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Breaking: The Pope Is Catholic
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops voted 168-55 to draft a document on “Eucharistic coherence.” A primary issue is whether or not pro-choice politicians can receive communion despite their fundamental disagreement with Rome. The debate gained steam with the election of President Biden, a Catholic who endorses abortion. Communicants are not supposed to participate in the Eucharist if they are in a state of sin and the Catholic Church considers this a serious sin.
Outrage spread across social media, blasting the bishops’ decision and demanding that all churches be taxed for “interfering with politics.” A few examples:
Dear @USCCB: I’m Catholic and I support:
-Contraception
-A woman’s right to choose
-Treatments for infertility
-The right for people to get a divorce
-The right of same sex marriageNext time I go to Church, I dare you to deny me Communion. https://t.co/bUmiyJ8TtH
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) June 18, 2021
Oh?! US Catholic Bishops are involved in Politics?
Welp – under Federal Law, you can't be "Tax Exempt" in that case.
I guess it's time to revoke that Tax Exempt status going back to 1776 – you can re-file ALL your returns as C Corps and pay the taxes plus interest.#Vatican https://t.co/mEUyLPmUN0
— Mark Judson For Congress – Scorched Earth Dem 2022 (@Judson4Congress) June 19, 2021
Targeting Biden and excluding him from the Eucharist because of his political stances makes the Catholic Church a political organization. Tax them.
— Andrea Junker (@Strandjunker) June 18, 2021
As a non-Catholic in good standing, I’ll try to explain the doctrine to my fellow non-Catholics. Put simply, the Church denies the Eucharist to the non-repentant and to non-members to protect those people.
“Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” — 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 (KJV)
The Church wants the salvation of its members, not damnation, so the Eucharist is denied to people on those grounds.
If a person is in a state of sin, he should not walk up to receive Communion. If a priest knows that a communicant is in a state of sin, it is his responsibility to deny Communion. As the chief of sinners, I have experience in this. I’m tougher on myself than any priest, so when in doubt, I remain in the pew as the Eucharist is celebrated. I did the same for the two years I attended an Orthodox church before I was a member.
One Twitter commenter wrote, “If the Catholic Church is going to deny President Biden his Sacramental rights because of his politics, then the Catholic Church should pay taxes.”
The use of “Sacramental rights” instead of “Sacramental rites” was telling. The loudest complaints came from people who consider the Eucharist everyone’s God-given, American right. It most certainly is not.
In the first few centuries of the church, non-members were not even allowed to witness the Lord’s Supper and banished to the narthex outside. After about three years of instruction, they would be baptized and partake of the Body and Blood of Christ only after promising not to speak of it to enemies of the church. This is memorialized in the prayer I have to say every time before Communion:
I believe, O Lord, and I confess, that thou art truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, who didst come into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. And I believe that this is truly Thine own immaculate Body, and that this is truly Thine own precious Blood. Wherefore, I pray Thee, have mercy on me, and forgive my transgressions, both voluntary and involuntary, of word and of deed, of knowledge and of ignorance; and make me worthy to partake without condemnation of Thine immaculate Mysteries, unto remission of my sins and unto life everlasting. Amen. Of thy Mystical Supper, O Son of God, accept me today as communicant; for I will not speak of Thy Mystery to thine enemies, neither will I give thee a kiss as did Judas, but like a thief will I confess Thee: Remember me, O Lord, in Thy kingdom. Not unto judgment nor unto condemnation be my partaking of thy Holy Mysteries, O Lord, but unto the healing of soul and body.
In both Catholic and Orthodox churches, priests are required not to serve Communion to known unrepentant sinners. If Father Jim sees I spent Saturday night Instagramming selfies snorting coke off a stripper’s hindquarters and I show up wearing the girlie bar’s T-shirt, he’ll kindly tell me to sit this Sunday out.
If you aggressively disagree with any church’s main doctrines, you probably shouldn’t be a member. I disagree with a few of Rome’s positions; that’s why I didn’t become a Catholic. Therefore, I have no right to demand they give me the Bread and Wine. It’s their religion and they make the rules. If I strolled into a mosque chomping on a BLT, the Imam would give me the boot. I wouldn’t respond by asserting my rights and demand taxation.
Hopefully, non-Catholics will better understand the Church’s position on “Eucharistic coherence” and Catholics will forgive any errors made.
Signed,
The Undisputed Chief of Sinners
Great post, Jon.
I, as a Catholic, look forward to what these Bishops produce. I have a feeling the guidance will be for other U.S. Bishops, Priests, and for us lay Catholics as well. A document for me to better understand when I am in/out of a state of grace and am worthy to join in Communion with my parish will be much appreciated.
My brother is a priest and he is so far left that I don’t even know how we came from the same parents. We haven’t talked about abortion recently, but I suspect he would simply sigh, dream of Stephen Colbert, and say something like, “but what are you going to do?”
I’ve been ambivalent over tax exempting churches.
While I agree that religious intolerance is a threat and needs to be defended against, tax exempt status is a carve out. Of course, what the progressives want is to specifically punish the Catholic Church, while leaving tax exempt status for the other denominations and religions, and that points out a specific weakness of having an exemption that has strings attached.
Tax exempt status does come with a restriction, as others in this thread point out. The churches enjoying this tax break have to restrict their free speech.
I’d get rid of the carve out altogether.
Lieu is far from the only Dim to take that position.
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/catholic-democrats-bishops-engaging-in-weaponization-of-the-eucharist/
Still, I believe his outright defiance (which resembles a teenage girl; “I dare you to deny me communion”) calls for a strong headslap the next time he presents himself for communion.
Can a priest or a minister speaking to his congregation and speaking against various sexual perversions and/or abortion be accused of involving himself in politics and consequently lose tax exempt status? I don’t think so.
Or the “How dare you!” of teenager Greta Tune-Berry (to put her last name phonetically according to where she lives).
The church doesn’t have to take the deduction. They could pay their taxes and do whatever is in line with their religious precepts.
How about just being tax exempt non-profit/educational, rather than religious? Many other groups have tax-exempt status, including overtly political groups. If the complaint is that they’re “religions,” then just drop that and have at it.
Yes, so there may be several solutions. However, if you are representing your religion, to claim you are something else just to get your tax waiver doesn’t inspire me with a lot of “faith” in your organization. I still say, just pay the tax and move on. Actually, I feel the same about the non-profits and colleges with multi-billion dollar endowments. They drive students into a half-life of severe debt while the endowment grows tax-free.
The other main solution might be to just drop this “religion can’t be involved in politics” thing if it doesn’t even apply to other tax-exempt groups.
Very Pagan of them.
Christianity is just that radical, that it says God is not transactional. It is not like other religions. One of the proofs it is true.
Also,
Fair Tax and then don’t worry about it all.
“Fair Tax”. I detect a Neil Boortz listener.
I was in the day, yes. Have both his books.
Solves so, so many problems.
Copy that.
The only problem with the fair tax is that if we ever get it, they’ll never get rid of the regular tax too.
Same of course with a VAT or anything else.
Non profits should have been taxed long ago when people felt reasonably certain that governing authorities were the legitimitate expression of popular will. Churches of every description should have felt the tax yoke, along with planned parenthood, Greenpeace, PETA, and all the so called human rights watchdogs. Oh yeah, they should have felt the burden that big oil, and small businesses have felt all these years while coming under fire.” Not for profit” is a misnomer. Always has been.
As a Catholic, I am embarrassed that the bishops feel the need to write another document on the Eucharist. It only goes to show what a terrible job they do teaching the faith. That the bishops have allowed the pro-abort politicians to hijack this fundamental teaching and use it as a cudgel is disgraceful. What is needed is fortitude and courage to actually act out what they proclaim. This is where they have failed – it is beyond time to forego dialogue for proclamation and action. And that action is to publicly call out the obstinate, manifest, grave sinners (see Canon 915) and call them to conversion and repentance for the salvation of their souls. Bishops: you are in the business of saving souls; act like it.
To me, any tax cut for any reason to anybody is a good thing. If there are “non-profits” that don’t pay taxes, good for them. I hope to not pay taxes someday too. I’m not jealous or resentful of those not so oppressed. I’m happy for them.
Hey! That’s my title!
Oh yes, it needs to be a replacement, not an additional tax
A pre-existing non-tax status is less a carve-out than a grandfather clause.
Thinking of it as a carve-out suggests that government revenue is the natural purpose of all that exists within a set of borders.
I would love to believe that would happen, but the nobility is long accustomed to having clergy defer to them in matters of faith.
“Next time I go to Church, I dare you to deny me Communion.”
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
As soon as we tax the Ivy Leagues to cover the damages their miseducation alumni have wrought on the rest of the US.
They don’t even begin to have enough jack for that.
We’d be holding college presidents by the ankles and banging their heads on the ground to get their last nickles.
Which isn’t otherwise an entirely unattractive image.
We can make a dent.
I fail to see that this is issue.
Bonus feature.
They would welcome Biden and Co with a parade, and a lunch with cold cuts after..