(LifeSiteNews) — The Mexican Diocese of Culiacán publicly barred from receiving Holy Communion any Catholic politician that recently voted to legalize abortion in the state of Sinaloa, according to a Catholic News Agency report.
The legislature in Sinaloa, whose capital city is Culiacán, passed a bill legalizing abortion up to 13 weeks, making the state the seventh in Mexico to legalize the killing of the unborn.
In a letter addressed to the Catholic members of the legislature, Father Miguel Ángel Soto Gaxiola, director of the Culiacán Commission for Life, Family, Youth and Laity, declared, “Today we have many people scandalized by the public betrayal of the Church’s teaching on faith and morals by those legislators who call themselves ‘Catholic.’”
“Indeed,” the letter continued, “the questioning of the faithful makes sense: How can a Catholic who openly promotes and is in favor of policies contrary to life come to Mass and approach to take Communion?”
Defending the Church’s denial of pro-abortion Catholic politicians from the reception of Holy Communion, Gaxiola said it is “the recognition of the objectively unworthy state of a person to receive the Body of Christ.”
The director of the Commission for Life drew attention to the Church’s constant and universal teaching on the sanctity of human life, saying, “In the Magisterium of the Church, the value of life has always and at all times been defended from its conception until its natural death.”
Gaxiola rejected the idea that a politician may privately stand against abortion but publicly uphold it. Citing Evangelium Vitae, he declared, “This is an erroneous theory, since ‘no circumstance, no purpose, no law can make an act lawful that is intrinsically illicit, since it is contradictory to the Law of God, which is written in every human heart, known by reason itself and proclaimed by the Church.’”
Leaving no room for ambiguity or doubt, Gaxiola concluded, “Answering the question: Can a deputy or any person who professes to be a Catholic while openly cooperating or legislating against life receive Holy Communion? No. You cannot approach Sacramental Communion. Nor [can] that person be a godparent or companion of other people who want to receive other sacraments such as baptism.”