Should Biden Have Been Denied the Eucharist? – National Review

Joe Biden speaks at the Iowa Federation of Labor Convention in Altoona, Iowa, August 21, 2019.(Gage Skidmore)

Father Ryan Hilderbrand of Huntingburg, Ind., has a useful thread explaining why Joe Biden was barred from receiving the Eucharist at a South Carolina church on Sunday:

This is formally explicated in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which states at Can. 915:

Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication orinterdict has been imposed ordeclared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest gravesin, are not to beadmittedtoholycommunion.

Not all of the clergy agreed with Fr. Hilderbrand, however. Jesuit Father James Martin tweeted:

Surely Fr. Martin does not mean to suggest that support for the death penalty for heinous criminals a practice the Catholic Church has supported (and enacted!) in various moments in its history is comparable to supporting the slaughter of unborn children. Neither, one imagines, could he possibly be suggesting that excessive use of air conditioning, or failing to recycle plastic goods, as outlined in Pope Franciss environmental encyclical Laudato Si, are acts of similar moral gravity as a politician publicly supporting abortion rights.

Surely thats not what he means. Right?

Fr. Martin would do well to consider the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI:

Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.

Go here to see the original:

Should Biden Have Been Denied the Eucharist? - National Review