When communion lines are long and confession lines are non-existent, there is a serious problem: We have lost the sense of sin.

POPES CLEARLY SAY WHO CAN AND CAN’T RECEIVE COMMUNION

BY TOM HOOPES

Reading the comments to John’s excellent post about Bishop Paprocki, I sense a kind of amnesia. So, for the record: There is already lots of clarity about communion and pro-abortion politicians.

And, lest we let ourselves off the hook while scorning those awful no-good pro-aborts, there is also lot of clarity about how maybe many of us shouldn’t be receiving communion, either.

First, take the “Aparecida Document” edited by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who is now Pope Francis, and approved by Pope Benedict (it was the final report of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean meeting in 2007).

Pro-abortion politicians should not receive communion, it says:

“We should commit ourselves to ‘eucharistic coherence,’ that is, we should be conscious that people cannot receive holy communion and at the same time act or speak against the commandments, in particular when abortion, euthanasia, and other serious crimes against life and family are facilitated. This responsibility applies particularly to legislators, governors, and health professionals.”

For further clarity there is the 2004 letter from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, just before he became Pope Benedict XVI.

He says such politicians should be told not to present themselves, and told they will be denied the Eucharist.

Cardinal Ratzinger wrote to Washington, D.C., Cardinal Theodore McCarrick:

“Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person’s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.”

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