Excommunication is just one particular penalty the Church CAN use to bring some people to their senses. The fact that someone is NOT excommunicated does NOT mean that he/she is a good Catholic. Hitler was never excommunicated. Some people who wish to smear the Church pretend that this constitutes an ENDORSEMENT of Hitler. What it really means is that the Church recognized the Hitler was hopeless.
The Denial of Communion is not a penalty, and it is an OBLIGATION on the part of all ministers of Communion. It is specified in Canon 915.
Note, it is NOT a “penalty,” i.e., not a punishment which the Church MAY use. It is, rather, a grave obligation.
This means that all those bishops who claim that denying Communion is a “penalty,” or a “sanction,” are LIARS. Those who say “that’s not my style” are also LIARS. When something is OBLIGATORY, it’s not a matter of style.
Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington has told three major lies, in public, about this obligation.
1) That it’s a penalty or a sanction;
2) That it’s a matter of his “style”;
3) That it’s the responsibility of the “home” bishop of a politician.
All falsehoods. The obligation to deny Communion to these people is the responsibility of the minister of Communion. That means any bishop, priest, deacon, or Extraordinary Minister of Communion. It has nothing to do with the person’s place of residence.
Every bishop who is refusing to obey Canon 915 is obstinately persisting in manifest grave sin. I.e., in slightly less precise, but more common parlance: They are daily committing mortal sin, by refusing to obey Canon 915, and BY RECEIVING COMMUNION THEMSELVES!
Thank you for posting all the information. I would think it denying communion would be obligatory since people who have grave sins on their souls are NOT worthy to receive communion. Since the promotion of abortion falls under the category of "grave sin," it follows that politicians like Pelosi, Biden and others, are not permitted to receive it and doing so would be another commission of a grave sin.
However, I would like to see people like Pelosi excommunicated so that they can no longer use their "membership" in the Catholic church as a way to obtain the Catholic vote and to make it perfectly clear to all, both Catholic and non-catholic, that their position on abortion and the promotion of it, is at complete odds with their faith, and is a grave sin in the eyes of God.