by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
(April 23, 2008) Several prominent pro-abortion politicians scandalized the Catholic community by taking communion at Papal Masses during the Pope’s recent visit.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Massachusetts Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, Connectict Senator Chris Dodd and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani all received Communion during Papal Masses in Washington, DC and New York.
Nancy Pelosi, who throughout her political career has ignored Church teaching on abortion, embryonic stem cell research and same-sex marriage, was described as gushing with enthusiasm at her weekly press conference last week just after she took Communion at a papal Mass in the nation’s capital.
“The Speaker was effusive about the service, reading a passage from the pope’s sermon and praising his ‘beautiful message of hope,’” reported The Hill. “Staffers said Pelosi received Communion during the service, but not from the pope himself.”
“Communion is the body of the people of the church coming together,” Pelosi said at the post-Mass press conference. “I feel very much a part of that.”
Senator John Kerry was seen receiving Communion at the same Mass. Senator Ted Kennedy attended the same Mass and it was previously thought that he did not take the Sacrament because he remained seated during the distribution of Communion. However, a person sitting near Kennedy at the Mass saw him receive Communion and clarified what happened to LifeSiteNews.
“Two of my sons and I attended the Papal Mass yesterday. We were seated in section 216, directly above the section in which Ted Kennedy was seated. Several minutes prior to the general distribution of communion a priest walked down to Ted Kennedy and gave him communion.
“There was some discussion amongst us in our section about the inappropriateness of his reception of the Host. Be certain, he remained seated not out of some self-enforced respect for the sacrament, but rather out of respect for his girth and mobility.”
Two days later, twice-divorced former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani took Communion at a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Not only does Giuliani support abortion and same-sex marriage, he is also remarried outside the Church.
As he left the Cathedral with his third wife, Judith, he confirmed to Reuters that he took Communion from a priest. When asked if he was uncomfortable with having broken the Church ban on persons taking Communion who are divorced and remarried outside the Church, he responded, “No.”
Catholic pro-abortion politicians have been frequently advised not to receive Holy Communion in recent years.
A 2004 letter from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, sent by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said such politicians “must” be refused communion.
Pope Benedict addressed the topic in his March 2007 apostolic exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis,” in which he warned Catholics in general and Catholic politicians in particular not to receive Holy Communion unworthily.
In the letter, he wrote that politicians must adhere to “non-negotiable” values, such as “respect for human life” and “its defense from conception to natural death.” Such politicians “must feel particularly bound” to “introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature.”
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