Cardinal: Officials who support abortion should not receive Communion

From Catholic News Service in May 2014

ROME (CNS) -- Catholic politicians and judges who support laws in conflict with church teaching on abortion, euthanasia, marriage and related issues commit "sacrilege" and cause "grave scandal" if they receive Communion, said the U.S. cardinal who heads the Vatican's highest court. "The church's discipline, from the time of St. Paul, has admonished those who obstinately persevere in manifest grave sin not to present themselves for Holy Communion," Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature and a former archbishop of St. Louis, said May 3. The cardinal explained that the "discipline is not a punishment but the recognition of the objective condition of the soul of the person involved in such sin. It prevents them from committing sacrilege by violating the incomparable sanctity of the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, and safeguards the Christian community at large from scandal, that is, from being led to believe that the violation of the moral law, for example in what pertains to the inviolable dignity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the family, and the freedom of conscience, is not sinful, does not gravely break communion with our Lord." 

Cardinal Burke spoke at an international conference of pro-life organizations the day before Italy's fourth annual March for Life.

Above from:  Catholic News Service - Cardinal: Officials who support abortion should not receive Communion

Divine Love Made Flesh, By Cardinal Raymond Burke

A new book of theology by the head of the Vatican’s Apostolic Signature, Cardinal Raymond L Burke, has been publicly endorsed as “a great way to introduce yourself to the teachings of the Church on the Eucharist,” by the papal nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles Brown.

Speaking in Cork on his first visit to the city since his arrival in Ireland in February, Archbishop Brown urged the Irish faithful to read and engage with Divine Love Made Flesh, which draws from two papal documents on the Eucharist.

He formally launched the new book at the closing session of the three-day Fota International Liturgy Conference and described the work as, “accessible,” and providing, “a study guide to two incredibly important documents of the Magisterium; the final encyclical of John Paul II on the holy Eucharist: Ecclesia de Eucharistia and, Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict’s apostolic exhortation.”

"What Cardinal Burke has done, in a very beautiful and at the same time easily digestible and yet profound way, is write a commentary on these two documents," the former CDF official said.  He added that the book, "summarises and helps us as priests and lay people to penetrate more deeply the profound theology of the Eucharist as given by these two great Holy Fathers.”

"The book is not simply about the liturgy, it is about the theology of the Eucharist.  It is good for every single Catholic – Irish or non-Irish – to deepen their faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  It is a very important topic,” he said.

Describing the Church in Ireland as at an, “interesting,” and, “intermediary,” period in its history, Archbishop Brown urged parishes, priests and the lay faithful to study the book as part of the Year of Faith.  “We are between the Eucharistic Congress which has just finished and we are about to begin the Year of Faith in October, and in that intermediary period I think there is really no better tool to guide us than this book by Cardinal Burke,” the papal nuncio said.

He suggested that if the book was, “read widely in Ireland and the USA and other places in the English-speaking world, it will have a great effect on the Church’s life and love for Jesus in the Eucharist,” because it translated and made very digestible and accessible the teachings of the late John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI on the Eucharist.

Taken from Article at: http://www.cinews.ie/article.php?artid=10491