Joe Biden Claims Pope Francis Gives Him Communion Even Though He’s Pro-Abortion

International   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Nov 4, 2019   |   5:38PM   |   Washington, DC

Joe Biden told PBS News Hour that his support of abortion has not stopped Pope Francis from giving him communion.

The Democrat presidential candidate insists that he is a practicing Catholic, even though he advocates for abortion in violation of his faith’s teachings about the sanctity of human life. Last week, Biden became the subject of national controversy after a Catholic priest denied him communion because of his pro-abortion stance.

“It’s not a position that I’ve found anywhere else, including from the Holy Father, who gives me Communion,” Biden told PBS this week, the Daily Wire reports.

He said the situation at the South Carolina church was “the only time it’s ever happened,” and he accused the Rev. Robert E. Morey of St. Anthony Catholic Church of making it a public issue.

The Daily Wire responded:

While it is true that Father Morey told reporters about the encounter, it is possible that he told them of it only after they reached out, being that people in attendance or those close with Joe Biden might have spread word of it.

During every Mass, Catholic doctrine states that the wafer and wine become the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ when a priest consecrates it. In order for a Catholic to receive Communion, they must be in a state of grace after having attended the Sacrament of Confession. If a Catholic, usually by way of conscience, determines that they are not in a state of grace, they must refrain from receiving Holy Communion. When it comes to individuals who publicly oppose Catholic teaching (such as politicians who support abortion), bishops and priests are given full license under Canon Law to deny the person Holy Communion until they repent, lest they commit the sin of sacrilege if they receive what Catholics believe to be the body and blood of Christ unworthily.

Last week, Morey said Biden attended Mass at his church. Morey told the Florence Morning News that he refused to give Biden communion because he does not follow church teachings on abortion.

“Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden,” the priest said. “Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.”

Morey also said he is praying for Biden.

Biden has embraced his party’s extreme platform on abortion, which calls for abortion without restriction and taxpayer-funded elective abortions. In June, Biden announced that he no longer supports the Hyde amendment, which restricts taxpayer-funded abortions.

His presidential health care plan would expand abortions by codifying Roe v. Wade into federal law and prohibiting states from passing even moderate restrictions that protect unborn babies from late-term abortions. It also would force insurance companies to cover abortions as “essential” health care under Obamacare.

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In direct opposition to Catholic teachings about the sanctity of human life, Biden said he also would force American taxpayers to fund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers by restoring the cuts President Donald Trump made to their funding.

Biden has a strong pro-abortion voting record that goes back for many years. He also supported President Barack Obama’s leadership as the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history.

As the vice president, he supported the administration’s pro-abortion policies, including Obamacare, which forced religious employers to pay for drugs that may cause abortions. Catholic nuns still are fighting in court to not be forced to violate their beliefs.

In September, Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, wrote an open letter to Biden urging him to live by his faith and protect every human life.

“Nobody can or should force you to be a Catholic, and nobody can or should force you to be a defender of legal abortion. But you cannot be both at the same time,” Pavone wrote. “To claim to do so is an insult to all of us who proclaim and strive to live the Catholic Faith. And it invites the criticism that your public identification as a Catholic, while carrying water for the abortion industry, is simply the crass politics of seeking the money and votes of both constituencies.”

He asked Biden to either “conform your conduct to the Church to which you claim to belong, or acknowledge that you no longer belong to it.”

Though Democratic leaders are embracing an increasingly extreme position on abortion, most Americans are not. A new Gallup poll found that 60 percent of Americans want abortion legal “only in a few circumstances” (39 percent) or “illegal in all circumstances” (21 percent).