CATHOLIC
MEDIA COALITION
|
LA Cardinal Wrong
About Denying Communion
by Mark Brumley
Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony
is wrong when he claims that a bishop or priest can't deny Holy
Communion to a pro-abortion Catholic politican unless the politician
has been excommunicated, placed under interdict, or put under a formal
sanction, according to a noted canon lawyer.
Edward Peters, writing on the
website www.canonlaw.info,
challenges some statements Cardinal Mahony made in an recent
interview with Catholic News Service.
A week after a meeting with
pro-abortion presidential candidate John Kerry, a meeting
characterized by Cardinal Mahony as "very cordial, very
friendly," the cardinal declared himself "slightly
mystified" about the controversy over pro-abortion Catholic
politicians receiving Holy Communion. He observed that there have been
"pro-choice Catholic politicians" receiving the Eucharist
since Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision
legalizing abortion.
It's not possible, the cardinal
went on to say, for a bishop or priest to deny the Eucharist
to someone who isn't excommunicated, interdicted or put under formal
sanction.
"That’s wrong,"
writes canon lawyer Edward Peters. "Canon 915 plainly says that
those who 'are excommunicated, interdicted, or…obstinately persist
in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.' It is
patent that one need not be under a formal sanction to fall
within the purview of Canon 915. Politicians who chronically support
abortionism are persisting in grave sin."
According to Cardinal Mahony, when
someone presents himself to receive the Eucharist, he is presumed to
be in the state of grace and receiving Holy Communion in good faith. Peters
says that statement is incomplete because, like the presumption of
innocence, "the presumption of one's eligibility to receive the
Eucharist" can be undercut by contrary evidence.
Peters also takes issue with the
cardinal's claim that the decision to receive the Eucharist
belongs to the communicant, not the minister of the Eucharist.
The cardinal confuses Canon
916, which warns individuals conscious of being in grave sin to
refrain from receiving the Eucharist, with Canon 915, which
directs a minister aware of an individual’s obstinate
persistence in manifest grave sin not to admit such person to
Holy Communion, contends Peters.
Bishops
such as Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis, who has threatened to
deny the Eucharist to pro-abortion Catholic John Kerry, are completely
justified, writes the canon lawyer.
Peters agrees
with Cardinal Mahony that pro-abortion Catholic politicians have been
receiving the Eucharist since 1973. "What's changed,"
observes Peters, " is that we now have bishops who are saying
enough is enough."
Cardinal
Mahony's comments are available at http://www.the-tidings.com/2004/0514/cardrome.htm
Dr. Peters' analysis can be found at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/enpeters/blog.htm |