Radically pro-abortion President Joe Biden received Holy Communion at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware, last Saturday, despite his own rejection of Catholic teaching on the “intrinsically disordered” nature of abortion.

The self-professed Catholic politician attended the 4 p.m. vigil Mass at St. Joseph’s on the Brandywine Church on July 24.

Joe Biden has been very open about his support for abortion. He has gone so far as to call abortion an “essential health service” and wishes to enshrine abortion into federal law.

The Church’s Canon Law stipulates that under no circumstances are those who persist in manifest grave sin to receive the Holy Eucharist. “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.”

It was based on this very directive of Canon Law that Fr. Robert E. Morey of St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, South Carolina, refused to give Biden Holy Communion in 2019.

In comments to media in the aftermath, Morey explained his reasons: “Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church. Our actions should reflect that.”

“Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching,” he added.

In response, Biden claimed that Fr. Morey’s actions were unique, and even contrary to his experience with Pope Francis: “It’s not a position that I’ve found anywhere else, including from the Holy Father, who gives me Communion.”

Biden’s reception of Communion this Saturday comes on the back of the recent spring meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Last month, the bishops debated the drawing up of a document on the meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the Church.

Many prelates in the conference warned against such a document, declaring that it would lead to a “weaponization” of the Holy Eucharist if the text were to draw up norms on denying pro-abortion politicians access to the Holy Eucharist.

The proposed document was eventually approved in a vote, with a majority of 168-55.

Days after the spring meeting, the USCCB’s head of the Doctrine Committee, Bishop Kevin Rhoades, announced that the planned document would not be instituting a “national policy on withholding Communion from politicians.”

Indeed, the Jesuit-run church where Biden normally attends Sunday Mass, Holy Trinity Catholic Church in the nation’s capital, issued its own statement after the USCCB Spring Meeting, declaring that the clergy there “will not deny the Eucharist to persons presenting themselves to receive it.”

The stance of many figures in the USCCB is contrary to that of Cardinal Raymond Burke, former Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, who gave an interview in September 2020 in which he referenced Biden, saying that “a Catholic may not support abortion in any shape or form because it is one of the most grievous sins against human life, and has always been considered to be intrinsically evil.”

“I can’t imagine that he would present himself as a devout Catholic,” Burke said. “He has a record which is unfortunately perfect in promoting the attack on the innocent defense of the unborn … He is also not correct on the issues with regard to marriage and the family. The great darkness in our nation comes from the wholesale slaughter of the unborn, the attack on the family, all this gender theory … and now the attack on religious freedom.”

Indeed, after Biden attended Mass at Washington’s Cathedral of St. Matthew on the morning of his inauguration, Austin Ruse, the president of the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM), wrote: “Joe Biden ate and drank his own spiritual death. That he received the Holy Eucharist from the hands of a Cardinal of the Church adds scandal upon scandal. One radio wag called it a [M]ass for Planned Parenthood. And so, it was.”

The above comes from a July 26 story from Life Site News.