From Commonweal, Frans Jozef van Beeck, SJ on denying Communion to pro-abortion politicians

In this situation, where do I stand? As a priest-theologian, I do not worship the church. Rather, I suffer with it, as family members do with family. Nor am I a political agent. I rarely indicate my views on current issues. Blam­ing is as old as the Garden of Eden, and the Christian tradition rejects it. Still, Archbishop Burke’s stand, courageous as it may seem, raises so many doubts about the fit between the great tradition and North Amer­i­can Catholicity that I have resolved to do some theology in public: I ar­gue that withholding sacraments from Catholic politicians is too se­vere a penalty. Why? First, it draws per­ilously close to selective condemnation; public identification of sinners is not a priestly ministry. (Ignatius Loyola is said to have called a Jes­uit on the carpet for criticizing the current pope’s sins from the pulpit; Ignatius told him that we do not publicly discuss the sins of in­dividuals.) Second, it fails in mercy toward a wounded world steeped in sin—but not degenerate down to its root. Third, for Catholics, human life is not the ul­ti­mate norm. Savage as abortion on demand is, it has an upside: some fifteen years after Roe v. Wade I found myself telling students that know­ing they were wanted at birth was a grace; and three years ago, in my hearing, a youngish religious volunteered that a physician had “cautioned” his mother while she was pregnant. Talk about thank­ful­ness for the given gift of life!

One can’t blame the bishops for thinking that they should at least be drawing the line somewhere. Still, I suspect that some may be trying to recoup their authority. If that is the case, I fear they will only be shrugged off further.

This is all the more likely when someone like Archbishop Burke appears to overlook the canonical practice of restrictive application of laws imposing pen­al­ties and limiting freedoms, and the moral practice of distinguishing between formal and merely material cooperation. Accepting evil is not the same thing as approving of it—let alone promoting it. Even logically, being prochoice is not identical with being proabortion. Neither is cowardice nor dodg­ing proof of malice, and hence, not mortally sinful. I know of no Catholic politicians who have purposely sought to positively advance abor­tion; most are op­­posed to it “personally”—a bad choice of words.