Spanish Catholic Bishop José Ignacio Munilla slammed Joe Biden for “manipulating” his meeting with Pope Francis to make himself look good even though he supports killing unborn babies in abortions.
ACI Prensa reports Munilla, the bishop of San Sebastián, Spain, responded Saturday after Biden claimed Pope Francis called him a “good Catholic” and told him to keep receiving Communion.
“These incredible statements reveal the moral character of those who are capable of compromising and manipulating the pope with the intention of washing their conscience stained by the blood of so many innocent lives unjustly eliminated,” Munilla wrote on Twitter.
Biden met with Pope Francis in a one-on-one, closed door meeting Friday at the Vatican.
Afterward, Biden said the pope told him he was a “good Catholic” and he should “keep receiving Communion”; however, the Vatican has not confirmed those remarks. Many hoped Pope Francis would rebuke Biden for his radical pro-abortion actions and urge him to repent before participating in the sacrament, but Biden said they did not discuss the matter.
Then, on Saturday, Biden received Communion at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Rome, the Catholic News Agency reports.
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Many Catholic 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 grave moral evil of abortion and must repent before participating in Communion.
Here’s more from ACI Prensa:
Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law states that those “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in a 2004 memo to U.S. bishops as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stated that Catholic public officials who publicly campaign for permissive abortion laws should be instructed by their pastor not to present themselves for Communion unless they stop promoting such laws. If they continue to do so despite the warnings of their pastor, and if they present themselves for Communion, the minister must deny them Communion, Ratzinger noted.
The president professes to be a devout Catholic, but his administration has adopted the most radical pro-abortion policies in U.S. history. Not only did Biden recently allow abortion drugs to be sold through the mail without a doctor’s visit, he also is trying to force taxpayers to pay for elective abortions in Medicaid and in other countries.
Some priests and bishops, however, have said they will not refuse Communion to Biden or any other pro-abortion politician, including Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., and the priests at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, which Biden attends while in Washington, D.C.
But many other bishops and priests have expressed concerns that Biden’s faith claims coupled with his radical abortion advocacy are “creating scandal” for the Catholic Church by encouraging evil. 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.
Last week, U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke called out pro-abortion politicians who profess to be Catholic for creating “grave scandal” by making it seem as though Catholics can support the killing of unborn babies in abortions. Burke did not mention Biden by name.
“They have, in fact, contributed in a significant way to the consolidation of a culture of death in the United States, in which procured abortion is simply a fact of daily life,” Burke said.
In November, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is expected to consider a teaching document on Communion that could send a message to pro-abortion Catholics like Biden about repenting of their sin before participating in the sacrament.
The bishops made it clear that the issue is about faith and their concern for people’s souls, and they are not targeting any political party or politician.
Biden openly defies church teachings about the sanctity of human life. After just 100 days in office, he surpassed President Barack Obama as the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history, including allowing mail-order abortions and trying to force taxpayers to fund abortions. His administration also is fighting to overturn a pro-life Texas law that has saved thousands of unborn babies from abortion in the past two months alone. And it dropped a lawsuit defending a pro-life nurse from Vermont who was forced to participate in an abortion.
