SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (ChurchMilitant.com) – A fake Catholic is complaining because he’s been denied Communion.
Sen. Dick Durbin
Illinois senator Dick Durbin complained in an interview Monday that his pastor and bishop have refused to give him Communion since 2004, citing his pro-abortion voting record.
“It is the individual decision of these specific bishops that this is the one take-it-or-leave-it issue for participating in Communion,” the senator bemoaned. “And I think that is fundamentally unfair.”
Springfield’s then-bishop, George Lucas, sided with Durbin’s pastor, Msgr. Kevin Vann (now bishop of Orange, California), in deciding to deny Communion to Durbin — the aim being to protect the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament from sacrilege. The current bishop, Thomas Paprocki, has not only maintained that position but expanded it to apply to all pro-abortion politicians in his diocese.
Durbin has taken sacrilegious refuge in Cdl. Blase Cupich’s archdiocese, Chicago, where he is permitted to desecrate the Body of Christ.
“I found another Catholic venue,” Durbin reported, “the archdiocese of Chicago, and a church where they were willing to let me in. … So it’s become my new faith home.”
In defending his pro-abortion legislative history, the senator demonstrated a poor grasp of authentic Catholic teachings and touted moral relativism:
It’s been a long time since I took theology classes, but I think the standard for receiving Communion is a well-formed conscience, and where you come down as a result of that, and that is personal to the individual standing at the rail. … If we’re going to start down this road of denying Communion, where do we stop? … In the end it is a personal decision to stand at that rail, and I think with very few exceptions, Communion is offered to anybody if the person believes that they are worthy of it.
Durbin’s comments reveal it has indeed been a long time since he took theology classes. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “He who is aware that he has committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion, even if he feels great contrition, without first having received sacramental absolution.”
While many U.S. bishops have refused to openly criticize the pro-abortion policies penned and furthered by fake Catholics like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, Durbin is in the rare position of being publicly informed by his pastors and his bishops that he has, in fact, committed a mortal sin.
The senator’s record bears out his commitment to supporting the grave sin of abortion. Durbin has a nearly 90% approval rating from the rabidly pro-abortion NARAL (National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws) group. As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he has played a significant role in appointing federal judges to ensure children are murdered across the nation. And as Senate Democratic whip, it has been his task since 2005 to drum up support for federal pro-abortion legislation, to ensure it gets passed.
Durbin further claimed U.S. bishops treat Democrats too harshly, citing both himself and Biden as examples. He faulted Abp. José Gómez of Los Angeles for his supposedly critical statement on Biden’s inauguration — a statement faithful Catholics derided as lukewarm at best and overly friendly at worst.
He proceeded to lament the Catholic response to President Donald Trump’s use of the death penalty at the federal level:
And here we have Trump in the closing days of his presidency executing more people on federal death row than any time in modern memory, just right and left. … And to think that these same Catholic leaders didn’t express horror at that outcome, or at least as much as they should have from my point of view, is troubling.
Nevertheless, the Catholic Church has long held the death penalty is permissible — despite confusion about the matter under Pope Francis.
Bp. Thomas Paprocki
Regardless, Trump authorized the execution of 10 men in 2020, all of whom had been tried and convicted of grave criminal offenses. Conversely, the abortion industry Durbin so ardently defends was responsible for a reported 619,591 deaths of children in 2018 (the most recent year for which statistics are available).
Finally, Durbin expressed concern over next week’s meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. A chief topic of discussion for the bishops will be a document on the sanctity of the Holy Eucharist, which was initially intended to address whether or not to deny Communion to fake Catholic pro-aborts.
“Three out of four Catholic bishops,” Durbin fretted, “voted in June to consider a document on the Eucharist, which makes me concerned that three-quarters of the U.S. bishops think this should be the official policy of the Catholic Church in America.”
The interview was conducted by left-leaning Jesuit periodical America Magazine (whose editor-at-large is pro-sodomy Fr. James Martin) and published the week before the bishops’ meeting.
Martin delivered the opening prayer at last year’s Democratic National Convention.
