The priest in Blarney Co Cork who refused communion to Minister of State Colm Burke because of his support for abortion legislation was wrong to say he was acting in accordance with the words of Catholic Primate Archbishop Eamon Martin in 2013.
In explaining his decision to refuse communion to the Minister, Fr Gabriel Burke said “Colm Burke voted for abortion and he knows the teaching of the [Catholic] Church that any politician who voted [for] abortion cannot receive communion — Archbishop Eamon Martin made that very clear before the vote on abortion in 2013.”
The priest continued, “Archbishop Martin said that any politician that voted for abortion in Dáil Éireann was ‘co-operating with evil’ and should not present for Communion and Colm Burke knew that because he was here twice before, and he’s been refused Communion on both those occasions”.
Speaking in August 2013, after the Dáil passed the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, which allowed abortion where the mother’s life was threatened, including by suicide, Archbishop Eamon Martin said politicians who supported it would not be excommunicated or denied communion and that he had never refused communion to anyone.
He also said it was the church’s position that it is not possible to be a person of faith and, at the same time, actively promote abortion. The previous month, during a debate on the legislation, he said that Irish politicians who voted knowingly for abortion were acting “in co-operation with evil”.
More recently, in 2021, Pope Francis said that denying Communion to politicians who support abortion must be handled in a pastoral way, not by public condemnations that seek to “excommunicate” Catholics who are not in line with church teaching.
On a flight to Rome after he visited Slovakia in September of that year, he said “if we look at the history of the church, we can see that every time the bishops did not act like shepherds when dealing with a problem, they aligned themselves with political life, on political problems”.
When defending a principle, some bishops acted in a way “that is not pastoral” and “enter the political sphere”, he said. “And what should a shepherd do? Be a shepherd. Not going around condemning,” he said.
When asked if he had ever publicly denied Communion to someone, Pope Francis replied, “no, I have never denied the Eucharist to anyone; to anyone! I don’t know if someone came to me under these conditions, but I have never refused them the Eucharist, since the time I was a priest.”
On January 21st, 2021, one day after his inauguration as President of the United States, Joe Biden received Communion from the Catholic Archbishop of Washington Wilton Cardinal Gregory. President Biden is a supporter of abortion legislation in the US although he has struggled with the issue personally due to his Catholic faith.
In October that year, he said, after a meeting with Pope Francis in Rome: “We just talked about the fact he was happy that I was a good Catholic and I should keep receiving Communion.”
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis