In the Agora: One Communicant, One Vote

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January 23, 2007

One Communicant, One Vote

A Nigerian bishop has issued a pastoral letter to his diocese stating that it a "sacred duty" to vote in the upcoming national election. In his letter, Bishop Francis Okobo states, "Whoever has not collected the voter's card after February 7 has automatically alienated himself or herself from the community, the Church, the nation and will not be allowed to receive the holy communion."

Notwithstanding the questionable prudence of this move from a pastoral standpoint, withholding the Eucharist is not the same as excommunication, as some news reports have suggested. As Canon lawyer Edward Peters notes over at In the Light of the Law, the local ordinary may withhold the Sacrament under Canon 1331 (1983 CIC 1331) for a number of pastoral reasons, but this is not tantamount to excommunication.

While the situation in Nigeria is considerably different from those in the United States, I do think that it raises similar questions: When, if ever, should the local ordinary withhold the Eucharist from Catholics who hold themselves out as Catholic yet publicly reject doctrine held to be binding on one's conscience? If, as Catholics, we believe that the Eucharist is the greatest sacramental union of the Church gathered on Earth (CCC 1325), at what point in rejecting the Institution entrusted to administer the Sacrament do we depart from this union?

Posted by Seth Zirkle at January 23, 2007 02:42 PM

Comments

The good news is this: God has the power to bestow his grace on you, or forgive your sins, EVEN IF fallible humans, regardless of their fancy robes and hats, and regardless of their rationales, decide to withhold from you the bread and wine of the Eucharist. To believe otherwise is to deny the omnipotence of God.

Posted by: wahoofive at January 24, 2007 12:44 PM | permalink

Unless, of course, you are Roman Catholic (or Lutheran) and believe that the Sacrament does, in a very real way, impart grace to the communicant.

Posted by: Seth at January 24, 2007 01:26 PM | permalink

wahoofive,

That's hardly a convincing argument, given that more or less anything or everything perceived as suboptimal could be argued as a denial of the omnipotence of god. There is that whole ineffability issue to consider, after all.

Posted by: Michael LoPrete at January 24, 2007 02:08 PM | permalink

Michael, you missed my point. If God is omnipotent, he can choose to do anything, including bestowing grace despite the lack of bread and wine. Of course, he might choose not to do so. The key question is whether God has irrevocably delegated the authority to decide who is worthy of such grace to human priests; this is a key theological distinction between Catholics and Protestants. To pretend otherwise, as Seth does, is flat wrong. While Lutherans believe in the real presence within the Sacramental bread, they don't deny the possibility of other media, and they don't assert the right of the clergy to determine the worthiness of the recipient.

Posted by: wahoofive at January 26, 2007 05:50 PM | permalink

January 23, 2007

One Communicant, One Vote

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