Bishop Charles Grahmann of Dallas extends the teaching on who may receive Communion to the point of absurdity by mixing immutable Church teaching with matters of prudentials judgement.
And Dallas Bishop Charles Grahmann argues that CEOs of media corporations that support abortion rights, anti-immigration policies, the death penalty and gay marriage should also refrain from Communion. “These individual CEOs are as much of a threat to society as politicians who vote for abortion,” he wrote in a column for the diocesan newspaper. “Neither should present him/herself for Communion.”
Wrong, Bishop Grahmann. The Church has never taught that you must accept a single viewpoint on immigration policy and the death penalty, like we must on abortion and gay marriage. I do agree that any Catholic who finds himself at odds with the Church on those issues must re-consider whether he should receive Communion (although I wonder why he singles out CEOs; what makes them special?), but by muddling related and unrelated issues together, the bishop makes it all a mess that will lead people to ignore him all together.
(The rest of the article is the same muddled mess, mixing political considerations with Catholic belief and Protestant theology with Catholic.)
