Former Vice President Joe Biden was reportedly denied communion at a church in South Carolina last weekend over his pro-abortion stance.
According to the Catholic News Agency, Fr. Robert Morey with St. Anthony Catholic Church in the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina, said he “had to refuse Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden” during mass on Oct 28 because Biden’s support for abortion goes against church teaching on the sanctity of life.
“Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church. Our actions should reflect that,” Morey said in a written statement, according to CAN. “Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.”
CNA notes that “Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law states that “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”
Biden has defending his views on abortion by claiming that while he is personally against the practice, he doesn’t want to force women to adopt his stance, saying during a recent campaign stop in South Carolina, “"I'm prepared to accept for me, personally, doctrine of my church" about the sanctity of preborn life, "but I'm not prepared to impose that on every other person."
Since announcing his bid for the 2020 presidential nomination, Biden also reversed his stance on the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding from being used to pay for elective abortions, saying he no longer supports the rule.
For its part, the Catholic Church has come under criticism in the past for allowing many pro-abortion politicians and public figures to retain their standing within the church, including purportedly Catholic abortion supporters such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, to name a few.
(Cover Photo: Gage Skidmore)