In a video that went viral again over the weekend, a Catholic priest made it clear he would never give Joe Biden communion until he repented for being pro-choice… (not that Biden was asking him for any favors.)
The political-rant-disguised-as-a-sermon was delivered by Rev. William Kosco of St. Henry Catholic Church in Buckeye, Arizona on February 7. The full sermon is here, but the key excerpt is below:
… if you are pro-abortion, I am tempted to ask you to leave St. Henry Parish. Leave this parish. [I’m] tempted to say that, because then I think, “Where would you go?”
This is not just this parish that teaches this, this is the Catholic Church. The holy Catholic Church of God that teaches this. What parish would accept your views? Sadly, you would find one, and that is an indictment against the bishops. God help that parish that would let your ideas foster in their parish.
And so instead, I will not ask you to leave. Why? Because this may be your only chance to repent. To change your mind and to come to know the truth and finally embrace it. So I won’t ask you to leave. This is your chance for salvation.
You are welcome here even if you’re pro-abortion, but your ideas are not welcome here, and they will be given no quarter.
The same with Joe Biden. He’s a Catholic. He’s a member of the family. If, for some reason, he would be in Buckeye on a Sunday, Joe Biden is welcome to come to Mass here. His ideas are not welcome here.
And if you ask me a follow-up question: Would you give him communion? No. Over my dead body. Not until he repents. He’s a public figure. He needs to publicly repent, and we need to pray for his conversion.
Nothing like the member of an organization that facilitates child sex abuse telling everyone Joe Biden is a bad Catholic because he dares to let women control their own bodies.
The threat of not getting communion is also absurd, like an evangelical Christian condemning an atheist to Hell. It won’t hurt me, but it says a lot about you.
Every few years, and especially recently for obvious reasons, we hear about a Catholic priest denying communion to a pro-choice politician. It’s silly every time they do it, mostly because 48% of the people who call themselves Catholic also support abortion rights. Unless Kosco wants to purge the Church of everyone who rejects the Church’s narrow-minded theology — and he clearly does — most practicing Catholics are just picking and choosing which rules to follow. The same could be said about same-sex marriage.
The irony of Kosco’s rant is that Biden has repeatedly said he’s against abortion privately, just not when it comes to public policy, though even the latter took a lot of work on the part of progressive groups. So it’s bizarre that this is the hill priests like this guy are choosing to die on. If they really wanted to punish people who violate Catholic principles, they should be looking in the other direction of the hierarchy.
Good luck, by the way, finding a sermon in which Kosco trashes Trump and other Republicans for making it more difficult for women to access contraception so that they don’t get pregnant against their will.
When the Catholic Church is mad at you for putting women’s health over tribal mythology, you’re on the right track.
(Screenshot via YouTube. Thanks to everyone for the link. Portions of this article were published earlier)
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