Catholic Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver called out a group of pro-abortion lawmakers Friday for promoting the evil of abortion while professing to be Catholic.
In a column published at The Denver Catholic, Aquila responded to criticism lobbed at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops by 60 pro-abortion Catholic Democrat politicians in June.
The politicians claimed the bishops were “weaponizing the Eucharist” because they voted to draft a teaching document that could rebuke pro-abortion politicians like President Joe Biden.
But Aquila said the opposite is true.
“Instead of accepting their own responsibility to understand and follow Church teaching, these politicians are the ones who are ‘weaponizing the Eucharist’ by insisting that they remain in good standing despite publicly committing grave sins and continuing to receive Communion,” he responded Friday.
SUPPORT LIFENEWS! If you like this pro-life article, please help LifeNews.com with a donation!
He said pro-abortion politicians cannot claim to be in communion with the Catholic Church while supporting abortion.
“Everyone with common sense understands that their claim of being in communion with the Church is false,” he continued. “One cannot say one believes something, do the complete opposite and then credibly say that they are in communion with a Church that believes what they did is evil.”
Aquila said the bishops are not planning to ban Biden or any other politician from Communion, as many news stories claim. Instead, they agreed “to build consensus about how to respond to Catholics who hold public positions and who insist on receiving Holy Communion after publicly committing grave sins,” he said.
For years, he said many bishops have been urging pro-abortion Catholic politicians to repent of their support for the killing of unborn babies in abortions – or at least refrain from Communion if they refuse.
“Unfortunately, many – but not all – of these public figures have chosen political expediency over the Gospel. They value their political party and their power more than the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he continued.
“As Jesus said to the disciples, the road that leads to eternal life is narrow and those who attempt to take the wide road are headed for destruction,” Aquila said.
In June, a group of pro-abortion Democrat lawmakers publicly criticized the Catholic bishops for being too political – even though the bishops’ real goal is to guide people in the faith. One lawmaker boldly challenged the bishops to “dare” to deny him Communion and another suggested revoking the church’s tax-exempt status.
Many bishops have expressed concerns that Biden’s claims about being a devout Catholic coupled with his radical abortion advocacy are misleading Catholics and creating scandal for the faith. They have said the church must do something to make it clear that Catholics cannot support the killing of unborn babies and must repent before participating in Communion.
The Catholic Church teaches that every human being is valuable from conception to natural death, and abortion is a grave moral evil. Abortion is the greatest human rights abuse today, having killed nearly 63 million unborn babies in the U.S. since 1973.
