Cardinal Burke: Pro-abortion politicians are in ‘apostasy,’ automatically excommunicated

Pro-abortion Biden and Pelosi receive sacrilegious communion at Bergoglio's inaugural Mass

Whilst not mentioning him by name, the statement is likely aimed at pro-abortion, pro-LGBT, U.S. President Joe Biden.

VATICAN CITY, April 8, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) –– Raymond Cardinal Burke, the former Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, has released a statement declaring that those who “publicly and obstinately violate the moral law” are in a state of apostasy, automatically excommunicated, and thus must not be permitted to receive Holy Communion.

Cardinal Burke, a doctor of canon law, entitled his work, a “Statement on the Reception of Holy Communion by Those Who Persist in Public Grave Sin.”

He explained that it had been written to clarify the question which Catholic and non-Catholics alike pose, with regard to how Catholics, particularly politicians, are being allowed to receive Holy Communion, whilst publicly promoting programs and laws which violate Church teaching.

Such a question applied particularly to those who engaged in promotion of “abortion on demand,” as well as laws violating the “dignity of human life…the integrity of human sexuality, marriage and the family, and…the free practice of religion.”

This “touches on the very foundations of the Church’s teaching regarding faith and morals,” wrote the cardinal, who re-presented the Church’s teaching in his statement, so as to help those who are “rightly confused and indeed frequently scandalized by the all too common public betrayal of the Church’s teaching on faith and morals by those who profess to be Catholic.”

Quoting directly from canon law, Cardinal Burke wrote: “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”

As a result, priests and bishops must “instruct and admonish the faithful” who are in such a state, in order to prevent offences against God through unworthy reception of Communion, which lead to “their own eternal harm and, likewise, leading others into error and even sin in such a serious matter.”

Whilst not mentioning him by name, the statement is likely aimed at pro-abortion, pro-LGBT, U.S. President Joe Biden. Biden, although he claims to be Catholic, has called abortion an “essential health service” and advocates a number of policies which would promote LGBT ideology in everyday life in America and across the world.

Since entering the White House, Biden has marked his tenure with a number of policies and appointments that radically advance the abortion agenda, and serve to undermine many of the pro-life victories achieved under former President Trump.

Despite his prolific, public support for abortion, Biden continues to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion, with the newly appointed Archbishop of Washington, Wilton Cardinal Gregory, having promised that he would not refuse Holy Communion to Biden.

Yet, the clergy are not permitted to allow one to receive Holy Communion, if he is in “public and obstinate grave sin,” added Burke.

The former archbishop of St. Louis appeared to take aim at the policy of “dialogue” which the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), as well as individual bishops, have taken with regard to Biden and his pro-abortion policies.

“Neither is it a question of a discussion between the priest or Bishop and the one who is committing the sin, but a matter of admonition regarding truths of faith and morals, on the part of the priest or Bishop, and a matter of reform of an erroneous conscience, on the part of the sinner,” Burke’s statement continues.

The cardinal re-iterated Church teaching on the “grave moral disorder” of abortion, since such an action violates both the “natural law” and Church teaching as contained in the “written Word of God…the Church’s Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.”