Pope sidesteps U.S. Communion debate

Church leaders should act in pastoral, not political, ways, Francis asserts

Pope Francis speaks with journalists on board an Alitalia aircraft enroute from Bratislava back to Rome on Wednesday after a fourday pilgrimage to Hungary and Slovakia.
(AP/Tiziana Fabi)
Pope Francis speaks with journalists on board an Alitalia aircraft enroute from Bratislava back to Rome on Wednesday after a fourday pilgrimage to Hungary and Slovakia. (AP/Tiziana Fabi)

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE -- Pope Francis declined to give a yes or no answer Wednesday when asked about the debate in the U.S. church over Communion for President Joe Biden and other politicians who support abortion rights, saying he didn't know the case well enough.

U.S. bishops have agreed to draft a "teaching document" that many of them hope will rebuke such political leaders for receiving Communion despite their abortion stances.

Francis, en route home to Rome from a visit to Slovakia and Hungary, repeated that abortion was "homicide," and that Catholic priests cannot give the Eucharist to someone who is not in communion with the church. He cited the case of a Jew, or someone who isn't baptized or who has fallen away from the church.

But most importantly, he said, priests and bishops must respond pastorally and not politically to any problem that comes before them. He said they must use "the style of God" to accompany the faithful with "closeness, compassion and tenderness."

"And what should pastors do? Be pastors, and not go condemning, condemning," Francis said.

Francis recalled cases when the church had held fast to a principle on political grounds and it ended badly, citing the Inquisition-era condemnation of Giordano Bruno for heresy. He was burned at the stake in Rome's Campo dei Fiori.

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"Whenever the church, in order to defend a principle, didn't do it pastorally, it has taken political sides," Francis said. "If a pastor leaves the pastorality of the church, he immediately becomes a politician."

Francis said he had never denied Communion to anyone, though he said he never knowingly had a pro-abortion politician before him, either. And he admitted he once gave Communion to an elderly woman who, after the fact, confessed that she was Jewish.

Francis repeated his belief that the Eucharist "is not a prize for the perfect" but rather "a gift of the presence of Jesus in the church." But he was unequivocal that it cannot be given to anyone who is not "in communion" with the church, though he declined to say if a pro-abortion politician was out of communion.

He was similarly unequivocal that abortion is murder, and that even a weeks-old embryo is a human life that must be protected.

"If you have an abortion, you kill," Francis said. "That's why the church is so tough on this issue, because if you accept this, you accept homicide daily."

MASS IN SLOVAKIA

Earlier Wednesday, Francis urged Slovakians to look out for the neediest among them as he ended his first post-surgery trip with a huge open-air Mass that drew tens of thousands of people amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Organizers said 60,000 people attended the Mass, the biggest crowd at any event during the pope's four-day pilgrimage to Slovakia.

The venue was the Our Lady of Sorrows national shrine, Slovakia's most important one dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where St. John Paul II prayed in 1995. Each Sept. 15, pilgrims from Slovakia and beyond flock to Sastin on the feast day of Slovakia's patron, with some this year spending the night on the dusty field to get a better spot.

The pilgrims had to show proof of covid-19 vaccination to receive a bar code that gave them entry to the site. A few thousand nonvaccinated pilgrims were allowed in with proof of a negative test or having been cured of the virus. Hardly anyone in the crowd wore masks.

During his homily, Francis urged the pilgrims to open their hearts to compassion and live a faith "that identifies with those who are hurting, suffering and forced to bear heavy crosses."

He called them to live a "faith that does not remain abstract, but becomes incarnate in fellowship with those in need."

The Mass was Francis' only big event Wednesday before he returns to Rome after a four-day pilgrimage to Budapest, Hungary and Slovakia, a largely Roman Catholic country of 5.5 million people.

Slovakia has been badly hit by the virus and was the nation with most covid-19 deaths per capita in the world in the middle of February.

The country now has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the EU, with slightly more than 2 million having been fully vaccinated.

Information for this article was contributed by Karel Janicek and Philipp Jenne of The Associated Press.

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