The Immaculate Reception Reflects the Immaculate Conception
I honestly like Joe Biden. He seems like a nice man. I felt sorry for him when I read about his first wife and daughter dying in a tragic car accident when he was young. He is a Catholic, grew up in my home state, and is running for President in 2020 in the Democratic Party.
Why do I mention Biden is a Catholic? Because being a Catholic should mean something. It used to mean elected officials had a higher purpose, a sound reasoning because of their faith to do the right thing.
On Sunday, Oct. 28, 2019, a priest from a South Carolina parish, Father Robert E. Morey, refused to give the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion to Vice President Biden when he approached the altar. Why?
Recently, Joe Biden has sided with Planned Parenthood and rejected the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment, named after Henry Hyde, has saved countless women from terminating their unborn child in abortion simply because it denies taxpayer-funded abortions. President Trump renewed this policy when he took office, ensuring that Americans do not have to pay for other people's abortions at the federal level. Joe Biden has voted for the Hyde Amendment in the past. What has changed?
Political pressure inside the Democratic party has forced their candidates to accept abortion-on-demand. This has not been the case in the past. Pennsylvania, my home state, had a big pro-life force inside the Democratic party for many years. But today there is little room for pro-life Democrats.
Pro-abortion organizations are never going to support a politician that has any moderation in regards to abortion. They are vicious in their pursuit of abortion--to the point of infanticide.
Right now in California Planned Parenthood is suing a undercover journalist named David Daleiden because he uncovered their illegal selling of fetal hearts and other organs. Planned Parenthood harvested unborn babies' hearts while these children were still alive, according to testimony in this trial. Yet the pro-life journalist is in court facing millions of dollars in fines and jail time for exposing that practice. Why? Abortion has now been labeled as health care.
Joe Biden has said, "I can't justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability ... to exercise their constitutional protected right.”
Laws matter, and to deny government payment for abortion by enacting laws like the Hyde Amendment or the Mexico City policy is moral and sound. These are opposing values, Catholicism and abortion rights. One must win. Joe Biden and all Catholic politicians must choose which they believe in.
But the Communion incident is not only about abortion. This is about the eternal soul. This is a battle over a soul.
The man running for the highest office in America presents himself for Holy Communion and is denied by a Roman Catholic priest. Why?
Holy Communion is reciprocal. Yes, it is a gift of the all of God to us, but we also are giving the all of ourselves to God. So any mortal sin has to be confessed or we are unworthy to receive the true God made man in this mystery. Is supporting the death of the pre-born a mortal sin? We have the Word of God giving us the Ten Commandments, and killing is forbidden. If we accept abortion, then we reject the law God has written in our hearts and therefore we reject God.
Of course we don't know what sin someone has on their soul so therefore denying Holy Communion is not done very often, unless there is a public acceptance for a mortal sin, like being a politician that supports abortion.
Fr. Morey was well within his right as a pastor to deny a pro-abortion public politician Holy Communion. Some bishops have taken a softer stance and not objected to pro-abortion elected officials receiving Jesus in Communion. It is the “love-them-into-the-fold” idea. There are different paths to behavior modification.
I believe that we, as a Church, must be truthful. If we loved people like Joe Biden, we would correct their error instead of staying silent. There is the problem with giving scandal if we stay silent, and we need to tell people why abortion is evil, even though the person seeking one may be in a sad situation.
A wayward soul is worth all moral means to win it. With God, all hearts can be converted. That is our goal as a Church--the faith that contains the true God in forms of bread and wine.