A retired Catholic archbishop on Friday said President-elect Joe Biden “should not receive Holy Communion” because of his position on abortion.
Archbishop Charles Chaput, writing in the religious journal First Things, said Biden’s vocal support for abortion means that he is not in good standing with the Catholic Church and that priests should not give him Holy Communion until he ceases to advocate for abortion-friendly policies.
“Public figures who identify as ‘Catholic’ give scandal to the faithful when receiving Communion by creating the impression that the moral laws of the Church are optional,” Chaput wrote. “And bishops give similar scandal by not speaking up publicly about the issue and danger of sacrilege.”
Chaput also addressed recent statements from Washington, D.C., Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who said last week that he would continue to give Biden Holy Communion, as his predecessor Cardinal Donald Wuerl did when Biden was vice president. Chaput countered that Gregory’s promise to “dialogue” with Biden on abortion-related issues undermines the church’s efforts against abortion.
“This gives scandal to their brother bishops and priests, and to the many Catholics who struggle to stay faithful to Church teaching,” Chaput said of Gregory and other priests who have committed to giving Biden Holy Communion. “It does damage to the bishops’ conference, to the meaning of collegiality, and to the fruitfulness of the conference’s advocacy work with the incoming administration.”
At the same time, Chaput praised Biden for representing the Catholic Church well on other human rights issues, but he said that these actions were not enough to overcome his support for the “grave moral evils in our public life that have resulted in the destruction of millions of innocent lives.”
“Mr. Biden has said that he will continue to advance those same policies as president, and thus should not receive Holy Communion,” Chaput wrote. “His stated intention requires a strong and consistent response from Church leaders and faithful.”
Biden last year fell into controversy when a South Carolina priest refused him Holy Communion on the grounds of his support for Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court abortion decision. After it became clear that Biden would become president, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement calling Biden’s support for abortion a “serious threat to the common good.”
