ON REFUSING COMMUNION TO ANYONE IN THE QUEUE, EVEN JOE BIDEN

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"Never, never, never deny Communion to anyone presenting for the Sacrament." 

This was a priest speaking, in a brief homily on All Saints' Day. This instruction, he said, was 'hammered into us over and over again in the seminary.' 

He spoke seemingly with some emotion, on the Gospel of the day - the Beatitudes (Mt 5:1 -12a), in particular quoting Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God, perhaps implying that to give Holy Communion to all-comers was to make for peace.

I suspect that Father was reacting to the controversy caused last week when a priest in South Carolina denied Holy Communion to former Vice-President Joe Biden, a Democrat who thoroughly approves his Party's thorough approval of the most thoroughly shameful forms of abortion. 

I said as much to 'im indoors, who didn't believe that Father would have heard a whisper of the Biden controversy. Being immured in a monastery, you know, where all they do is pray ...

But now Father can return to his rhetoric with even greater gusto, because today Joe Biden stated that his support of abortion does not stop Pope Francis giving him Holy Communion. Biden is apparently wide-eyed with wonder and rather hurt over being refused Communion.

"It's not a position I've found anywhere else, including from the Holy Father, who gives me Communion," he said - probably in an injured tone.

Father was in the seminary a long, long time ago. Which means that an awful lot of priests must have been giving Holy Communion in contravention of canon law for an awfully long time, which goes an awfully long way towards explaining why the Sacrament of Penance has fallen into disuse, and an awful lot of souls have fallen into Hell. 

And now  it appears that flagrant violation of canon law has trickled not down, but up: all the way up to the Pontiff, via at least one cardinal, Timothy Dolan of New York, who when asked about the South Carolina incident hedged shamelessly about the 'seriousness of denying Church teaching' and 'prudential judgement' - and then stated that he himself would never deny Communion to anyone! "I wouldn't do it." 

Of course not. Cardinal Tim is a jolly fellow who's on to red carpets and into partying. 

But Canon 916 requires a believer not to approach for Holy Communion with a guilty conscience.

Canon 915 positively requires ministers of Holy Communion, especially pastors, to withhold the sacraments from Catholics "obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin". Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion."(915).

This is the canon which prevents, or should prevent, a priest giving Holy Communion to anyone he knows is living in an irregular relationship (e.g. homosexual), or is divorced and 'remarried', or is not a Catholic. 

To receive Holy Communion, you must believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation, because anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself (1 Cor. 11:29). Transubstantiation means more than the Real Presence. In transubstantiation, the bread and wine are actually transformed into the actual body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ, and only the appearances of bread and wine remain. 

Further to that, Scripture makes it very is clear that Holy Communion is one of the highest signs of Christian unity: Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread (1 Cor. 10:17). 

It's surely hypocritical then, to proclaim such a Scripture and blithely proceed with giving  "the one bread" to people who do not belong to "the one body". That would be pretending to a unity which regrettably doesn't yet exist, and will not exist until all other religions convert to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. 

Would any non-Catholic who  sincerely proclaims belief in transubstantiation not ask to be received into the Catholic Church?

Canon law makes it clear that only in a case of "danger of death or other grave necessity" may any other Christian receive the Sacrament - but even then they must profess Catholic faith in the Sacrament and fulfil the requirements made of any Catholic: to be in a state of  grace, and fasting (except obviously "in danger of death").

I've heard other priests say things like, "Obviously you can't refuse Communion to anyone in the queue" and I'm sorry to say that because it was a priest speaking, I have at least once automatically agreed with him: "No of course you can't, Father".

Atheists, agnostics and apostates would perhaps say, "See? Brainwashed". And they might be right. It just goes to show how since Vatican II we've not been properly catechized, not taught our Faith. 

In fact it's obvious from Father's All Saints' Day homily that priests themselves have not been taught the Faith since way before Vatican II. So if we want to enter that "narrow door" to eternal life we'd all better get going and catechize ourselves by the best means at hand. 

And yet I heard tonight of a 'Parish Team' who've been offered a superb selection of programmes for parish formation, one of which is going great guns at St Joseph's Dannevirke - or was before they lost their priest, Fr Brian Buenger, through lack of support from his bishop Charles Drennan - and they've turned it down.

"Why?"

"They weren't that interested." 

You can lead horses to water but you can't make them drink.