If anyone is holding out hope that Bishop Clark will do the right thing and deny Holy Communion to those “Catholics” who voted in favor of the gay marriage bill (i.e – Senator James Alesi), then you probably aren’t familiar with the following comment from the bishop:
|“In my 42 years as a priest, I’ve never once refused Holy Communion to anyone … I always presume good faith in those who approach.” – Bishop Matthew Clark, June 2004 Democrat & Chronicle (source)
The biggest problem with V2 was that it placed far too much responsibility on the person and not enough on the Church. Parents were charged with educating the children, but the Church didn’t foresee parents who had zero faith and education to pass on to their kids, or zero interest. Catholics were charged with preparing their own souls before Communion, but the Church didn’t foresee Catholics not caring enough to do so and thinking that since the Church allows them to do it, what is the fuss about?
It was naivete. Parents are fallen. Catholics are fallen. We are lost sheep in need of a strong shepherd, and for the most part, the shepherds left us to ourselves after V2, and we have now become missionary territory.
Its time to correct the mistakes.
Good faith asssumption is not available here because we have manifest grave wrongdoing, and to ignore it would be like a manager of a store hearing an employee explicitly telling everyone he’s been dipping into the the till, confirming that the till is indeed short, but not doing anything.
I think the denial of Holy Communion should be reserved only for extreme cases, and only those cases which are in the public forum. A person’s vote is not public, (unless we are speaking of “Catholic” politicians) therefore there would be no reason to deny a person holy communion—which would be a public act of the Church. The denial of Holy Communion is reserved for public acts in the external forum.
Certainly priests can and ought to preach on the reality that one must approach communion worthily and make sure one goes to confession if one is aware of Mortal Sin. However if people choose to ingore the priests preaching—remember—they do so at their own peril. Those who voted in favor of gay marriage, and knew they should not—and go up for holy communion without having gone to confession do so at their own peril.
The purpose of denying holy communion is not punishment persey, but rather out of concern for the person’s soul, and concern for the rest of the Body of Christ—that the rest of the Body will not be scandalized.
“In my 42 years as a priest, I’ve never once refused Holy Communion to anyone”
This would explain why I saw him give communion to 2 Mormon missionaries one Easter morning.
*facepalm*