TIME TO BAR PRO-GUN POLITICIANS FROM RECEIVING HOLY COMMUNION

Dear Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone,

In your 20 May 2022 letter to your Diocese, explaining the reasons you decided to bar Speaker Nancy Pelosi from being admitted to Holy Communion, you wrote, and I quote:

“Pope Francis has been one of the world’s most vocal advocates of human dignity in every stage and condition of life. He decries what he evocatively calls the “throwaway culture.”  There can be no more extreme example of this cultural depravity than when direct attacks on human life are enshrined in a nation’s law, celebrated by society, and even paid for by the government.  This is why Pope Francis, as much as any pope in living memory, has repeatedly and vividly affirmed the Church’s clear and constant teaching that abortion is a grave moral evil.”

In the letter, you also expressed your responsibility to those under your pastoral care, writing:

“As the Archbishop of San Francisco, I am bound to be “concerned for all the Christian faithful entrusted to [my] care” (Code of Canon Law, can. 383, §1). This most serious duty can sometimes become unpleasant, especially when Catholics in public life explicitly promote practices that involve the direct taking of innocent human life, which is what abortion does.”

The edict, your Holiness, is a declaration of your fervent support for life. When it comes to being a champion for life of the unborn, you obviously wear your emotions on your Bishopric Alb, given the gusto and fervor of your letter. The “throwaway culture” taking root in America is evidently something that sticks in your holy craw. Your righteous indignation for the scandal being caused by such Catholics in public life who promote such grievously evil practices as abortion is not in doubt.

It is for the above reasons that I would like to draw the attention of your Holiness to other Catholics in public life who are actively promoting such grievously evil practices as unrestricted access to weapons of mass murder for everyone including even children. You must have certainly received letters from many in your flock over the years expressing distress over the scandal being caused by Catholics in US Congress who vigorously support legislations that make military-style assault weapons readily available to anyone without any background checks.

Here are the Catholic Senators who have been promoting grievous evil and have been facilitating the merchandising of the instrument of mass murder. These politicians are stooges of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and, as advocates for gun manufacturers, have passed laws that loosen restrictions on access to guns and have blocked legislations that do the opposite, all in exchange for campaign donations and NRA A ratings.

Senator John Hoeven: (NRA Rating – A+)

Senator Mike Rounds: (NRA Rating – A+)

Senator Marco Rubio: (NRA Rating – A+)

Senator Dan Sullivan: (NRA Rating – A+)

Senator Mike Braun: (NRA Rating – A)

Senator Lisa Murkowski: (NRA Rating – A)

Senator Jim Risch: (NRA Rating – A)

Senator Thom Tillis: (NRA Rating – A)

As you rightly noted in your 20 May 2022 letter, canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law stipulates, 

“Those…obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

Likewise, in the pastoral letter you issued a year ago, ‘Before I Formed You in the Womb I Knew You,’ you laid out the Church’s teaching on cooperation in evil and the proper disposition for receiving Holy Communion, precisely to help our people better understand these principles and what is at stake here.

Unfortunately, the position of the aforementioned Senators on guns has become only more extreme over the years. Just last night, one of them addressed the NRA annual meeting where he pontificated – no pun intended – about the moral imperative of owning guns and made it clear that the right to bear arms supersedes the right to live long. According to him, “We must not react to evil and tragedy by abandoning the Constitution or infringing on the rights of our law-abiding citizens,” a sentiment totally at odds with the views expressed in the 20 May 2022 letter to your diocese which rebuked public figures who promote laws that lead to destruction of human lives.

In the same pro-life spirit, your Holiness must determine that the point has come in which you must make a public declaration that the aforementioned Senators are not to be admitted to Holy Communion unless and until they publicly repudiate their support for gun “rights” and confess and receive absolution for their cooperation in this evil in the sacrament of Penance.

May God grant us the grace to be true advocates for the dignity of human life, in every stage and condition of life, and to accompany, support and love people who otherwise would be alone and afraid at a most vulnerable time in their lives.

In Christ, our Source of New Life,

Akin Ojumu

A Pro-Life Unaffiliated Christian