Catholic teaching sees the Eucharist as Christ’s transformative sacrifice on the cross and this Holy Communion must only be received worthily. This teaching is not partisan, but it certainly applies to political leaders who back abortion and euthanasia, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix has said in an apostolic exhortation on the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
“Holy Communion is reserved for those, who with God’s grace make a sincere effort to live this union with Christ and His Church by adhering to all that the Catholic Church believes and proclaims to be revealed by God,” Bishop Olmsted said, explaining that Church teaching on this has “always been clear and based on Scripture.”
This is why the Church “requires Catholic leaders who have publicly supported gravely immoral laws such as abortion and euthanasia to refrain from receiving Holy Communion until they publicly repent and receive the Sacrament of Penance,” continued his exhortation, Veneremur Cernui.
“Not all moral issues have the same weight as abortion and euthanasia. The Church teaches that abortion or euthanasia is an intrinsically grave sin and that there is a grave and clear obligation for all Catholics to oppose them by conscientious objection,” the bishop said.
Olmsted said that the current political climate means the Church can be “easily accused of favoring one party and singling out politicians of a certain party with such a teaching.”
“However, the Church is only faithfully reaffirming its perennial teaching on the Eucharist and the worthy reception of Holy Communion which applies to every single person,” said the bishop. Elsewhere in the letter, he explained that in an unworthy reception of Holy Communion, the sacrament “becomes a sacrilege.”
He added: “the spiritual medicine becomes for that person – it is frightful to say – a form of spiritual poison.”
“When we do not really believe in Jesus, when we do not really seek to conform our entire life to Him and receive Jesus even though we know that we have sinned against Him, then this just leads to a greater sin and betrayal,” said Olmsted….
The above comes from an April 6 story on the site of the Catholic News Agency.
Headline, in my humble opinion, needs clarification. Communion is not a sacrilige. If one receives in unworthy circumstances, that’s a sacrilige.
He can say that, but I know plenty of people who have gone without Communion for over a year now, and they don’t miss it. They don’t feel any different. They aren’t hungering for it. Makes you wonder if it’s what the church says it is and what Bishop Olmstead is saying. Covid shutdowns and Mass dispensations have been a large-scale experiment that has made a lot of people realize that life without Mass and the Eucharist isn’t much different from life with them. So… the church has a bigger problem than Biden or Pelosi receiving Communion. We now have hundreds of thousands of Catholics, if not millions, who have realized that Communion doesn’t make any difference in their lives.
I believe last year that the Easter Duty fell under the dispensation. In some diocese it may this year as well. You are obligated to receive Holy Communion once a year during the Easter season. It is a grave sin that must be confessed if you do not.
If you have been making spiritual communions, that is great.
It’s not a grave sin. There is a qualifier that if there is a “just cause” the Easter duty does not obligate.
I accidently gave a thumbs up.
Yes, what’s the retention rate in Olmstead’s diocese for teenagers who receive Confirmation? How many of them attend Mass weekly two years, five years, or ten years later? A bigger problem than Biden, and he’s a problem but he’s just a senile old man, is that Confirmation is a “goodbye” sacrament for about 90% of Catholic teens. The church is dying because many people who grow up Catholic conclude that either Catholicism is religious Harry Potter fiction or they think the non-Catholic world makes them a better offer than what the Church teaches.
Anonymous I hunger for Communion and when I’m unable because of health issues to go to Mass and receive the Body of Christ, emptiness abounds. Your apparent lack of belief in the Eucharist is troubling. Also from what I read of your comments that the reason you and other people do not feel any different not receiving is because of your lack of belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. So sad. Maybe a refresher course on this defined and most important belief of our Church. That’s what separates us from other religions. We have Jesus’ real presence that we can receive whenever we want. What joy!
Did those priests, bishops and cardinals who diddled boys before and after consecrating and consuming the Eucharist have faith?
You mean the homosexual Clergy? The Devil entered these men & of course it was an abomination. So what’s your point? It’s apparent these Priests, Bishops were/are very sick. The presence of Jesus in the Eucharist doesn’t change because of our sinfulness. But it is an abomination. And the victims of these sick men we can never apologize enough.
Maybe I’ll send the Archdiocese of Phoenix a donation, since I can’t give their Bishop a thumbs up.
He appears to be teaching and defending Catholicism.
Communion is not a reward for the good but strength for the weak, for sinners. – Pope Francis
“for sinners” . . . who have _repented_.
I don’t think the pope added that qualifier. Those are your words.
The Pope didn’t need to “add” that qualifier. It’s implicit and explicit in the teachings of the Church.
We do not invite the entire world to Holy Communion, until persons with free wills respond to the grace of Christ, repent and are in a state of grace.
That’s the constant teaching of the Catholic Church.
God will not force strengthening, healing or even eternal life upon us. He made us in His image. We are free moral agents and He “respects” that.
“Those are your words.”
Which express the infallible teaching of the Catholic Church, as far back as Saint Paul.
As Catholics, we do not believe that infallible truth changes. Modernists do. That’s why they’re heretics.
What is Olmstead’s opinion about whether James Martin should receive Communion?
Did Bishop Olmstead say such things in his homily on Easter so that all the Easter Egg Catholics who only come to Mass twice a year would be instructed not to receive a sacrilegious Communion? If not, I think this statement of his is more politically motivated than motivated by concern for souls.
I will try to write this post objectively, without “expressiveness,” and expressive punctuation to express myself… since my posts always get my expressive punctuations altered…
I’ve always been a huge admirer of Bishop Olmsted– wouldn’t he be a great Pope? Also– to answer posts about “Catholics” who do not miss Mass attendance nor reception of Our Lord in Holy Communion… and may now leave the Catholic Church, never to return… Very few worshippers are truly blessed with religious faith– Faith is a gift of God. The True Church is actually small. And look what the Holy Bible says about the small number of saved souls, at the end.. and as we can see, many wolves of the Devil love to attack, deceive, and mislead Christ’s sheep…
We must work hard to pray for, sacrifice for, and help teach and evangelize Christ’s confused and lost sheep… that is the way I see it.
In the first century, A.D., a small number of Christians grew and grew, and survived several more centuries of Roman persecutions and executions, as their religion was against the law, punishable by death. But as time went by, all Rome was finally converted– until the Christian Faith became the State religion, and cornerstone of all Western civilization. Next, Christianity spread to every corner of the globe, and the Holy Bible was translated.into every known language on earth. Christianity has survived many terrible persecutions since then, and many murders and martyrdoms of Saints. Jesus Christ reigns forever, in good times and in bad, in tiny numbers and in huge numbers of followers… it doesn’t matter… Christ is here, yesterday, today, and forevermore… the Devil cannot stop Him.