Pope Francis Supports Sodomy and Holy Communion for Pro-Abortion Politicians

Pope Francis uses interviews as a new type of papal magisterium. More specifically, airborne interviews with journalists who accompany him on his international trips.

It is a relaxed, egalitarian magisterium with humorous exchanges. What is not at all funny, however, is that Pope Francis deals with serious Church theological, moral, pastoral, and disciplinary matters. Frequently, his statements run counter to Faith and morals.

On September 15, on the plane bringing him back to Rome after he visited Hungary and Slovakia, the pope did not shrink from answering reporters’ questions on the Blessed Sacrament and the giving of Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians. Nor did he ignore the opportunity to reiterate his support for homosexual civil unions.

An ironic and uncharitable slight to a cardinal sickened with COVID was also included. While he did not mention the cardinal by name (still hospitalized at the time of the interview), the media quickly recognized him as Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke.¹

Procured Abortion and the Blessed Sacrament

A question from Gerard O’Connell, America Magazine’s Vatican correspondent, afforded him a chance to intervene in the U.S. polemic on whether public and notorious pro-abortion politicians can receive Holy Communion or not.

On the Reception of Holy Communion by Those Who Persist in Public Grave Sin

Pope Francis’s answer on the evil of abortion was categorical: “Abortion is murder. Abortion … without mincing words, whoever has an abortion kills.”² Such clarity is welcome and deserves praise.

However, this changed when he began to address confusedly the question that most especially concerns American Catholics: Can a president and politicians who favor this murder receive Holy Communion?

The Blessed Sacrament Is the Real, not Just Spiritual Presence of Our Lord

Let us first look at Pope Francis’s ambiguous definition of the Blessed Sacrament and, more precisely, what he considers Holy Communion to be: “Communion is a gift, a present; the presence of Jesus in his Church and the community.” In addition, he emphasizes, “this is theology.”³

It is clear from the context that he is talking about Holy Communion. However, he does not mention the consecrated host, the Savior’s Real Presence, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

Hence, it would seem that, for the pope, the “gift” or “present” a believer receives in Holy Communion is just a participation in the spiritual presence of Christ in His Church.⁴

According to Catholic doctrine, however, Eucharistic Communion is “[t]he participation in the sacrificial banquet in which the faithful feed on the body and blood of Christ.”⁵ In simpler terms, it is the reception of the consecrated Host in a state of grace and with the necessary dispositions.⁶

A Theology Without Logic That Leads to “Situation Ethics”

From his confused definition of Holy Communion, Pope Francis concludes that “those who are not in the community cannot receive Communion” because “they are outside the community, ex-comunitate – they are called excommunicated … because … have drifted away for some reason.”⁷

What makes a person withdraw from the Church, to be “excommunicated,” if not sin? Pope Francis correctly defined abortion as murder, which is a most grievous sin. Therefore, it would be logically consistent if the pope concluded that a pro-abortion politician could not receive Holy Communion.

Learn All About the Prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success About Our Times

Logic fails, however. The pope seems to have adopted a theory from his advisor, Fr. Antonio Spadaro, editor-in-chief of Civiltà Cattolica, who believes that, in theology, 2+2 can equal 5!⁸ Here is the pope’s confused response: “Now let us look at that person who is not in the community [and] cannot receive Communion because he is outside the community, and this is not a punishment. No, you stay out. Communion is to join the community. But the problem is not theological, which is this simple; the problem is pastoral, as we bishops manage this principle pastorally.… The principles are from theology. Pastoral care is the theology and the Holy Spirit leading you to do it with God’s style.”⁹

Thus, according to this pastoral concept, the truth can change, depending on the circumstances. There are no unchanging revealed principles. The Holy Spirit modifies the theology that He inspired. We thus fall into a pastoral approach that leads to “situation ethics.”

Pius XII Defined and Condemned “Situation Ethics”

However, “situation ethics” was defined and condemned by Pope Pius XII in 1952. Here is what he taught:

The distinctive giveaway of this morality is that it is not based on universal moral laws such as the Ten Commandments but on concrete and real conditions or circumstances in which one must act, and according to which the individual conscience must judge and choose.…

[T]he new ethics is so contrary to the Catholic faith and principles that even a child can see it if he knows his catechism.¹⁰

The pope’s nudge to bishops that they not turn to moral theology to solve moral problems but instead act pastorally, as the Holy Spirit blows, is very serious. The insinuation seems to be that the Holy Spirit can lead pastors to act against principles in their pastoral work. Principles belong to theology. Thus, the situation is made to prevail over revealed faith and morals.

Pro-Abortion Politicians Are Children of God? What About the Aborted Babies?

Pope Francis also stated that whenever bishops abandon this pastoral concept, they swerve into politics: “If we look at the history of the Church, we will see that every time that the bishops have not managed a problem as pastors, they took sides in political life, on a political problem. In order not to manage a problem well, they took a political side.”¹¹

Therefore, for Pope Francis, the bishops should avoid politics. For him, they do this by not denying Holy Communion to President Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, despite their notorious pro-abortion actions and their claims that they continue to be Catholic.

Thus, the pope takes the side of pro-abortion politicians, making his preference clear, all the while saying that this is up to the American bishops to decide, even if this means disregarding Catholic doctrine. He says: “[We’ve had] enough excommunications; please do not excommunicate anymore.” Defending the pro-abortion politicians, he states: “Poor people, they are children of God; they are temporarily out but are children of God and want and need our pastoral closeness. So the pastor resolves things as the Spirit says it.”

Don’t Treat Wolves Like Lost Sheep

This is strange mercy! Those who favor killing the innocent unborn are dubbed “children of God” and handled with kid gloves. What about the poor aborted babies? Are they not children of God too? Is there no justice and mercy for them? Are they not loved and avenged by God? Is Pope Francis not advocating a double standard here?

God is Truth and does not change. As in the beginning, after Abel’s murder, He says today to all who undergo, perform, aid and abet procured abortions: “What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to me from the earth. Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand. When thou shalt till it, it shall not yield to thee its fruit: a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon the earth” (Gen. 4:10–12.)

Following in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd, the Church has always been clear about a pastor’s duty: He defends the flock. He attacks the wolves. His shepherd’s crook is a weapon against them. He never cringes and runs from the wolves like a hireling.

Pope Francis Supports Homosexual Unions

Pope Francis was then asked by Stefano Maria Paci, from Sky Tg24, about a European Union directive recommending that member states recognize same-sex “marriage.” In responding, the pope reiterated his approval for homosexual civil unions.¹²

He correctly stated that sacramental marriage must be between a man and a woman and that this cannot change. However, he implied that the difference between the sexes of the spouses is inherent only to the sacrament, not to the very nature of marriage, and that the Church, therefore, has no objections to non-sacramental same-sex civil unions.

Pope Francis stated: “But if they want to live together [as] a homosexual couple, the States have the civil possibility to support them, to give them the security of inheritance, health….”¹³

Eternal and Natural Law: The Foundation of Morals and Law

However, State laws cannot contradict natural and divine law by granting rights and aid to people in a state of life built on the intrinsic evil of sodomy. Pope Pius XII aptly explains, “That which does not correspond to truth or to the norm of morality objectively has no right to exist, to be spread or to be activated.”¹⁴

Either Pope Francis is indefensibly naive and believes that two people living together because of unopposed same-sex attraction can normally do so chastely—like two brothers or two sisters—or he does not regard sodomy as intrinsically evil and sinful. In this case, he contravenes Catholic morals based on Revelation and natural law.

Does God Not Punish? Is There no Hell?

In the portion of the interview on same-sex civil unions, the pope’s liberal optimism led him to state, “The Lord is good and will save everyone.” He then joked: “Don’t say this aloud [laughs], but the Lord wants to save everyone.”

If God will save everyone, this means that He is not just, as He will give the same prize to those who loved Him and practiced virtue and those who were evil and sinned against Him.¹⁵ But if God is unjust, He cannot be good because goodness and justice cannot be contradictory. Rather, they complete each other. Because God is supreme goodness, He must also be supreme justice. A God who is not good is a contradiction in terms and cannot exist. Hence, Pope Francis’s statement is misleading and leads to atheism.

What Our Lady Said About Hell at Fatima

Moreover, if everyone will be saved regardless of whether good or evil is done, that is tantamount to affirming that there is no Hell. Hell’s existence is Catholic dogma, though. The liberal superficiality encouraging people to ignore Hell favors sin, vice, and eternal damnation.

The very purpose of the Church is the salvation of souls. She labors to lead souls to Heaven, avoiding Hell. Can a pastoral policy that ignores this fundamental purpose of the Church be considered truly pastoral?

Turning to God and Our Lady

May God, our most good and just Lord, help us in this highly confusing situation. May Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, obtain from her Beloved Son the grace of wisdom and combativeness so that we may remain faithful to the end, as were others who have gone before us, marked with the Sign of Faith, during earlier Church crises.

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1. “Even in the College of Cardinals, there are some anti-vaxxers, and one of them, poor man, was hospitalized with the virus. But, life is ironic…” “Conferenza Stampa del Santo Padre Durante il Volo di Ritorno da Bratislava” (Sept. 15, 2021), https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/speeches/2021/september/documents/20210915-bratislava-volo-ritorno.html. (Our translation.)
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. This confusion is also present in the 1969 Institutio Generalis Missale Romani, the “New Mass.” See Arnaldo Xavier da Silveira, Considerations on the “Ordo Missae” of Paul VI (Cleveland: Lumen Mariae Publications, 1976), 6–10.
5. Pietro Parente, Antonio Piolanti, and Salvatore Garofolo, Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology, trans. Emanuel Doronzo, O.M.I., 1st English ed. (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1957), s.v. “Communion, Eucharistic.”
6. See Council of Trent, ses. 13, ch. 7, “The Preparation That Must be Employed to Receive the Holy Eucharist Worthily,” Denz.-Rhaner, no. 880.
7. “Conferenza Stampa del Santo Padre Durante il Volo” (Sept. 15, 2021).
8. Tweet by the director of Civiltà Cattolica: “Theology is not #Mathematics. 2 + 2 in #Theology can make 5. Because it has to do with #God and real #life of #people… — Antonio Spadaro (@antoniospadaro), Jan. 5, 2017.
9. “Conferenza Stampa del Santo Padre Durante il Volo” (Sept. 15, 2021).
10. Pius XII, “Speech to the Conference of the World Federation of Female Catholic Youth” (Apr. 18, 1952), https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/fr/speeches/1952/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19520418_soyez-bienvenues.html. (Our translation.)
11. “Conferenza Stampa del Santo Padre Durante il Volo” (Sept. 15, 2021).
12. Luiz Sérgio Solimeo, “Pope Francis Endorses Same-Sex Civil Unions, but Something Intrinsically Evil Cannot Be the Object of Legal Rights,” TFP.org, Dec. 4, 2020, https://tfp.org/pope-francis-endorses-same-sex-civil-unions-but-something-intrinsically-evil-cannot-be-the-object-of-legal-rights/.
13. “Conferenza Stampa del Santo Padre Durante il Volo” (Sept. 15, 2021).
14. Pope Pius XII, Speech “Ci Riesce” to the National Convention of Italian Catholic Jurists, (Dec. 6, 1953), no. 5, https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/ci-riesce-8948.
15. See Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 58.