June 08, 2022 09:09 AM UTC

Bishops Hit Gas On Hypocritical Political Activism

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• by: Colorado Pols

KDVR FOX 31 reports that Catholic Church leadership representing the Front Range, led by Denver’s politically activist Archbishop Samuel Aquila, have sent a letter asking Colorado lawmakers who supported this year’s legislation codifying abortion rights into statute ahead of the anticipated repeal of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court to “voluntarily” refrain from taking Holy Communion, one of the harsher ecclesiastical penalties that Church leadership can impose short of excommunication and the really bad stuff from the Inquisition:

According to a letter sent out on Tuesday by “the united voice of the Catholic Bishops of Colorado, who serve the Archdiocese of Denver and the Dioceses of Pueblo and Colorado Springs,” any Catholic senator or representative who voted in favor of HB22-1279’s passing is now encouraged to refrain from taking part in the sacrament of Eucharist…

The authors responsible for the letter includes the Archbishop of Denver Rev. Samuel J. Aquila, Bishop of Pueblo Rev. Stephen J. Berg, Auxiliary Bishop of Denver Rev. Jorge H. Rodriguez, and Bishop of Colorado Springs Rev. James R. Golka.

“Until public repentance takes place and sacramental absolution is received in Confession, we ask that those Catholic legislators who live or worship in Colorado and who have voted for RHEA, to voluntarily refrain from receiving Holy Communion,” the letter reads.

As readers know, Denver Archbishop Aquila has a history of throwing the weight of his mantle around in the service of right-wing politics. In late 2020, Aquila called for President Joe Biden to be similarly punished, which was rejected by the Washington D.C. archbishop–and rendered silly when Biden met with the Pope himself the following year.

Aquila had no jurisdiction over Biden’s communion in Washington, but this is undeniably an escalation to target local Catholic lawmakers for sanction over supporting local abortion rights legislation. And it’s not just happening in Colorado–late last month, the archbishop of San Francisco announced that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would be denied communion for her longstanding support for abortion rights. Obviously, that wasn’t because of Colorado’s abortion statute.

In December of 2020, Archbishop Aquila’s public attacks on Joe Biden took place just days after the disclosure in a damning investigative report that a prominent local priest, Father Charles “Woody” Woodrich, had sexually abused multiple young boys along with dozens of other priests accused of hundreds of such incidents across Colorado. The Catholic Church isn’t obligated to impose its religious doctrine by publicly attacking legislators who don’t do their bidding–but once they do, it’s entirely fair to ask what moral authority the Catholic Church has to do so.

Call it hypocrisy or appropriately separate church and state. Archbishop Aquila should find better things to do.