MP Chris Coughlin banned from Communion
A Single Denial to Give Communion That Echoed Around the World
It's canon law -- 915 to be exact. And yet it is almost never enacted against politicians who champion abortion, euthanasia, and other intrinsic moral evils often while announcing their Catholic faith and describing themselves as "devout". Talk about scandal!
Archbishop Cordileone banned Nancy Pelosi from communion in 2022. [Letter to Pelosi] His action was undermined by Pope Francis who bragged that he never denies communion to anyone. (Presumably he would have given communion to a mafia don after he shot an enemy during Mass.) Nancy received communion at the Vatican after the ban. Was anyone surprised?
Other U.S. bishops supported Cordileone's position by denying Pelosi communion in their own dioceses, but it's very unusual to see a parish priest making the decision on his own despite the clear canon law that calls for protection of the flock from grave scandal. Too many priests keep their heads down out of fear of being cancelled.
But not Fr. Ian Vane! He privately warned MP Chris Coughlin, a parishioner, that voting to legalize assisted suicide would force him to refuse him communion. After the politician voted for the bill anyway (his constituents take precedence over God), Fr. Vane announced to his parishioners that he banned Coughlin from communion. The priest's act, like the ripple in a lake, has spread far and wide. The provost of Brompton Oratory in London, Fr. Julian Large, praised Fr. Vane's courage and charity. Yes, it is an act of charity to warn someone teetering on the abyss. Sadly, many double down on their evil act as Coughlin is doing. But his fomenting has simply magnified Fr. Vane's act. Do a search on Fr. Vane and see the uproar, especially the enraged statements from Coughlin.
Think of how the act of one courageous individual can give courage to others to follow in his footsteps. There are many examples from the early Church of pagans witnessing the courage of the martyrs and converting on the spot and sharing their fate. We need priests willing to do that. May God raise them up!
Thank you, Fr. Vane, for caring more about souls than public opinion. Coughlin's reaction shows how guilty his conscience is. Evil goes berserk when challenged. But sometimes that's the early sign of a future conversion. I haven't given up hope on Nancy Pelosi, a fellow alumna from Trinity College (now university) in Washington, D.C.
I'm offering my rosary today for all the Catholic politicians who brag about their "devout" faith while they champion the murder of the innocent. In charity let us pray and sacrifice for their conversion. Saving someone's life is great love, but cooperating in saving a soul is infinitely greater.
Sometime in the early '2000’s, as I was cooking, I was listening to EWTN Radio.
ReplyDeleteFr. Groeschel was on. He was speaking about the True Presence in the Eucharist; it was so well explained. After, he was taking calls. A Baptist minister called, his voice was shaking, he obviously was very moved. After thanking Fr. Groeschel, he asked: ‘‘Father, do you think I should become Catholic?’’ The ‘good’ Father said: “Be a good Baptist.”
I have immediately sent email to the Radio station…….. reply was not necessary.
This is just one ‘betrayal’, among many, how ‘TRUTH’, HIS SACRAMENTS, and ‘Religious Liberty’, ‘false ecumenism-in the name of human respect, and false love of neighbor,’ have been compromised for decades, (way before Pope Francis, sat on the Seat of Peter), by His ‘consecrated’ from the top down. Volumes have been written…..legions have been blind and deaf swaying to ‘amazing grace.’
Where there is no ‘fear of God’, there’s no holiness!
It’s a high time to break the silence, and cowardice……to serve God, rather than men. The loss of souls is known to God, alone.
I'm sad to read that comment about Fr. Groeschel.
ReplyDeleteI really don't understand people who claim to be Catholic but get angry when called out for failing to follow its teachings. I guess that's the arrogance of the times we live in. No one not even God through his Church is going to tell them what to do!
Seven UK Catholics voted against this bill. How do you justify only one being denied communion? Pelosi is denied communion, while Newsom (who put up billboards in South Dakota, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas advertising abortion assistance), Biden, Cuomo and every other pro-abort on the federal, state and local level, including Tim Kaine, in your own Arlington, Virginia diocese are in communion.
ReplyDeletehttps://theconversation.com/assisted-dying-56-mps-switched-their-vote-between-rounds-heres-how-religion-affected-their-choices-259589
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/15/gavin-newsom-california-abortion-sanctuary-red-state-billboards-00057060
June 25, 2025 - third anniversary of overturning Roe V Wade. Durbin and Gillibrand are co-sponsors.
https://www.kaine.senate.gov/press-releases/warner-and-kaine-introduce-bill-to-protect-access-to-reproductive-health-care
I used to be taken in by this idea that these famous people needed to be denied communion, but I don't believe looking at Henry VIII receiving communion even though he was a serial adulterer--same with Charles II, Louis XIV etc. etc. that the Church ever denied communion or Catholic burial unless they did something like Henry II, i.e. kill a bishop, appoint bishops without permission or in some other way defy/interfere with the Church. It is the Church itself that has given these politicians the idea that they can be personally opposed to abortion and yet promote it as "freedom of choice" -- same as the Church now does in regard to religion (don't want Catholic states, but freedom of religion).
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/world/europe/italy-abortion-law-meloni.html
So many people are going with assisted suicide because they don't want to suffer or their loved ones to suffer. Where is the Church/priest explaining the value of suffering (and the difference between temporal and eternal suffering) or why we pray: "Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us now and at the hour of our death." "Jesus, Mary and Joseph I give you my heart and my soul. Jesus, Mary, Joseph assist me in my last agony. Jesus, Mary and Joseph may I breathe forth my soul in peace with you. Amen." How many people do pray daily for those in their last agony?
https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/news/7-in-10-people-of-faith-would-support-legalising-assisted-dying/