Abortion and Communion

"I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos."
--Sir Thomas More (A Man for All Seasons)

Should a Catholic president who supports abortion be permitted to receive holy communion? In the Catholic church, abortion is considered a mortal (in modern terms 'grave') sin as it involves killing innocent lives. There is no ambiguity about abortion in the teachings of Catholicism. All humans have the right to life--from conception until natural death.

"Thou shall not kill."

Receiving holy communion is limited to Catholics who are not in a state of mortal sin. And it is the duty of church officials to safeguard all the sacraments. In many cases, however, officials may not be able to tell whether a person is in a state of mortal sin. 

For example, a Catholic who favors abortion and then supports it by voting for politicians who advance abortion-friendly legislation commits mortal sin. Essentially, they are complicit in murder as principals who fund agents to do their dirty work. 

But church officials cannot bar these people from holy communion because they possess no visible evidence of mortal sin. They can't access voting records. They can't see into a person's conscience. If a person appears in line to receive holy communion, the priest must trust that the individual is not in a state of mortal sin at the time of reception.

However, in the case of public officials who directly employ government assets to kill babies, their sins are plainly visible to church officials. The admonition of those government officials should be public as well.

As Judge Nap observes, permitting priests to give these people holy communion would be similar to the silence of the Catholic hierarchy in Germany during WWII who allowed distribution of communion to SS officers whose regime was slaughtering millions of Jews. 

No, it is not our place to judge. We should forgive others who trespass against us. And pray for them.

But the church cannot act in ways that publicly condone mortal sin.