Pro-Abortion Biden and Pelosi Received Communion at Mass for Pope Francis

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 20, 2013   |   10:48AM   |   The Vatican

Despite their pro-abortion views, Vice President Joe Biden and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi both received communion at the mass yesterday to celebrate the inauguration of newly-elected Pope Francis.

Biden’s office confirmed to the Washington Times that he had received communion and reporters in the White House presidential reporting pool confirmed in an email to LifeNews that Pelosi had received it as well. Pope Francis did not administer the sacrament.

Father Frank Pavone told the LifeNews he opposed the two pro-abortion politicos receiving communion since their pro-abortion views are outside the teachings of the Catholic Church.

The Priests for Life leader said, ““At a Mass during which our new Pope emphasized the duty public officials – and all the rest of us – have to protect the weakest among us, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi have the audacity to receive Communion while publicly renouncing their responsibility to protect the weakest among us.”

“Some Church leaders mistakenly think we are advocating the use of the Eucharist as a ‘weapon.’ In fact, we are defending the Eucharist from being used as a political tool. These politicians have no respect for what the Eucharist means: an integral, consistent union with Christ and with all our brothers and sisters. To receive Christ while rejecting the unborn is a slap in the face to both,” he added.

Catholic and pro-life advocate Deal Hudson also responded to the news, with an email to LifeNews:

“When pro-abortion politicians receive communion at public Masses a message is sent out that they are in good standing with the Church, which they are not. All Church leaders, from the Holy Father and the cardinals to the bishops and priests need to reexamine this practice in the light of their own Code of Canon Law: CIC 916. A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible.”

The communion came even as Pope Francis’ homily celebrated the right to life of unborn children.

“It was just an awe inspiring event, but most importantly, a very holy event,” said pro-life Rep. Chris Smith. “The Pope’s homily and his call to protect, invoking Our Lord’s words in Matthew 25 about protecting the least of our brethren, was just an extraordinary rallying call to every one of us to reach out to the disenfranchised and the weakest and most vulnerable – whether it be the unborn child or women who are at risk…in all of our countries.”

“Whatever the situation may be, we have to become protectors. That’s what we’re admonished to do by Our Lord and certainly we heard that today from Pope Francis,” he said.

Previously, Biden’s own bishop has had to correct the pro-abortion politician on his misstating the pro-life teachings of the Catholic Church.

In the interview with the Delaware News Journal, Biden continued to misrepresent the position of the Catholic Church on abortion in a way that has gotten him in trouble.

“But throughout the church’s history, we’ve argued between whether or not it is wrong in every circumstance and the degree of wrong. Catholics have this notion, it’s almost a gradation,” Biden claimed.

Not so, said Rev. W. Francis Malooly, the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington.

He wrote in a letter to the editor that Biden “presents a seriously erroneous picture of Catholic teaching on abortion.”

“This is simply incorrect,” he said then of Biden’s interpretation. “The teaching of the Church is clear and not open to debate. Abortion is a grave sin because it is the wrongful taking of an innocent human life.”

“The Church received the tradition opposing abortion from Judaism. In the Greco-Roman world, early Christians were identifiable by their rejection of the common practices of abortion and infanticide,” Malooly went on to say.

“The Didache, probably the earliest Christian writing apart from the New Testament, explicitly condemns abortion without exceptions,” he continues. “This has been the consistent teaching of the Church ever since.”

Pelosi has repeatedly clashed with and criticized the Catholic Church on pro-life issues.

In 2011, Pelosi was upset that the nation’s Catholic bishops protested the Obama administration decision forcing insurance companies to cover birth control, contraception and drugs that could cause abortions. They are upset certain religious groups may not be exempt from providing the insurance, which would violate their moral and religious views.

Pelosi saidthe position is akin to having hospitals “say to a woman, ‘I’m sorry you could die’ if you don’t get an abortion,” she told the Washington Post.

“Those who dispute that characterization “may not like the language,’’ she said, “but the truth is what I said. I’m a devout Catholic and I honor my faith and love it . . . but they have this conscience thing” that the Post said Pelosi “insists put women at physical risk, although Catholic providers strongly disagree.”

Pelosi also defended controversial remarks she made about a bill to prevent Obamacare from funding abortions, where she claimed Republicans “want women to die on the floor.”

“For a moment, I want to get back to what was asked about the issue on the floor today that Mr. Hoyer address,” Pelosi said. “He made a point and I want to emphasize it. Under this bill, when the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor and health care providers do not have to intervene if this bill is passed. It’s just appalling.”

She told the Post in a new interview, that she doesn’t think the assessment went to far.

“They would” let women die on the floor, she said. “They would! Again, whatever their intention is, this is the effect.”

In 2010 Pelosi further ditched her Catholic credentials as she was unable to answer a reporter’s question about whether Jesus Christ should have had his right to life protected from conception.

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Pelosi said she has an obligation to pursue public policy “in keeping with the values” of Jesus. Yet, asked by a CNS News reporter late last week whether Jesus has the right to life, Pelosi couldn’t agree.

CNSNews asked: “You said at a recent Catholic Community Conference that your favorite word was ‘The Word, as in the word made flesh,’ and that we need to quote, ‘give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the Word.’”

The reporter continued: “So, when was the Word made flesh? Was it at the Annunciation, when Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Sprit, as the Creed says, or was it at the Nativity when he was born of the Virgin Mary? And when did the Word get the right to life?”

“Whenever it was, we bow our heads when we talk about it in church, and that’s where I’d like to talk about that,” Pelosi said in response.

Pelosi has been repeatedly at odds with the Catholic Church, in which she claims membership, over the issue of abortion.

She once called on a Catholic saint to help her and her pro-abortion colleague pass a Senate health care bill that contains massive abortion funding. Not only did Pelosi upset pro-life Catholics in so doing, but she got the date wrong concerning the saint she mentioned.

Pelosi has claimed to be a good Catholic while advancing abortion at a rapid pace.

In a 2006 interview, Pelosi regretted that her family is “very pro-life” and would “like it if I were not so vocally pro-choice.” But, she proclaimed, “To me it isn’t even a question. God has given us a free will.”

Also, she said the “free will” of women wanting abortions outweighs pro-life Catholic teachings.

And those comments followed on Pelosi thanking God that the Senate health care bill funds abortions.

The news comes as newwly-elected Pope Francis used his second-ever blessing as the head of the Catholic Church to bless a pregnant mother and her unborn child. Pope Francis, who as been hailed by pro-life advocates once called abortion a “death sentence” for unborn children, during a 2007 speech and likening opposition to abortion to opposition to the death penalty.