Because of his pro-choice abortion stance, Former Vice President Joe Biden was denied Holy Communion on Sunday in Florence, South Carolina, Saint Anthony Catholic Church confirmed.
"Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden," Father Robert E. Morey of Saint Anthony Catholic Church confirmed to the Morning News in an email. "Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other, and the Church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching."
"I will keep Mr. Biden in my prayers," Morey told the paper.
Communion is the Catholic ritual of receiving a wafer and wine. In order to receive it, "a Catholic must be in the state of grace, have gone to confession since his or her most recent mortal sin, have a belief in the doctrine of transubstantiation (a belief that the wafer and wine become the body and blood of Jesus), observe the Eucharistic fast, and not be under censure," according to Catholic doctrine.
He has also supported codifying the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which has been precedent for allowing a pregnant women to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.
With regard to the 1976 Hyde Amendment, which prevents federally funded abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or the mother's life at risk, Biden had supported it before infamously backing off this June.
And, explaining Canon Law 915 to the reception of Holy Communion, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote a memorandum to the U.S. Catholic bishops in 2004, according to the Catholic News Agency:
"The minister of Holy Communion may find himself in the situation where he must refuse to distribute Holy Communion to someone, such as in cases of a declared excommunication, a declared interdict, or an obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin.
John F. Kennedy is the only Catholic to serve as president and Biden is the only leading Democratic presidential candidate who is Catholic.
