“Deny Holy Communion?”: a BOOK from Card. Burke about can. 915, etc. Free for BISHOPS, priests and seminarians!

Catholic Action for Faith and Family has republished a work by His Eminence Raymond Leo Card. Burke, one of the most capable canonists in the world.

Deny Holy Communion explains the theology, history and law, the reasons for denial of Holy Communion to those who are manifestly and persistently committing public scandal by their actions.

The book, originally published as “The Discipline Regarding the Denial of Holy Communion to Those Obstinately Persevering in Manifest Grave Sin” (in the journal Periodica de Re Canonica. Roma: Pontificia Università Gregoriana, vol. 96 (2007), 3-58) is brief, tightly argued, replete with sources, and as inescapable as a massive iron snap trap for the elephant in the room.

The publisher told me that copies have been sent to 42000 priests and bishops in these USA and that if seminarians should write to them, they, too would receive a free copy.

Seminarians (and priests and bishops who did not get one) should write to them HERE.

If we believe that the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of our Catholic lives, then what damage is done to our Catholic identity by the multiplication of sacrilegious Communions.  Sacrilegious Communions which have the explicit or tacit approval of the very prelates and priests whose task it is to safeguard the Eucharist from abuse, and to help souls to Heaven by avoid sin or repenting when they don’t?

This is not hard.  Not really.  But the savage tenacity of those who will not accept common sense is a mark of the times and the depth of the depravity that the Enemy can sew in the institution he hates more than any other.

PS: I note that Catholic Action for Faith and Family publishes from San Diego.  Curiously, I did not see an imprimatur from Card. McElroy.  Go figure.

(On the other hand, it had already been published by the Gregorian University, a Jesuit school to be sure, but even blind squirrels…. etc.)

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10 Comments

  1. Dan says:

    In fact this practice is directly ordered by Jesus in scripture for manifest grave sinners. As we are all members of the body of Christ
    “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It if better to enter the kingdom of heaven maimed than to have the whole body thrown into gehenna” ~Jesus, The Bible

    I think there are many bishops that would prefer that the entire body be thrown into hell just so long as we could all go as a community singing bad guitar hymns.

  2. TonyB says:

    If a book is written by a Cardinal, does it need an imprimatur?

  3. JustaSinner says:

    Now if the Vatican were to get a few copies. Oh wait, they did! Probably shredded, ground up, burned, then the ashes were added to formic acid, the residue super heated to 8000C for an hour, then the tiny bits put in the CERN supercollider and broken down to sub atomic particles!

  4. JonPatrick says:

    Hopefully copies went to whoever gives communion to Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.

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  6. diaconus_in_urbe says:

    “The publisher told me that copies have been sent to 42000 priests and bishops in these USA and that if seminarians should write to them, they, too would receive a free copy.”

    Once again, deacons get left out, because we’re not *real* churchmen or something (but seminarians are!). Oh well, once again we pay our own way and keep happily doing our jobs :)

    Of course, if we generally acted like clergy, were trained better (and perhaps dressed the part?!) maybe people would take us (Western) deacons seriously.

    Free or not, gonna grab a copy of this.

    [No no. I think they were also sent to deacons. All clerics.]

  7. David Mag. et Lic. says:

    Father, do you know where this book is available? I am a PhD theology student and would be interested in acquiring this book. Thank you!

  8. Dan says:

    @diaconus_in_urbe

    I am a permanent deacon myself. I wrote to them politely asking and offered to buy a copy and they very graciously responded today with gratitude and informed a free copy was on its way to me.

    I don’t think they intend to leave out deacons but it makes scenes they would send it first to those with the authority to make those decisions.

  9. diaconus_in_urbe says:

    @Dan

    It certainly makes sense to send it to bishops and priests, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve seen more than one case of the “lay-deacon,” nonsense resulting in us deacons getting either entirely forgotten or purposely excluded (hence the reaction).

    Either way, given the state of many deacon formation programs, it’s reasonable to assume that deacons would greatly benefit from this. It’s more likely that priests/graduate-level seminarians covered Can. 915 at some point in two semesters of Canon Law, than deacon-candidates covering it in the 1 semester of night classes.

    Granted, not that many of us will likely be making policy decisions about this (as I suspect bishops will just opt to close parishes as priests get rarer instead of pressing deacons into administration – despite administration being one of our major functions in the early Church). However, we WILL have to make informed decisions when ‘whatever politician’ walks in for a funeral, etc. when we happen to be distributing Holy Communion.

  10. Fr Jackson says:

    I should send a copy to Whoopi Goldberg ?

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