After the legislature of the Mexican state of Sinaloa — located in northwest Mexico — voted to legalize abortion up to 13 weeks, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Culiacán made an announcement that Catholic politicians who voted for the law will not be considered Catholics in good standing. The announcement means those pro-abortion politicians will not be able to receive Communion or be godparents.
In the statement, Father Miguel Ángel Soto Gaxiola — who serves as director of the Culiacán Commission for Life, Family, Youth and Laity — said that the decision to deny pro-abortion politicians Communion is “the recognition of the objectively unworthy state of a person to receive the Body of Christ.” Catholic teaching is that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ and as such, only those in a state of grace are able to receive Communion. Since participation in abortion is considered a mortal sin, those who voted for it are not considered by the to be in a state of grace.
Father Soto Gaxiola’s statement was in the form of a letter addressed to Catholic politicians. That letter said, “Today we have many people scandalized by the public betrayal of the Church’s teaching on faith and morals by those legislators who call themselves ‘Catholic,’” and went on to say, “Indeed, the questioning of the faithful makes sense: How can a Catholic who openly promotes and is in favor of policies contrary to Life come to Mass and approach [the altar] to take communion?”
The simple answer to that question is that they cannot.
As Father Soto Gaxiola wrote in his letter, “In the Magisterium of the Church, the value of life has always and at all times been defended from its conception until its natural death.” Since that is the clear teaching of the Catholic Church, Father Soto Gaxiola dismissed the popular justification offered by many politicians who call themselves Catholic that they “personally believe in the immorality of abortion” but favor “public policies” that include its legalization. In dismissing that justification, Father Soto Gaxiola cited Evangelium vitae (The Gospel of Life) — a 1995 encyclical by St. Pope John Paul II — writing that “this is an erroneous theory, since ‘no circumstance, no purpose, no law can make an act lawful that is intrinsically illicit, since it is contradictory to the Law of God, which is written in every human heart, known by reason itself and proclaimed by the Church.’”
To drive the point home without any ambiguity, Father Soto Gaxiola’s letter ends by stating, “Answering the question: Can a deputy or any person who professes to be a Catholic, while openly cooperating or legislating against life, receive Holy Communion? No. You cannot approach Sacramental Communion.”
He goes further, stating that such politicians cannot “be a godparent or companion of other people who want to receive other sacraments such as baptism.”
With this statement, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Culiacán has put those politicians on notice that they are — in very real essence — excommunicated by their public act of voting for abortion in direct opposition to the clear moral teaching of the Catholic Church.
This differs greatly from the position of many bishops in the United States, who shrink from their responsibility of taking such a stand concerning American politicians — including President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who call themselves Catholic while promoting the practice of abortion.
For instance, on Ash Wednesday — which marks the beginning of the penitential season of Lent, when Catholics focus on their need to do penance for their sins — Biden was asked the same question Father Soto Gaxiola’s letter answered. “As a Catholic, why do you support abortion?” Sadly, it was not a bishop or priest who asked the question. It was a reporter from the Catholic network, EWTN. And Biden — who constantly touts his “devout Catholic” status — simply refused to answer the question.
He had previously told the assembled press that he had “prayed and met with a cardinal” that morning. Since Biden was sporting a fresh coat of ash smudge on his forehead, one can assume that he received the ashes from that unnamed cardinal. One can also assume that the unnamed cardinal did not call Biden to task (or penance) for his public sin of promoting the murder of unborn children.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has been cowardly in this regard. While some good bishops have — as individual prelates — denied Communion to pro-abortion politicians, the USCCB has shied away from the practice, calling it “weaponizing” the Eucharist.
But as legalized abortion continues to creep across Mexico — Sinaloa is the seventh Mexican state to decriminalize abortion — leaders of the Catholic Church in Mexico are showing the USCCB how it should be done. As this writer wrote of Biden’s pro-abortion position while claiming to be a “good” and “devout” Catholic:
This would not be unlike someone claiming to be a good and devout Southern Baptist while having a beer and smoking a cigarette at a gay bar.
Joe Biden may be Catholic (in the sense that he was baptized Catholic and maintains his parish membership), but he is what older catechisms called a “bad Catholic.”
And it is not just this writer denying that Biden is a “good” and “devout” Catholic. In fact, the teaching of the Catholic Church is firm on this point: Catholics who deny or publicly advocate against the Church’s teaching on this issue are in mortal sin and are not “Catholics in good standing.” They are not even supposed to receive Communion.
And as of this official statement by Father Soto Gaxiola, pro-abortion politicians in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Culiacán will not be receiving Communion. And they will not be permitted to become godparents or participate as “companion[s] of other people who want to receive other sacraments such as baptism.”
Instead — for their own good as well as the good of others — they are called to repentance.
