I’m a Protestant, and I have no beef with Catholicism, but I have problems with a few priests and lay ministers who will knowingly give Communion to pro-abortion lawmakers on Thursday. The Catholics had it right on abortion before almost all Protestants had any inkling that it would become as wholesale slaughter of innocents.

I like Pope Benedict and I wish that he would put out the word that any priest or lay ministers who knowingly give Communion to these barbarians should be relieved of their duties.

From The Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Catholic members of Congress who publicly support the right to abortion will trek to Nationals Park Thursday for a Mass celebrated by a pope who has said such lawmakers should not receive Communion.
 
Leading these lawmakers, some of whom have repeatedly complained about remarks by Pope Benedict XVI and a few bishops on the subject, will be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the government’s highest-ranking Catholic and a supporter of abortion rights. Nowhere in her remarks or her actions this week has she referred to strains with the new pontiff.

Instead, she bent to kiss his ring at the White House Wednesday as Benedict arrived in a blaze of pageantry, and later she spoke glowingly on the House floor about his commitment to truth, justice and freedom. A week before he arrived, the House passed a resolution welcoming him to Washington.

And yes, her spokesman said, she intends to receive Communion from one of the 300 priests and lay ministers who will offer it to the gathered flock of 45,000.

Benedict’s stance on abortion and Communion has been painful for elected officials who inhabit the troubled zone where Catholicism and their political beliefs intersect.

Pelosi was one of 48 Catholic lawmakers—some who support and some who oppose abortion rights—who signed a letter in 2004 complaining about statements by “some members of the Catholic hierarchy.”

“If Catholic legislators are scorned and held out for ridicule by Church leaders on the basis of a single issue, the Church will lose strong advocates on a wide range of issues that relate to the core of important Catholic social teaching,” they wrote. “Moreover, criticism of us on a matter that is essentially one of personal morality will deter other Catholics from entering politics, and in the long run the Church will suffer.”

None of the Catholic lawmakers interviewed Wednesday said they hesitated to attend Thursday’s celebration of Mass. This event, they said, is about bigger themes and values, such as hope and compassion.

I don’t care if Catholic legislators are scorned by the Catholic church about a “single issue.” This is not just any old “single issue” like whether to build another Senator Robert Byrd Memorial Dypsy Dumpster — this is the single most important domestic issue in the United States since slavery and has taken close to 50 million American lives.

Further, the mass is not about “bigger themes and values, such as hope and compassion.” Communion is a sacred act. The Apostle Paul warned about the effects of taking Communion when your heart isn’t right. While I may disagree with my Catholic brothers and sisters on the theological meaning of Communion, that’s an inter-family discussion. We both agree that Communion is a sacred act with sacred implications for the human soul. Those who support abortion have no business receiving Communion from any church, Catholic or Protestant.