When H.E. Most Rev. Raymond Burke was shifted from the Archdiocese of St. Louis to be Prefect of the Apostolic Segnatura, many people asked me if this was a matter of promoveatur ut amoveatur, that is, to get him out of the way before the November elections in the USA.
I said "No.".
This is in from CNA:
Catholics who support abortion should not receive Communion, says Archbishop Burke
Archbishop Raymond Burke.- The prefect of the Apostolic Signature, Archbishop Raymond Burke, said this week that Catholics, especially politicians who publically defend abortion, should not receive Communion, and that ministers of Communion should be responsibly charitable in denying it to them if they ask for it, “until they have reformed their lives.”
In an interview with the magazine, Radici Christiane, Archbishop Burke pointed out that there is often a lack of reverence at Mass when receiving Communion. “Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily is a sacrilege,” he warned. “If it is done deliberately in mortal sin it is a sacrilege.” [When is the last time you heard a bishop speak publicly of sacrilege?]
To illustrate his point, he referred to “public officials who, with knowledge and consent, uphold actions that are against the Divine and Eternal moral law. For example, if they support abortion, which entails the taking of innocent and defenseless human lives. A person who commits sin in this way should be publicly admonished in such a way as to not receive Communion until he or she has reformed his life,” the archbishop said.
“If a person who has been admonished persists in public mortal sin and attempts to receive Communion, the minister of the Eucharist has the obligation to deny it to him. Why? Above all, for the salvation of that person, preventing him from committing a sacrilege,” he added.
“We must avoid giving people the impression that one can be in a state of mortal sin and receive the Eucharist,” the archbishop continued. “Secondly, there could be another form of scandal, [This is a very important point.] consisting of leading people to think that the public act that this person is doing, which until now everyone believed was a serious sin, is really not that serious – if the Church allows him or her to receive Communion.”
“If we have a public figure who is openly and deliberately upholding abortion rights and receiving the Eucharist, what will the average person think? He or she could come to believe that it up to a certain point it is okay to do away with an innocent life in the mother’s womb,” he warned.
Archbishop Burke also noted that when a bishop or a Church leader prevents an abortion supporter from receiving Communion, “it is not with the intention of interfering in public life but rather in the spiritual state of the politician or public official who, if Catholic, should follow the divine law in the public sphere as well.”
“Therefore, it is simply ridiculous and wrong to try to silence a pastor, accusing him of interfering in politics so that he cannot do good to the soul of a member of his flock,” he stated.
It is “simply wrong” to think that the faith must be reduced to the private sphere and eliminated from public life, Archbishop Burke said, encouraging Catholics “to bear witness to our faith not only in private in our homes but also in our public lives with others in order to bear strong witness to Christ.”
The comment about faith and the private sphere is important.
Pope Benedict, in what I call his Marshall Plan to revive Catholic identity, is working to help Catholics rediscovered who they are and what they believe so that they can also have something vigorous and useful to contribute in the public square. Catholics have been driven from the public square in the past. There is great pressure to reduce Christian faith merely to the realm of the private, as if anyone who "believes" must shelve their beliefs before acting and speaking in the public square.
But human beings cannot be so subdivided.
We cannot be forced to leave aside in human affairs that which is fundamental to our human identity.
At the time His Excellency was promoted to Prefect, I made the observation that his voice will now be heard in the more or less daily business of the Curia, since he will soon be a member of many dicasteries which consult on a regular basis. Archbp. Burke clearly is in close harmony with the aims of the Holy Father. He will be an important collaborator.
Furthermore, his comments need not be interpreted as being aimed at any particular American politician.
These same issues are being fought out in the whole world. Italian lefies are constantly screeching about this. Remember, too, the kerfuffle caused when Pope Benedict on the airplane to Brasil spoke about the Mexican Catholic pols who supported abortion.
This is a global problem.
