Cardinal Medina: no Communion, funeral for pro-abortion politicians without public repentance
August 18, 2017
A Chilean cardinal has warned politicians that if they support the legalization of abortion, they must not receive the Eucharist until they make a public act of repentance.
In a letter published in the daily El Mercurio, Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez refers to an effort to legalize abortion as an “atrocity.” The cardinal cites the Church’s clear teaching that support for abortion is a grave evil, and notes that the Code of Canon Law bars from Communion all those who “obstinately persevere in manifest grave sin.”
Cardinal Medina—who was prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship before his retirement in 2002 at the age of 75—said that a politician who supports legal abortion “should not receive the vote of any Christian.”
Because a politician’s support for legislation is a public matter, the cardinal argues, politicians must make a public sign of repentance in order to be restored to communion with the Church. This public repentance, he says, is “indispensable for their eternal salvation.” Politicians who have not repented after supporting abortion should not be allowed a Catholic funeral, he writes.
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