Kudos to Terence Hughes, a professor at the University of Maine, who took Portland, Maine, Bishop Richard Malone to task for saying he would not deny Communion to pro-abortion politicians. The bishop said he’d “rather try to convince Catholic politicians to change their opinions on abortion than push them from the Church by denying them Communion.” However, the bishop is operating under a logical fallacy: the two positions are not opposed. Denial of Communion is not excommunication, it is a disciplinary action. After all, any Catholic who is guilty of mortal sin is not to receive Communion. It doesn’t mean they’re outside of the Church.
Perhaps if bishops actually tried discipline they might find that it would be one way of getting a change of heart. Some of these bishops sound like these hip, modern parents who say that disciplining their children only inhibits their growth and they would rather talk it out with them. Meanwhile, their children remain holy terrors and maddening brats. But what else are we to expect when dialogue and talking has become the eighth sacrament.
Dialogue is just another word for doing nothing at all, while claiming you’re doing something.
And so Prof. Hughes, who is evidently a minister of the Eucharist, stands up for his own obligations:
“The action you took is in direct contrast to the words you share with us today,” Terence J. Hughes, an earth sciences professor, told Malone. “I am not going to dishonor my Lord Jesus Christ by giving communion to politicians whose policies cater to (those in favor of) killing babies.”
Amen, Prof. Hughes.
And besides that, when is the last time you heard a bishop earnestly and firmly try to convince anybody to be pro-life?