Biden, Pelosi take communion despite threatened backlash

From: Politico

Vice President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, both strong pro-choice advocates, took communion during the papal mass Tuesday in Rome, according to a pool report.

The move could potentially reignite a passionate debate about the propriety of participating in the ritual without fully abiding the Catholic Church's teachings.

Pope Francis has said he is clearly against the practice, particularly by pro-choice politicians.
"We must adhere to ‘eucharistic coherence’, that is, be conscious that they cannot receive holy communion and at the same time act with deeds or words against the commandments, particularly when abortion, euthanasia, and other grave crimes against life and family are encouraged," he wrote in 2007. "This responsibility applies particularly to legislators, governors, and health professionals."

Priests for Life, a U.S.-based Catholic anti-abortion organization, told the Huffington Post on Monday that there would be a "public uproar" if Biden and Pelosi took communion.

"Vice President Biden and Nancy Pelosi should certainly not receive Communion, either at the papal installation or anywhere else. Communion means ‘union,’ and they are not in union with the Church on the most fundamental moral issue of the right to life,” founder the Rev. Frank Pavone said. "Should they receive at this ceremony, there will be a public uproar, and rightly so."

A spokeswoman for Biden declined to comment. A spokesman for Pelosi did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

UPDATE (Wednesday 2 p.m.): Pavone emails this statement to POLITICO: “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.”