Washington D.C., Jun 29, 2021 / 13:33 pm (CNA).
President Joe Biden’s regular parish in Washington, D.C. issued a statement on Tuesday that its priests and ministers will not deny Communion to those approaching to receive.
“Holy Trinity Catholic Church will not deny the Eucharist to persons presenting themselves to receive it,” read a statement of the parish council of Holy Trinity, located in Georgetown neighborhood of D.C.
Biden, a Catholic, has attended Sunday Mass at Holy Trinity parish at least six times as president, on Jan. 24, Jan. 30, Feb. 20, March 6, April 10, and June 5, according to White House pool reports. He regularly attends St. Joseph on the Brandywine parish in Wilmington, Delaware, when he travels back home to Wilmington.
Biden supports the codification of Roe v. Wade, taxpayer-funded abortion through repealing the Hyde Amendment, and the Equality Act, among other policies opposed by the U.S. bishops’ conference.
The Holy Trinity parish council stated its agreement with Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington “concerning the issues surrounding offering the Eucharist to American politicians.”
Cardinal Gregory told a journalist in November 2020 that he would not deny Communion to a politician who supported the codification of legal abortion in federal law and the taxpayer funding of abortion. Biden supports both policies.
“As a parish which has a long history of welcoming all, we concur with and support the pastoral approach of our Archbishop,” the parish stated.
The Archdiocese of Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment by CNA on Tuesday afternoon.
According to a 2004 instruction by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, pastors and bishops must speak to Catholic public officials in their jurisdictions when the officials support permissive laws contrary to Church teaching on grave moral issues, such as legal abortion and euthanasia.
The pastors must admonish the officials that their positions are contrary to Church teaching and instruct them not to receive Communion. If the officials persist in their positions, then the minister of Communion must not distribute it to them, Cardinal Ratzinger said. The memo was an implementation of canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law.
Recently, Gregory spoke against the U.S. bishops’ conference proposal to move forward with drafting a teaching document on the Eucharist.
The proposed document outline featured sub-sections on various Church teachings regarding the Eucharist, and included a sub-section on “Eucharistic consistency,” worthiness to receive Communion. The text of the document had yet to be written, as the bishops were simply voting to begin drafting it at their annual spring meeting held from June 16-18.
Some bishops who opposed drafting the document at that time said that to do so would be political. Discussing worthiness to receive Communion – with a special call to Catholics in public life to abide by Church teaching – would be seen as a sort of rebuke of pro-abortion Catholic politicians, some warned.
On Thursday, June 17, Cardinal Gregory said that to move forward with the Eucharistic document – while the bishops were meeting virtually – would invite controversy and imperil their unity, not strengthen it.
“The choice before us at this moment, is either we pursue a path of strengthening unity among ourselves, or settle for creating a document that may not bring unity, but may well further damage it,” he stated.
The bishops voted decisively in favor of drafting the teaching document on the Eucharist, with 168 voting for the proposal and 55 voting against.
The Holy Trinity parish council called the vote “shocking and disappointing,” saying that Cardinal Gregory “serves as one of the most prominent ecclesiastical leaders in the current controversy.”
“Sadly, the recent vote has caused considerable desolation among our parishioners as well as Roman Catholics throughout the nation,” the council stated. “The great gift of the Holy Eucharist is too sacred to be made a political issue.”
During the final day of the bishops’ meeting, a group of 60 Catholic House Democrats issued a statement professing their Catholic faith and urging that politicians not be denied Communion because of their support for legal abortion.
Biden was asked by a reporter on June 18 how he felt that the U.S. bishops advanced a “resolution” to prevent pro-abortion Catholic politicians from receiving Communion. The bishops had not voted on any such resolution at their recent meeting, but rather to move forward with drafting the teaching document on the Eucharist.
“That’s a private matter, and I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Biden responded.
#BREAKING | President Biden was asked about the Catholic bishops’ decision to develop a document on the Eucharist, which could prevent pro-abortion politicians from receiving communion.
He responds: “That’s a private matter, and I don’t think that’s going to happen.” #USCCB21 pic.twitter.com/Dq2T2LYEfn— EWTN News (@EWTNews) June 18, 2021
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Catholic Congregationalism at work. The protestantization of the Catholic Church continues a pace.
Wilton Cardinal Gregory is anathema.
Catholic dissidents have always trashed the faith because they have no faith and resent those that do. They need to find meaning in their lives by pretending their adolescent defiance represents “courage.” But now they’ve extended their faithlessness towards spitting in the face of Christ. What next?
St. Augustine writes of judicial procedures in his day—-the tortured innocent, the guilty who get a pass, those falsely condemned to die (the unborn, today), lying witnesses….And the “philosopher-judge who rubber stamps it all without any sense of burden “on his conscience because he has no intention of doing harm”…[because] “the good of society demands that he hand down decisions”….[and the top dog who can’t really be happy] “even though his philosophy may save him from a sense of wrongdoing” (The City of God, Book XIX, Ch. 6).
And, today, temple priestess Pelosi enables late-term dismemberment: “it’s sacred ground;” and Biden summarizes his own graffiti Catholicism: “it’s a private thing.” And, instead of apostolic St. Augustine, we have the Wilton (wiltin’!) and complicit Cardinal Disgustin’.
Jude 1:3-4
Cardinal Wilton Gregory and other priests and ministers who give out communion to any pro-abort, have automatically excommunicated themselves and cannot give or receive Holy Communion. They are committing a sacrilegious act and no longer can administer Holy Communion.
Of course not, because the US Catholc Bishops are largely pro-sodomy and post-Christian frauds of The McCarrick Establishment.
Bishops neglect their teaching role at their own peril. Wilton Gregory is simply wrong to term this issue as “political.” He is cowed by the Democrat party. And he is a coward, refusing to fulfill the role he has in the Church. Unfortunately, he is not alone. Fortunately, three-quarters of the bishops recognize and are attempting to fulfill their roles as teachers of the faith.
Cardinal Gregory: what’s more important, a soul burning in Hell for committing sacrilege against the very person of Christ or the US bishops putting up a front of apparent unity?
“The great gift of the Holy Eucharist is too sacred to be made a political issue.” But apparently it’s not too sacred to be received by people in a state of mortal sin which is the state these pro-abortion politicians find themselves in. It is for the benefit of their immortal soul that they NOT receive the body and blood of our Lord until they repent and make a good confession, just like any other person not in the state of sanctifying grace.
The bishops voted decisively in favor of drafting the teaching document on the Eucharist, with 168 voting for the proposal and 55 voting against.
Whatever happened to one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church ?
I wish someone would point out to me the one person be he a Bishop or Arch Bishop who claims the right to CULL the family of GOD. Culling the family of God is a very grave sin. AMEN !
What standing does a parish council have to issue a statement on worthiness to receive communion? The answer is none.
Exactly. Thank you.
Of course they won’t deny communion to an errant public figures. Especially politicians. Because too many Bishops are Democrats and determined to be politically popular. “Who am I to judge?” doesnt fly. In their role as Bishop, it is PRECISELY their job to “judge” when the actions of some are giving scandal to the rest of the faithful. St. Paul must be rolling in his grave.
Remember these prelates are also addicted to the monies garnered from lobbying —for pet projects—over a billion dollars annually—can’t compromise that. These politicians have many of our dear prelates by the scruff of the neck!
The Holy Trinity parish council stated its agreement with Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington “concerning the issues surrounding offering the Eucharist to American politicians.”
*********
I suppose parish councils are free to agree to whatever they choose, but their opinion signifies
nothing concerning the Sacraments.
With the low number of Catholics who believe in the True Presence you can see how it leads us to situations like this. One’s worthiness or disposition to receive a sacrament is not decided upon by parish councils.
The parish council can make this kind of decision???
So if someone comes into Mass at Holy Family in DC and says, “I don’t believe in God, or the divinity of Jesus Christ, or any of your stupid rules. Now, give me my cookie!” they get to receive Communion.
Pfft! The Parish Council, yet? The parish council is now deciding what is meant by Eucharistic consistency? Strick palm to forehead! If I was sitting on that council, I would let fellow members know that we are being used to approve something that is not within our authority. Put me in jail with St. Nicholas before I do something drastic.
“As a parish which has a long history of welcoming all, we concur with and support the pastoral approach of our Archbishop,” the parish stated. That’s pastoral?
“The Holy Trinity parish called the vote ‘shocking and disappointing’ . . .”
No. That would be the Statement of Principles of 60 Catholic Democrats.
The Church teaches that if we approve in any way of the sins of others. We are, in fact, partakers of their sins and just as guilty before the justice of God. Those who have decided to partake of Biden’s mortal sins knowingly are excommunicated Latae Senteniae. The problem is that we do not treat them like the excommunicated that they are. They are outside of the Church. Biden is dragging souls to hell along with himself. Many of our Leaders and laity have no love for Jesus. Instead of protecting Our Lord from sacrilege, they treat the matter with post-Conciliar warm and fuzzy sentimentality. This is damnable!!
In the Orwellian Church, it’s not particularly pastoral to welcome the crushed and exterminated babies. In the Orwellian Church, it’s considered “sacred” to abuse the Sacred Eucharist, to make the Body of Christ a political weapon of phony political magnanimity while projecting weaponizing motives to those who protect the Body of Christ from abuse. In the Orwellian Church, it’s considered a “political weapon” to usurp the assumed exclusive privilege by progressives to use the Church as a symbolic political weapon to legitimize the actions and prerogatives of “progress,” including the mass murder of the innocent.
King Herod was a “Piker” compared to Obama/Biden or Biden/Obama.
Who appointed this so called “bishop” Gregory?
Francis.
How can the pope allow this action?
Is the whole hierarchy of the church nuts?