Are Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion automatically excommunicated? No. May they rightly receive Communion? Here, too, the answer is no.
It required top-level confusion and an official clarification to bring it about, but at least we now have up-to-date answers to these two questions that won't go away. A third, related question remains. I'll get to it in a minute.
The events leading up to this present state of affairs took place May 9 on the plane carrying Pope Benedict XVI to Brazil. During the flight the Pope obligingly fielded queries from the press. Unsurprisingly, reporters asked if he supported the action of the Mexican bishops in excommunicating legislators who voted in April to legalize abortion.
"Yes," said Pope Benedict, adding: "This excommunication was not something arbitrary, but is foreseen by the Code [of Canon Law]."
It must be pointed out that, although Pope Benedict evidently thought press reports of excommunication were true (and a Mexican Church spokesman was quoted as saying the legislators would be excommunicated when the law went into effect), the Mexican bishops apparently hadn't declared anybody excommunicated up to then — and haven't done so up to this writing either. "And if the bishops haven't excommunicated anyone, it's not that the Pope wants to do so," said Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Vatican press office.
But what about receiving Communion? The following day, May 10, the Vatican released a tidied-up and approved version of Pope Benedict's impromptu remarks containing this statement: "It is simply part of Church law that the killing of an innocent baby is incompatible with going to Communion." Automatic excommunication? It seems not. Receiving Communion? No.
Two questions down and one to go. The third question is this: If a pro-choice politician insists on coming forward to receive Communion anyway, should he or she be allowed to receive?
Back in 2004, in a letter to the American bishops, the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now known as Pope Benedict XVI — said that in such cases the pastors of the Church first must try to persuade the individuals involved that they're wrong — about abortion, about their duty as legislators, and about the reception of Communion. That failing, and if they persist, they should not be given Communion.
At a meeting three years ago, nevertheless, the U.S. bishops adopted a local option approach saying each bishop can handle this matter as he thinks best. That's how things stand now. The bishops are divided on the issue, and local option may be the only course open to them — but to say it opens the door to uncertainty and ambiguity is putting it mildly indeed. According to reports, they will return to the question at their general meeting next November.
It's a tough one. A bishop who refused Communion to a pro-choice politician could count on taking fierce flak — from the media, from Church sources always glad to supply sneering quotes in contradiction of the hierarchy, from masters of non-sequitur claiming the First Amendment was violated by this attempt by the Church to conduct its internal affairs in light of its beliefs. Misled by the propaganda barrage, many Catholics would be upset.
Arguably, though, the alternative is even more unappealing. As matters stand, the Church's convictions on two central tenets of the faith — eligibility to share in the Eucharist and the sanctity of unborn human life — are receiving a pounding, with scandal the result. Would Pope Benedict now care to tackle question number three?
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