John Kerry and Teresa Heinz stopped for Mass in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Sunday. They reportedly received Communion. I wondered what the local bishop had said about pro-abortion politicians receiving Communion. Albuquerque is in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and the ordinary is Archbishop Michael Sheehan. His latest comments on the matter were made back on May 21.
The 2002 Roman Document on the participation of Roman Catholics in political life says that Catholic politicians have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life.
The Document, however, is silent on sanctions such as the denial of Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians or those who would vote for them. It is left to their consciences to decide whether or not to approach Holy Communion. Catholics must examine their conscience on a variety of moral issues before receiving Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. The Church must be careful to keep the reception of Holy Communion separate from politics.
I wonder if the Kerrys are planning their journeys around the US so that on Sundays they’re in dioceses where they are welcome to receive Communion. After all, they were heading to Denver later that day and they probably would not have been welcome to receive Commun there.
I thought this was a universal Church with a unity of doctrine. Seriously, this issue needs to be settled for a uniform application of whatever they determine the rule to be.
In the first century there was great controversy about whether or not one had to be Jewish first, before becoming Christian. Thank God Peter and Paul didn’t “leave it up to the local bishops.”
If they had, Christianity would have never survived beyond the deaths of the original apostles.