Biden declares that Pope Francis said he ‘should keep receiving communion'
President Joe Biden said Pope Francis told him he should “keep receiving communion” during their 75-minute private meeting on Friday.
Biden chatted with reporters following his meeting with the pontiff at the Vatican as part of his second overseas trip since taking office in January. Biden, the first Roman Catholic to serve as president of the United States since John F. Kennedy, has clashed with Catholic Church leadership in the U.S. over his steadfast support of abortion.
One reporter asked if the issue of abortion came up during the conversation. While Biden insisted that the topic did not come up, he reported that “We just talked about the fact that he was happy I was a good Catholic and I should keep receiving communion.”
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The debate over whether pro-abortion Catholic politicians should receive communion has caused much contention within the Catholic Church in the U.S. over the past year. Concerns about Biden receiving communion date back to his 2020 presidential campaign when a priest in South Carolina denied him communion because of his support for a policy that directly contradicts Catholic Church teaching.
Supporters of denying communion to Biden and other pro-abortion Catholic politicians point to the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law, which states that those “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion” as the justification for their position. They also cite a 2004 letter from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would later become Pope Benedict XVI, to two high-ranking officials in the U.S. Catholic Church noting that “the Church teaches that abortion or euthanasia is a grave sin.”
Quoting from the encyclical Evangelium vitae, Ratzinger wrote that “In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to ‘take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law or vote for it.'” The letter called on priests to instruct Catholic politicians “consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws” on the Church’s teaching and encourage them to refrain from communion until they end “the objective situation of sin.”
Additionally, Ratzinger told priests to “refuse to distribute” communion to the politician if they continue to support such abortion laws. On the campaign trail, Biden vowed to codify Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion nationwide, into federal law. More recently, the Department of Justice under the Biden administration has taken legal action against the state of Texas over its law banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually at around six weeks gestation.
At its General Assembly meeting earlier this year, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to move ahead with the drafting of a document clarifying “the meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the Church.” Initially characterized as a rebuke to pro-abortion Catholic politicians, the USCCB emphasized that “the question of whether or not to deny any individual or groups Holy Communion was not on the ballot.”
According to a question-and-answer document about the vote published by the USCCB, “The document being drafted is not meant to be disciplinary in nature, nor is it targeted at any one individual or class of persons. It will include a section on the Church’s teaching on the responsibility of every Catholic, including bishops, to live in accordance with the truth, goodness and beauty of the Eucharist we celebrate.”
Ahead of the USCCB General Assembly, a high-ranking Vatican official authored a letter to USCCB President Archbishop Jose Gomez warning that a national policy on withholding communion from pro-abortion Catholic politicians could make it difficult to “maintain unity” in the American Catholic Church.
Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Catholic Church, expressed concern that such a policy “could become a source of discord rather than unity within the episcopate and the larger church of the United States.”
Limited video of Biden’s meeting with Pope Francis released by the Vatican reveals the two engaging in friendly conversation and the president referring to the pontiff as the “most significant warrior for peace” he has ever met. During the meeting, Biden gave the pope a liturgical vestment made in 1930 by a notable papal tailor.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki first announced that the president would meet with Pope Francis in a statement published Oct. 14. Psaki indicated that the two men would “discuss working together on efforts grounded in respect for fundamental human dignity, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis, and caring for the poor.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
