Jesus said simply, “Follow me.” He didn’t say decide for yourself which of my commandments, if any, your personal life style leads you to pick.
Let’s stipulate that I am not equipped to attempt an interpretation of Catholic theology. Nonetheless I believe that all Christians, other than the new-age variety who see no problems with sexual misconduct and similar clear departures from Scripture, would agree that no one should receive communion who is not a believer in Jesus Christ as the resurrected Son of God and the pathway to eternal salvation.
And, as New Testament writers of the Gospel, along with the Apostle Paul in his letters, repeatedly affirm, genuine, transforming faith in Jesus Christ will be manifest in the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Not among those fruits is advocating abortion, which is wanton taking of human life and ultimately destruction of the human family needed to sustain life and society.
Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne, Jr., himself a Catholic, suggests a different approach: a sort of judicial activist interpretation of Catholic doctrine that discovers hitherto unsuspected dispensations hidden within the penumbras of the shadows of church doctrine. His is in the grand tradition of President Bill Clinton’s assertion that it depends upon what the meaning of is is.
Read For an ‘Obamacon,’ Communion Denied.
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