Posted on 02/12/2021 9:50:01 AM PST by ebb tide
Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law states that those “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”
WASHINGTON — Once again, U.S. bishops are debating whether to apply the canonical penalty of denying Communion to unrepentantly pro-abortion Catholic politicians.
While this conversation has been occurring for years within the conference, what is new is that some bishops are now framing this discussion within the broader topic of general worthiness to receive Holy Communion. Catholics in general, they argue—not just pro-abortion politicians—need to be more aware of the Church’s requirements for reception of Holy Communion, most importantly not being conscious of grave sin.
If the conference as a whole chooses to address this broader topic, it could carry great implications for sacramental practice in the U.S., but could also provoke a number of cynical reactions from Catholics who may not believe in the Real Presence.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
Yet Bergoglio's Boy McElory has no problem giving Holy Communion to pro-abort politicians who weaponize U.S taxpayers;' dollars to murder unborn children by pummeling the citizens into submission by force of civil law.
Ping
If they don't believe in the real presence they shouldn't be taking communion to begin with. It would be pretending to put on protective gear while touching a live electrical wire.
And, at the same time, faithful Catholics are refused the Eucharist if they want Our Lord on their tongues.
In the Orthodox Church, we have a series of prayers the we say in the days before we receive Holy Communion. In these prayers, we recognize that we are NOT worthy to receive the Eucharist because of our many sins, and we ask God to make us worthy!
If one does not believe in the Real Presence, one must not receive Communion—for the sake of one’s soul!!!! One must consult with one’s Spiritual Father, who hopefully will give one resources to restore faith in the true nature of the Eucharist!!!
And if one promotes abortion or other grave sins (e.g., homosexuality), one must not receive Communion either!!!!
What I find interesting is this topic is endlessly debated with Catholic politicians but nobody seems to give a hoot if the pro-abortion politician is from a different Christian denomination. I’ve never seen a single person discuss whether or not to withhold communion from pro-abortion Lutheran politicians, pro-abortion Baptists, pro-abortion Greek Orthodox, pro-abortion Assembly of God, etc., etc.
But as I noted in post #6, this issue gets zero coverage if the politician isn’t Catholic. For example, Michael Dukakis is pro-abortion and Greek Orthodox, and he was the Democrat nominee for President in 1988, I can find zero examples of Orthodox bishops stating he should abstain from communion until he repeats of his abortion-on-demand ideology
Maybe circles back around to that Real Presence/transubstantiation issue...
I don’t know if Mike Dukakis is an Orthodox in good standing anyway, because of his marriage outside the Church. If not—no Communion.
And a good Spiritual Father would deal with an Orthodox communicant’s sin via Holy Confession, rather than blurting it out in the media!!!
Tom Hanks and George Stephanopoulos are Orthodox, and apparently pro-choice. Do they simply not take communion?
Also, a different question.... how often is communion received in the Orthodox churches? Is there daily mass or only Sunday? Is weekly communion expected?
“So the bigger problem is that Catholics no longer understand the idea of worthiness to receive Communion. It’s just seen as a sort of a token gesture of welcome and belonging. We have a huge catechetical effort here,”
So the Bishops persistently give Communion to those publicly and patently unworthy, and then there's no longer a solid understanding of the idea of worthiness among the faithful. Imagine that!
The Catholic church lost its moral way a while back.
Abortion? ok!
Homosexuality? ok!
female clergy? ok!
Etc. Etc.
And why ?
Lucre’
money.
Gots to have those donations coming in even from those who may be deviant.
Have a lot of bills coming in from those lawsuits against clergy don’t cha know.
1. Since I am not their Spiritual Father, I don’t know!
2. In a parish (not under covid rules), Divine Liturgy is usually served on Sundays and Feast Days. In monasteries and in some parishes, it is served every morning except on the relatively few days when it is forbidden. In Great Lent, we have special weekday Presanctified liturgies in which communion is served.
We Catholics are held to a higher standard than others. And the reason why we are held to a higher standard is that we are the Church set up since the Pentecost
The Orthodox Canons hold that a person who is willfully absent (without cause) from Communion for three consecutive Sundays has become excommunicated.
As a practical matter, frequency of Communion varies by ethnicity and parish make-up. Convert parishioners tend to Commune more frequently than many "cradle Orthodox", but, when the "cradle Orthodox" Commune many have engaged in serious Fasting...even total, no food or drink fasts...for at least a day or more.
Consequently there tend to be a higher than normal percentge of worshipers Communing at Feasts falling at the end of Fasting periods: Pascha, Christmas, and the Dormition of the Theotokos.
Thank you both for your informative posts.
Interesting information about how holy communion is done in the Orthodox Church.
My understanding is Orthodox Christians don't use terms like "transubstantiation" but they nevertheless believe the same thing that Catholics do about communion (that the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ), so I imagine there would be a similar amount of "scandalous" reaction if some politician committing grave sins was showing for church every Sunday and presenting himself or herself for communion without batting an eyelash.
The problem with Catholic politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden is NOT their local priest "blurting out to the media" that they've been "bad Catholics", but that they wear their Catholicism on their sleeve and present themselves as GOOD faithful practicing Catholics nationally, while still publicly advocating abortion-on-demand for any reason. When they are visiting OTHER Catholic parishes around the country, this forces the issue where Catholic bishops or priests in that diocese are forced to make a decision about whether or not to deny them communion when they show up to attend Sunday liturgy at a parish they've never attended before, for a photo-op. The vast majority of Catholic priests and bishops (I would say 95%?) aren't willing to take that step, but a handful certainly have decided to withhold communion (not to "punish" the rogue politician or publicly embarrass them, but out of concern for the salvation of their soul). An example is the bishop of Springfield, Illinois issued a statement affirming a priest had to the right to deny communion to U.S. Senator Dick Durbin for his vehement support for abortion.
Of course, this leads to the media demanding to know why the priest took the action he did, so the priest is confronted publicly and thus goes on the record why so-and-so is unworthy to receive communion.
In short, its not the politicians own pastor "blabbing to the media" about what a "bad" Catholic he is, its the politician himself causing the issue to be aired publicly by putting Catholic priests and bishops from outside his local church in that position.
Doing a brief Google search, there are a handful of examples of pro-abortion Congressmen who are Orthodox Christians, the ones I found were John Sarbanes of Maryland, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, and Dina Titus of Nevada. I believe Republican Nicole Malliotakis of NYC is also pro-abortion and Orthodox Christian.
Of course, none of the aforementioned politicians are well known outside of their own district, which is why I brought up the Dukakis example. Whether he was in good standing with the Orthodox Church and presented himself in public as a good practicing Orthodox Christian when he ran for President in 1988, I don't know.
Nicole Malliotakis is “mainly” pro-life:
ABORTION
“Malliotakis: Malliotakis is pro-life with the exceptions of the life of the mother, rape, or incest, she said, but added she doesn’t hold black-and-white views on abortion.
“I don’t think this is a black-and-white issue. I think it’s very personal to people. I would consider myself pro-life, my voting record is as such,” she said, noting her no vote on a state bill that would legalize late-term abortions.”
https://www.brooklynpaper.com/max-rose-nicole-malliotakis-interview/
Bill, that’s a good point. I haven’t heard of that, either.
Yes, I and quite a few other Orthodox Christians whom I know are scandalized by biden saying how “Catholic” he is!!!
It’s not just his position on abortion, but his general disregard for human life and culture, and his totalitarian approach to the “presidency”!! Moreover, since he stole the election, his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” is a false oath!!!!
Does he go to Confession? What would a faithful Confessor ask him to do for repentance, if he mentioned the above sins? I think we all know, and we also know that it isn’t going to happen!!!!
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