course, it’s absolutely not<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> </span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">acceptable.</span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> Never has been. Never will be.”</span></b></p>
<p>Burke also expressed concern for Biden’s eternal good. He indicated
that he would tell the politician “not to approach to receive Holy
Communion, out of charity toward him, because that would be a sacrilege
and endanger the salvation and his own soul.”</p> <br></div></div></div><div id="DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2"><br> <table style="border-top:1px solid #d3d4de">
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