Pelosi and Kerry take communion.

• Abortion-rights supporters Kerry, Pelosi take communion at papal Mass | Muckety.com – See the news – Annotated
  tags: no_tag
  

  • Several Catholic lawmakers who support abortion rights, including Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi received communion today at the Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI, in apparent disregard for the pope’s views on the issue.

  • Four years ago, when questions arose over whether then-presidential candidate Kerry should receive the sacrament, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote that it could be withheld in certain circumstances, such as “obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin.” One example of such sin, he said, “was consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws.”

  • Ratzinger’s letter did not mention Kerry by name, and in any case, he recommended a pastoral, rather than prosecutorial approach — talking to the individual before turning them away from the Communion rail.

  • You presume that everyone there knows the rules of the church and follows them,” she said. “No one is policing that. People go to church and people go to Communion if they feel in their heart they are prepared to receive Communion.”
    Pelosi had been among 48 Catholic lawmakers — some in favor and some opposed to abortion rights — who signed a letter in 2004 complaining about statements by “some members of the Catholic hierarchy” that focused on the issue of abortion to the exclusion of others.

I wonder how these two sleep at night in light of 1 Cor 11:27-29?

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. 12 28 A person should examine himself, 13 and so eat the bread and drink the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment 14 on himself.