Cardinal Arinze - No Communion for Pro-Abort Politicians

(from LifeSiteNews.Com) - Speaking at a dinner in Pittsburgh over the weekend, Francis Cardinal Arinze responded with his usual wit to the question, "Should Catholic legislators who support legal abortion 'be refused' Communion?"

The Cardinal elicited laughter when he rejoined, "I ask you, do you really need a cardinal from the Vatican to find the answer? Are there no children from First Communion to whom you can pose the question and receive the answer? You do not need a cardinal to answer that. Because it is a straightforward matter."

The Cardinal, moreover, is speaking not from his personal opinion but from the Church's Code of Canon Law which states, "Those who…obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."

Apparently, however, the bishops do need a Vatican Cardinal to tell them. The US and Canadian bishops, with only a handful of exceptions, far from endorsing this requirement of the Church law, have evaded the issue or remained silent.

In book-length interview with journalist Peter Seewald, the future Pope Benedict XVI said of bishops whose first instinct is to avoid conflicts, "Peace is not the first civic duty, and a bishop whose only concern is not to have any problems and to gloss over as many conflicts as possible is an image I find repulsive."