• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
A priest elevates the host during a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City in 2020. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

San Diego bishop: Don’t weaponize the Eucharist for political ends

May 6, 2021
By Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, News, World News

WASHINGTON (CNS) — “The Eucharist must never be instrumentalized for a political end, no matter how important,” said Bishop Robert W. McElroy of San Diego in a May 5 essay published on the website of America magazine, the Jesuit journal.

Because of efforts by some U.S. bishops to exclude Catholic politicians — including President Joe Biden — from receiving Communion, “the Eucharist is being weaponized and deployed as a tool in political warfare. This must not happen,” the bishop said.

Bishop Robert W. McElroy of San Diego is pictured after an interview with Catholic News Service in Rome Oct. 27, 2019. CNS photo/Paul Haring)

The prelate reissued a warning he gave three months ago at a Feb. 1 Georgetown University online forum against “weaponization of Eucharist.”

Then, Bishop McElroy said: “I do not see how depriving the president or other political leaders of Eucharist based on their public policy stance can be interpreted in our society as anything other than the weaponization of Eucharist and an effort not to convince people by argument and by dialogue and by reason, but, rather, to pummel them into submission on the issue.”

Bishop McElroy’s America essay came four days after Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco issued a pastoral letter which said: “Those who reject the teaching of the church on the sanctity of human life and those who do not seek to live in accordance with that teaching should not receive the Eucharist.”

Although Bishop McElroy did not identify Archbishop Cordileone by name, he said “a growing movement has emerged in the church in the United States” that calls upon U.S. bishops to exclude Biden and other Catholic elected officials who support legal abortion from receiving Communion.

Those aligned with this movement, he added, use three arguments to justify their position for “a national policy of eucharistic exclusion”: support of abortion that departs from church teaching; a “theology of worthiness” to receive Communion — a rite in which the assembly prays to being, “Lord, I am not worthy”; and a persistent rejection of clear Catholic teaching that “extinguishes that worthiness.”

The bishop cited the Second Vatican Council and the last three popes to blunt those arguments.

The Vatican II document “Lumen Gentium” says Jesus instituted the Eucharist as “a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity.”

But “a national policy of excluding pro-choice political leaders from the Eucharist will constitute an assault on that unity, on that charity,” Bishop McElroy said.

“Fully half the Catholics in the United States will see this action as partisan in nature, and it will bring the terrible partisan divisions that have plagued our nation into the very act of worship that is intended by God to cause and signify our oneness,” he added.

Backers of eucharistic exclusion cite St. Paul’s exhortation “not to eat or drink unworthily at the table of the Lord,” but de-emphasize every element of St. Paul except for “discipline,” making it instead “a theology of unworthiness,” Bishop McElroy said.

And, if “abortion and euthanasia are particularly grave evils, they are intrinsically evil and they involve threats to human life,” he asked, then “why hasn’t racism been included in the call for eucharistic sanctions against political leaders?”

Both Vatican II and St. John Paul II in his encyclical “Veritatis Splendor” saw racism as a “compelling intrinsic evil,” Bishop McElroy said, while the U.S. bishops themselves in the pastoral letter “Brothers and Sisters to Us” describe racism as “not merely one sin among many; it is a radical evil that divides the human family and denies the new creation of a redeemed world.”

“It will be impossible to convince large numbers of Catholics in our nation that this omission does not spring from a desire to limit the impact of exclusion to Democratic public leaders and a desire to avoid detracting from the focus on abortion,” Bishop McElroy said.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, in his “Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life,” warned bishops against just such a pathway, the bishop added, quoting: “The Christian faith is an integral unity, and thus it is incoherent to isolate some particular element to the detriment of the whole of Catholic doctrine.”

In Pope Francis’ encyclical “Evangelii Gaudium,” he called Communion “not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.” But “the newly emerging American theology of unworthiness is a direct challenge to this teaching and poses great dangers to Catholic faith, spirituality and practice,” Bishop McElroy said. He also it “constitutes a significant departure” from Vatican II.

“At a time when we are emerging from a pandemic and seeking to rebuild the eucharistic community, it would be particularly wounding to embrace and emphasize a theology of unworthiness and exclusion rather than a theology that emphasizes Christ’s unrelenting invitation to all,” Bishop McElroy said.

He added that this effort would also “undermine the tremendous work that our priests and lay leaders are doing in emphasizing the importance of every Catholic returning to full and active participation in the liturgy of God.”

Also see

Florida Catholic wife, mom, doctor involved in sainthood causes says Eucharist is central to all she does

‘Remembering’ in Eucharist: We celebrate, we believe

Eucharistic heart of Mary: Tabernacle, Monstrance and Minister

Dioceses wake up to youth mental health crisis, helping parents, teachers and pastors take action

Missionary of mercy priest: ‘Be Christ to all people’ in a world ‘hungry for the Word’

Experts hail U.S. surgeon general’s social media warning for youth mental health

Copyright © 2021 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Pope Francis says situation at U.S.-Mexico border is ‘serious problem’
  • Assault outside Planned Parenthood office leaves pregnancy center employees shaken
  • Movie Review: ‘The Little Mermaid’
  • Missionary of mercy priest: ‘Be Christ to all people’ in a world ‘hungry for the Word’
  • In honoring anti-Catholic activists, L.A. Dodgers strike out

| Latest Local News |

Assault outside Planned Parenthood office leaves pregnancy center employees shaken

RADIO INTERVIEW: The Prosperity Gospel

CEO, authors, NFL coach take part in Catholic college commencements

| Latest World News |

A year after mass shooting, Catholic Extension recommits to ongoing support for Uvalde community

Head of bishops’ anti-racism committee praises investigations into racist histories

Thousands flock to Missouri for ‘electrifying’ visit to former Baltimore nun’s apparently incorrupt body

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • A year after mass shooting, Catholic Extension recommits to ongoing support for Uvalde community
  • Head of bishops’ anti-racism committee praises investigations into racist histories
  • Thousands flock to Missouri for ‘electrifying’ visit to former Baltimore nun’s apparently incorrupt body
  • Evangelizer’s strength comes from practicing what one preaches, pope says
  • After visit to Ukraine, Swedish cardinal says he hopes for ‘just peace’
  • Promote Christian values, not divisions, on social media, Vatican says
  • Shia LaBeouf: ‘I fell in love with Christ’ to portray Padre Pio on screen
  • Columbus Diocese closes 15 parishes amid initiative to move from maintenance to mission
  • Economists, educators, Catholic leaders discuss what’s at stake in debt limit resolution for those most in need

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED