by Sandy » Fri Nov 01, 2019 9:24 am
I understand that the Catholic church views communion as sacramental and as a "dispensing of grace" and believes the church, which is the clergy by their definition, holds the authority and power to determine who receives salvation and who does not. In fact, the Catholic church also denies communion to those who practice birth control and technically, to anyone they can identify openly as being in sin, by their definition. Those are issues which they allow most people to resolve by showing up at confession, getting a priest's blessing and doing pennance by fingering some beads and uttering words.
Biden has, on several occasions, provided personal insights into his view on abortion. Like most American Catholics, he separates his personal convictions and beliefs from a secular perspective and believes that legislation which ventures into areas of personal morality and disagreement over basic principles that are theological in nature, such as when human life actually begins, are only accepted by personal conviction, not legal restriction. That's a perspective shared by most Catholics in this country who have run for office, largely because of the perception of their opponents that they would be more loyal to the Vatican than to the United States.
Being refused communion because of his political position will be seen by a majority of American voters as narrow minded bigotry on the part of the church and will benefit Biden more than it will hurt him politically. So do you think he might have deliberately chosen to receive communion in South Carolina when the cameras were watching, knowing that a priest would probably refuse because of the diocese policy?