In his latest public document, Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI has reaffirmed the Catholic Church's teaching that validly married Catholics who get divorced and remarry are not to be given Holy Communion. "The Synod of Bishops confirmed the Church's practice, based on Sacred Scripture," wrote the Pope, "of not admitting the divorced and remarried to the sacraments, since their state and their condition of life objectively contradict the loving union of Christ and the Church."
It is a hard teaching, but a necessary one since, for Catholics, communion signifies a unity of faith but even more so a total fidelity to God.
Despite the fact that the world may consider it naïve, the Pope urges those in such irregular marriages to either separate or live with their new partners in non-sexual friendships so that they may once again receive communion. "Where the nullity of the marriage bond is not declared and objective circumstances make it impossible to cease cohabitation, the Church encourages these members of the faithful to commit themselves to living their relationship in fidelity to the demands of God's law, as friends, as brother and sister; in this way they will be able to return to the table of the Eucharist," wrote Pope Benedict.
Imagine the Catholic woman who married a good man, but after a few years that man hit upon hard times and turned to drink and to abuse, which led to separation and divorce. A second marriage, while not recognized as such by the Church has seemingly stabilized her life. While she would still like to receive communion, she is in her circumstances unable to unless she and her new partner commit themselves to live as brother and sister. The desire to be faithful would lead this couple to make such a sacrifice in order to receive communion worthily. There are in fact heroic Catholic couples who do take this action to be faithful to Christ and the Church.
How is it then that so-called Catholic politicians demand reception of communion while obstinately speaking and taking public actions against the church's teaching on the sanctity of life and other prominent moral issues?
For over half a century it seems some Catholics who willfully and spitefully reject the Church's authoritative teaching on the sanctity of life feel it is their right to receive Holy Communion despite their strong dissent.
England's first Catholic physician to run a birth control clinic which doled out abortion-causing drugs, was notorious in this regard. Dr. Anne Greene Biezanek went so far as to call the press to watch her challenge her bishop to deny her communion. She wrote a letter advising the press, and the archbishop that she would be at the Cathedral, and when she received communion she declared victory. The Archbishop of Westminster said he didn't even recognize her.
Catholic politicians who support abortion are very similar to their pro-abortion forebears. While notoriously pro-abortion, both John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi continue to call themselves Catholic. Kerry has staged numerous communion photo-ops and Pelosi took a tack similar Biezanek's.
In 2004, as the US Bishops were discussing the matter of Communion for pro-abortion politicians, Pelosi told the media that she would continue to take Holy Communion despite her pro-abortion position. She went so far as to misrepresent the Catholic faith as supporting her pro-abortion stance. "I believe that my position on choice is one that is consistent with my Catholic upbringing, which said that every person has a free will and has the responsibility to live their lives in a way that they would have to account for in the end," she said.
Interestingly, Biezanek too claimed her pro-abortion position on her Catholic formation. "The fact that I believe in standing up for the truth as I see it is something I learned from the Catholic Church," she said.
But to both divorced and remarried Catholics and to those Catholic politicians who cannot seem to bring themselves to accept the church's teaching on the sanctity of life, the Catholic Church offers many forms of participation other than communion. In the document, Pope Benedict suggests to divorced and remarried Catholics several options that could apply equally to Catholic politicians who aren't in synch with the teachings on life.
The Church, says the Pope, "encourages them to live as fully as possible the Christian life through regular participation at Mass, albeit without receiving communion, listening to the word of God, Eucharistic adoration, prayer, participation in the life of the community, honest dialogue with a priest or spiritual director, dedication to the life of charity, works of penance."
If the divorced and remarried woman spoken of above cannot receive communion how dare pro-abortion politicians complain about being denied communion. The Pope explains in his document that the reason why divorced and remarried Catholics may not receive communion is that the breaking of the original valid marriage covenant is akin to God breaking his covenant with the Church.
A politician's decision to support abortion is akin to a decision to support the killing of God, it is killing His Presence in their souls. As Christ said, "Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me."