A Leaven In The World . . . Dear Biden: Communion Is Not A “Private Matter”

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK

It didn’t take long for the misrepresentations and evil spin to overwhelm the conversation after the U.S. bishops’ discussion of Communion reception at their virtual June meeting. Even a group of Democrats in Congress released a statement enumerating the so-called “principles” of their diabolical deception. It was publicized so rapidly in response that one suspects it was prepared and ready to launch even before the episcopal Zoom meeting commenced.
Twitterati howled in reaction to the threat of sacramental censure. Cong. Ted Lieu of California, among others, doubled down by publicly declaring himself pro-abortion on the social app and daring the bishops to withhold Communion from him. Others boasted of their rejection of Catholic moral teaching, listing the offenses, and then gleefully vowing to continue in Eucharistic sacrilege.
All of this and more in response to something that is already part of Church law. Canon 915 makes clear that the “publicly unworthy” must be denied by reason of their persistence in manifest — that is, public — grave sin. Support for abortion, so-called same-sex “marriage,” and transgender bodily mutilation are among those sins which render someone in need of repentance and Confession prior to any reception of the Eucharist, as well as public renunciation of these sins to repair the scandal which they have caused.
Most scandalous of all were the usual suspects among the bishops themselves who bend over backwards to accommodate the enemies of the faith, doing so again in this case, while persecuting faithful Catholics. Some commented on the irony that some of the same bishops who locked their churches during COVID, denying Communion to practicing, authentic Catholics, are now going out of their way to twist themselves and the truth into a pretzel to give the Eucharist to the unrepentant among the baptized who are in a state of manifest grave sin.
Biden was asked around the time of the USCCB meeting in June for his reaction to the news that the bishops were discussing his reception of Communion as a Catholic who supports abortion (and, for the record, just about every other moral violation of Church teaching involving sexuality, marriage, the body as male or female from conception, and freedom of religion to boot). He responded: “It’s a private matter” and “I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”
Well, Mr. Biden, let’s walk you through it because you’re wrong about that.
You are a public figure: You are president of the United States. Your positions contrary to Catholic faith and morals are also public: You act and speak against them consistently in public as a public figure. Your reception of Holy Communion is also public: The liturgy by nature as the action of the Church is a public and social act of the communion of believers together with the ordained. So, no, you’re wrong. There is nothing private about any of this. It’s public from start to finish.
And there’s the rub. The scandal for which you are responsible, Mr. Biden, flows from the public nature of everything involved here. The shepherds are charged with protecting the whole flock from wolves like you who scatter rather than gather. Your sinful example undermines their role because as part of their responsibility before God they must intervene both for your sake and that of every soul who is scandalized by your public rejection of Christ, by your words and actions, together with your inconsistency in receiving the Eucharist. This continued sacrilege on your part jeopardizes your eternal soul.
There is another reality made manifest by all of this: Idol worship hasn’t gone out of style. One need only ask upon which altar Biden and other heretic politicians are offering God in sacrifice to know which idols they serve. Call it politics, call it power or money, these scandal-mongers are twisting everything, including the true Faith and Almighty God Himself, to serve demons. Biden weaponizes anything to serve the idols of power and politics. That tells the sordid tale of his unrepentant pride.
The bishops should be thanked for attempting to bring some order out of the current mess which is the public example of the practice of the faith in this country predominantly on the part of many in politics. There are a few bishops whose heads should roll, however, given their evident inability to figure out how to do the one job for which they have primary responsibility: the salvation of souls.
For those bishops, who have a rather vague and amorphous concept of “unity,” which they imply is centered on persons located in Rome or elsewhere, we simply say to them: Dear bishops, unity is in Christ and Christ is in the Eucharist.
Our Lord taught, “This is My Body, this is My Blood” upon instituting this most Blessed Sacrament at the Last Supper with His apostles over which He presided on the last night of His life on Earth.
We say Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, and He indeed is, but what we mean by saying that is that the bread is transformed into the substance of His Body in the Holy Mass and the substance of the wine is transformed into His Blood so that, in actuality, Christ is the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist is Christ.
A number of bishops in connection with the June USCCB virtual conference are doing videos and making statements claiming that unity somehow is opposed to the disciplines and truths that flow from Christ’s presence in the Eucharist and that, in order to preserve unity with the Pope and with the universal Church, we need to delay talking about Christ in the Eucharist and the sacrilege of receiving Him in a state of mortal sin and persistent public apostasy or heresy.
Heretical and apostate politicians who receive the Eucharist at weddings and funerals and other public Masses are the ones who, by committing sacrilege, are turning the Eucharist into a weapon to promote their evil policies and politics. These politicians of both political parties deserve care for their souls. Is this not also the duty of a bishop?
Bishops and priests who properly according to canon law deny the Eucharist to these individuals are not the ones “weaponizing” the Eucharist: They’re making correction medicinally to save souls. Two things are accomplished in denying the Eucharist to public and unrepentant sinners: the salvation of their souls and respect for the truth about Christ’s Presence in the Eucharist which builds up all believers.
Thus, truth in all matters at all times in the Church is what builds up unity. Injuring any truth at any time, whether by our neglect through omissions or by means of words or actions of denial, injures and undermines our unity at its source: Jesus Christ, the Truth, present as the Eucharist.
Let’s go back to teaching about the state of grace as we used to. Everyone is capable of understanding what every seven-year-old in preparation for his first reception of Our Eucharistic Lord can grasp. If you aren’t in a state of grace you go to Confession before receiving Communion.
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