Sen. Dick Durbin, a pro-abortion Democrat, complained this week that his Catholic diocese is being “fundamentally unfair” by denying him Communion.
Townhall reports the Illinois politician said his home diocese, the Diocese of Springfield, has refused to allow him to participate in the sacrament since 2004 because of his pro-abortion stance.
“It’s not a happy experience,” he told America Magazine. “I found another Catholic venue, the Archdiocese of Chicago, and a church where they were willing to let me in and allowed my wife to join me. So it’s become my new faith home.”
Durbin, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 1997, has a 100-percent pro-abortion voting record, according to National Right to Life. He recently even opposed a bill to protect newborns who survive abortions from infanticide.
In the new interview, Durbin complained that some Catholic leaders are being “fundamentally unfair” by denying Communion to politicians like himself. He said he thinks anyone should be allowed to participate if they think they are worthy to receive the Eucharist.
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Then, Durbin criticized church leaders for not being as harsh with President Donald Trump about his support of the death penalty, according to Townhall.
“If we’re going to start down this road of denying Communion, where do we stop?” Durbin asked.
However, Trump is not Catholic so Communion was not an issue with him. And while the Catholic Church opposes both abortion and the death penalty, abortion is a more egregious and pressing problem because it kills exponentially more human beings: nearly 1 million unborn babies every year.
The Illinois senator argued that other Catholics who support abortion receive Communion all the time, so he should, too.
He continued: “[M]y views on abortion are publicized regularly with my voting record. Other Catholics may share my point of view — statistics suggest they probably do — but they show up to Communion every week without any questions asked. 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 is one of a number of national politicians who professes to be Catholic while supporting the killing of unborn babies in abortions. President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski are among others.
U.S. Catholic bishops have expressed serious concerns that these politicians, through their prominence and actions, are creating “scandal” for the church by making it seem acceptable to be Catholic and support abortion.
Later this month, the U.S. bishops are scheduled to vote on a document from their Committee on Doctrine “with the aim of clarifying the church’s stance” on worthiness to receive Communion.
Earlier this year, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who leads Pelosi’s home diocese, published a pastoral letter making the case that pro-abortion politicians should be denied Communion. He said this action may be “the only recourse a pastor has left” if pro-abortion politicians obstinately persist in their sin and refuse to repent.
Cordileone’s letter received praise from Archbishop Joseph Naumann, who chairs the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities. Naumann agreed that Catholic politicians who advocate for abortions are “creating scandal by encouraging others to do evil.”
Though some have accused the church of politicizing the matter, the bishops made it clear that the issue is about faith and their concern for people’s souls, and they are not targeting any political party or politician. Pro-abortion politicians in both parties have been denied Communion. Many bishops have said the church must do something to make it clear that Catholics cannot support the grave moral evil of abortion and must repent before participating in Communion.
Some priests and bishops, however, have said they will not refuse Communion to Biden or any other pro-abortion politician, including Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., and the priests at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, which Biden attends while in Washington, D.C.
