The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 80... Another James Martin Edition

James Martin, SJ‏Verified account @JamesMartinSJ

 

 Denying Communion to politicians, Democrat or Republican, is a bad idea. If you deny the sacrament to those who support abortion, then you must also deny it to those who support the death penalty. How about those who don't help the poor? How about "Laudato Si"? Where does it end?

Besides, a priest has no idea what the state of a person's soul is when the person presents himself or herself in the Communion line. As we were taught in theology studies, the person may have repented of any sins and gone to confession immediately before Mass. You have no idea.

Over to you, Father Z.


Leaving aside the dopey string of moral equivalences the Jesuit draws in the first part, and focusing on the second part, we have to conclude that either a) his formation was so bad that he doesn’t understand the simplest distinctions to be made about this Communion scenario, or b) he is purposely trying to deceive people.

I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, so I’ll go with option a).   Therefore, let’s explain the situation to him in basic terms.

Denial of Communion to a person under can. 915 is NOT based on a Communion minister’s estimation of the state of a person’s soul!

As I wrote to a commentator here the other day, a priest cannot know with certainty the state of the soul of another.  I suppose one might make a really good guess if the person is in the act of committing a grave sin while he is standing there waiting for Communion. Even then it might be hard to say what the person’s state is.

However,…

… can. 915 does not pertain to the state of soul of the person.

Can. 915 has to do with what is manifest and it has to do with scandal.

If a person has manifestly been committing grave sins, obstinately, in public (such as a politician who actively promotes abortion even though he has been instructed not to) then there is an open, public, manifest problem that must be openly and manifestly corrected before he can receive Communion.  He publicly committed scandal and that scandal must be redressed.

A priest doesn’t have to know the state of soul of the public person in front of him. If he knows that that public person, well known, has been doing very bad things without any move to correct the harm he caused, the priest, by can. 915, must deny him Communion.

On the other hand, there is can. 916 which pertains not to the priest but to the communicant.
Any person who knows himself to be in the state of sin is admonished by the Church not to present himself for Communion in the first place.

In short, can. 915 pertains to the minister of Communion and can. 916 pertains to the communicant. The priest judges open, public actions people know about at the time of Communion. The communicant judges his own state of soul, which is invisible to others.
The keys to reading the canon are the elements of obstinacy, perseverance, manifest character, gravity, and sinfulness.  Biden checked all those boxes.

I hope that clears it up for the Jesuit.