Biden denied Communion due to abortion stance
Former Vice President Joe Biden was reportedly denied Communion on Sunday morning at a church in Florence, S.C., where he was making a campaign stop.
The Rev. Robert Morey of St. Anthony Catholic Church, told a local newspaper that Biden, who is running in the 2020 presidential election, attended his church’s 9 a.m. Mass and denied him Communion because of the Democratic candidate’s political stance on abortion.
“Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church. Our actions should reflect that,” Morey said in a statement to the Florence Morning News. “Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.”
Morey did not immediately return a phone call and email request for comment on Tuesday. The Catholic Church
opposes abortion, but local priests and bishops in the United States have varying policies around whether to give Communion to someone who supports an issue like abortion rights.
This is not the first time Biden has been barred from receiving Communion over his stance on abortion rights. Biden was baptized and spent his early years in
Scranton, Pa., where the bishop there had reportedly barred him from receiving Communion.
Publicly, Biden has a complicated relationship with Catholic leaders. After he announced his run in 2008, several U.S. bishops insisted he should be refused Communion in their diocese.
Biden said in 2012 that he is personally opposed to abortion.
“But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews … I - I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that women they can’t control their body,” he said during a debate.
In the past, he has supported the 1976 Hyde Amendment that prevents federal funding of most abortions. But earlier this year, he joined with other Democratic candidates for president saying that he did not support the amendment and he defended his record at a Planned Parenthood event.
Biden’s campaign on Sunday’s incident did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday. The question of Communion and politicians who support abortion rights has come up in previous elections. During then-Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, the archbishop of St. Louis forbade the Catholic candidate from taking Communion while campaigning in the area.
Catholic leaders consider ongoing and vocal support for legalized abortion as a grave sin.