Cardinal Would Ban Communion for Certain Lawmakers

Those Who Deny Christian Principles

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VATICAN CITY, OCT. 9, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo asked a blunt question when addressing the Synod of Bishops: “May access to Eucharistic Communion be allowed to those who deny human and Christian values and principles?”

The president of the Pontifical Council for the Family raised the question in connection with politicians and lawmakers. He answered his own question with a “no.”

“So-called personal option cannot be separated from the sociopolitical duty,” the cardinal said Friday. “It is not a ‘private’ problem. The acceptance of the Gospel, of the magisterium and of right reasoning are needed!”

“Today, the projects for laws and the choices made or to be made seriously imperil ‘the good news’ that is the Gospel of the family and of life, which form an indivisible unity,” he continued. “The future of man and society comes into play and, in many aspects, the genuine possibility for integral evangelization.”

“The social fabric is wounded in a serious way” as these laws attack the most fundamental rights, such as the right to life, “beginning with the abominable crime of abortion,” the Vatican official warned.

“As can be often heard, there is a spurious argument for a so-called free political choice, which would have the primacy over evangelical principles and also over the reference to correct reasoning,” he observed.

As a result, legislation has been introduced on de facto couples “which at least implicitly would constitute an alternative to marriage, even if these unions are simply a legal fiction,” added Cardinal López Trujillo, 69. It is “worse yet, when dealing with couples of the same sex, something unknown in the cultural histories of people and in law.”

He concluded: “Politicians and legislators must know that, by proposing or defending projects for iniquitous laws, they have a serious responsibility for, and must find a remedy for the evil done and spread, in order to be allowed access to communion with the Lord.”

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