Just a few days ago I was reminded of the importance of our ongoing effort to defend Christ from sacrilege. This news report tells us why. On Ash Wednesday, wearing ashes on his forehead, Biden was challenged about his support for abortion. In response he said: “I don’t want to get in a debate with you on theology, but you know, well anyway, I’m not going to make a judgment for other people.”
Some folks would say that he really had no idea what he was talking about, but not me. He literally gave that answer on Ash Wednesday, knowing full well that his advocacy and support for killing the innocent disqualified him from receiving the Eucharist until he repents of his support for that “grave moral disorder.”
In case you feel strongly that Mr. Biden embraces a position that can be defended, let’s just say he is joined in his embrace with evil by New York Times writer Garry Wills who calls Catholic bishops part of a “cult of the fetus.” Of course, Wills has been in an adversarial position with Catholic teaching for years. Defending someone of Biden’s ilk therefore seems right up his alley.
But we need not pay heed to these heralds of evil. Our task is to defend Christ in the Eucharist and everywhere, especially during treacherous times like these. This is why I find the words of Jesuit priest Sam Sawyer so appropriate in our present age. Fr. Sawyer points out a popular dysfunction in the way American Catholics talk about abortion. Specifically he suggests that, too often, many people—including pro-lifers—use the word choice rather than addressing the genuine matter of justice for every person, born and preborn. And he says that deferring to one’s conscience in this discussion belies the fact that conscience could be wrong. Citing the Catechism, he opines: “The Catechism of the Catholic Church points out that conscience can err, among many other causes, because of the ‘assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the church’s authority and her teaching [or] lack of conversion and of charity’ (No. 1792).”
This intersection of truth and deception is precisely where the pro-life position differs from that of the pro-abortion/death opinion. On the one hand, faith and reason guide a thinking person to a proper understanding of truth, but emotion and rhetoric often guide one to mistakenly believe that personal opinion trumps truth.
This is why, when it comes to defending Christ and His real presence in the Eucharist and/or defending and protecting the rights of the child prior to birth, we make logical sense, and those who oppose the facts do not. In either case, the real presence of which we speak is not opinion. It is a concrete truth that does not change regardless of one’s personal viewpoint.
President Biden has lost his way, and thus when he receives the body of Christ in the Eucharist—because he is accommodated by the priest or Eucharistic minister providing the sacrament—more than one evil is occurring. Not only is the body of Christ being insulted by Biden, but it’s also being insulted by the person delivering this sacrament.
This is not a harsh criticism of a witless man but rather a logical statement based on Canon 915: “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”
Biden is obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin. Biden supports and advocates for the killing of babies prior to birth!
Regardless of what the apologists for Biden may say or what the dissenters from canon law may say, we will persist in spreading the truth, helping others to see why it is wrong to support aborting babies and receive Holy Eucharist.
The presence is real—for the preborn child and the body of Christ. That is why we should never stop defending Truth!