Lawmakers who expand abortion rights can’t receive communion, Illinois bishop says
An Illinois bishop has barred two top Democratic state lawmakers from receiving Holy Communion in the Springfield diocese because of their support for legislation that would expand abortion rights.
House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, along with other state lawmakers who supported two pieces of legislation, are no longer allowed to receive communion during mass, the Diocese of Springfield said in a news release.
Other lawmakers who voted for the bills are also barred, the diocese said.
Bishop Thomas John Paprocki is a canon lawyer and met with other canon lawyers before issuing his decree, according to the diocese.
In his decree, Paprocki cites Canons 915 and 916 as well as Scripture as grounds for the barring. Both reference the persistence of “grave sin,” a phrase that Pope Francis has used in reference to abortion, according to the decree.
Canon 915 in the Code of Canon Law states those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion,” the decree says.
Canon 916 states, “A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or to receive the Body of the Lord without prior sacramental confession unless a grave reason is present and there is no opportunity of confessing; in this case the person is to be mindful of the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition, including the intention of confessing as soon as possible.”
“I condemn the gravely immoral action of the Illinois House of Representatives in passing Senate Bill 25, labeled with a highly misleading title as the ‘Reproductive Health Act,’ purporting to declare abortion a fundamental right,” Paprocki said in a May 28 release.
Should Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, sign Senate Bill 25, known as the Reproductive Health Act, it would “protect the right to choose an abortion” and require private insurers to cover costs, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Illinois House Bill 40 was signed into law in 2017 and “removed a provision that excluded abortions or induced miscarriages or premature births from the list of services provided under the State’s medical assistance program,” according to the newspaper.
State Senator Melinda Bush, a Democrat, is the chief sponsor of the bill and says Illinois is “standing with women.”
“As states across the country pass dangerous laws restricting access to abortion, we in Illinois are standing with women and guaranteeing access to reproductive health care,” Bush said in a statement. “There’s a very real possibility that Roe v. Wade will be overturned in the next few years. The Reproductive Health Act guarantees that women in Illinois have the right to make decisions about their bodies, regardless of what happens at the federal level.”
ACLU of Illinois Executive Director Colleen Connell expressed her support of Madigan and Cullerton, stating that Madigan’s leadership “moved the legislation forward.”
“It is sad to read the report of the legislative leaders targeted because each took their oath to our state constitution seriously and respected the religious liberty of all Illinois residents,” Connell said in a statement.
This story was originally published June 6, 2019 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Lawmakers who expand abortion rights can’t receive communion, Illinois bishop says."