Colorado Catholic bishops posted an open letter Monday asking Catholic lawmakers who voted in favor of a pro-abortion bill to “voluntarily refrain from receiving Holy Communion.”
The bishops’ letter to state legislators, posted to the Colorado Catholic Conference website, calls HB22-1279, or the Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA), “one of the most extreme abortion bills in the country.”
The measure was signed into law by the state’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis on April 4. It bans any interference with so-called abortion rights.
“A pregnant individual has a fundamental right to continue a pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion and to make decisions about how to exercise that right,” HB22-1279 reads. “A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of this state.”
The bishops noted that HB22-1279 made its way through the legislature even though there was a strong outcry against it from thousands of people.
“Over 350 people testified against RHEA in the House and more than 215 testified against it in the Senate into the early hours of the morning,” the letter continued. “RHEA allows for abortion from conception until birth and for any reason, including the child’s race, sex, or a disability.”
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The bishops said they had tried to meet with several lawmakers, but very few of them accepted their invitation.
“During the voting on the Reproductive Health Equity Act, it became clear by their public votes that several Catholic lawmakers support ending the lives of unborn children and declaring that a ‘fertilized egg, embryo or fetus’ has no ‘independent or derivative rights’ in Colorado. These pre-born babies are worth less than those who have had the gift of being born, according to this morally bankrupt logic,” the letter said.
The bishops also thanked the four Catholic lawmakers who voted against the bill, but they say the lawmakers who voted in favor of the measure committed a grievous sin.
“Voting for RHEA was participating in a gravely sinful action because it facilitates the killing of innocent unborn babies, and those Catholic politicians who have done so have very likely placed themselves outside of the communion of the Church,” the letter said.
The bishops also referred to the recent U.S. Bishops’ statement The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church, writing “when other Catholics see public figures receiving Jesus in such a spiritual state their resolve to be faithful to the Gospel can be weakened. A Catholic politician or public figure leading or encouraging others to do evil is a failure to respect the souls of others and is what the Church defines as ‘scandal.'”
“Until public repentance takes place and sacramental absolution is received in Confession, we ask that those Catholic legislators who live or worship in Colorado and who have voted for RHEA, to voluntarily refrain from receiving Holy Communion,” the bishops continued.
The letter was signed by the Rev. Samuel J. Aquila, archbishop of Denver, and his auxiliary bishop, the Rev. Jorge H. Rodriguez; the Rev. Stephen J. Berg, bishop of Pueblo; and the Rev. James R. Golka, bishop of Colorado Springs.
Colorado’s Catholic lawmakers are not the only public officials that have been asked not to participate in communion due to their pro-abortion views. As CBN News reported, late last month, San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone announced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is prohibited from receiving communion due to her stance on abortion rights.
Pelosi, who describes herself as a devout Catholic, has defended her support of pro-abortion policies.
According to the Catholic News Agency, Cordileone notified the California Democrat on May 19, saying that the bar from communion was “purely pastoral, not political.”
The Archbishop explained that the order was issued in accordance with canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law, which states that “Those … obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
“After numerous attempts to speak with her to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating, the scandal she is causing, and the danger to her own soul she is risking, I have determined that the point has come in which I must make a public declaration that she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion unless and until she publicly repudiate her support for abortion ‘rights’ and confess and receive absolution for her cooperation in this evil in the sacrament of Penance,” Cordileone wrote in the letter.
Pelosi continues to claim that her pro-choice position is in line with Catholic teaching.
“This topic really gets me burned up in case you didn’t notice, because again I’m very Catholic, devout, practicing, all of that. They would like to throw me out. But I’m not going because I don’t want to make their day,” Pelosi recently said.
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