July 7, 2004. Relevant then. REALLY relevant now.
A leaked Vatican letter to U.S. bishops that says politicians who support abortion should be barred from receiving Holy Communion is incomplete and does not reflect the full extent of exchanges between Rome and the American hierarchy, a spokesperson for Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington said Wednesday.
The text of the letter written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and entitled "Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion, General Principles" was revealed this week by a respected Vatican journalist, Sandro Magister of the Italian magazine L'Espresso.
German-born Cardinal Ratzinger is considered one of Pope John Paul II's closest collaborators. As head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he is the church's chief guardian of theological and doctrinal orthodoxy, and is noted for his rigid conservatism.
Ratzinger's document was dispatched exclusively to the American bishops in connection with the controversy over Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's pro-choice position on abortion. Some U.S. bishops had said that Sen. Kerry -- a practicing Roman Catholic -- should be barred from receiving Holy Communion. A Vatican source said that European bishops, for example, had not received the Ratzinger document.
According to the six-point "General Principles" no Catholic should seek to receive Holy Communion if he or she is guilty of "a grave sin," and abortion is a grave sin. A priest "may find himself in the situation where he must refuse to distribute Holy Communion to someone, such as in cases of declared excommunication, a declared interdict, or an obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin," Ratzinger wrote. (An interdict, which can only be imposed by a bishop, bars a Catholic from receiving any of the Sacraments, including Holy Communion.)
This ban on communion is not limited to persons performing abortions, but also to people "whose personal cooperation becomes manifest," including "the case of a Catholic politician consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws," Ratzinger wrote. "The pastor should meet 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 the sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Holy Eucharist."
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