Mary Margaret Olohan on October 29, 2019
Former Vice President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he wouldn’t discuss a priest’s refusal to give him Communion at a Catholic church Sunday for his abortion stances.
“I’m not going to discuss that, that’s my personal life and I’m not going to get into that at all,” the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
Mitchell asked: “Do you think in a general election campaign you’ll face some of these cultural issues?”
Biden responded: “Oh, sure I will. Everyone will. And I’m a practicing Catholic, I practice my faith.”
The Catholic Church teaches that abortion “constitutes a grave offense” and that a person who obtains an abortion is automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
“But I’ve never let my religious beliefs, which I accept based on church doctrine, to impose that view on other people,” Biden added.
Father Robert E. Morey said Monday that he refused to give communion to Biden at the nine a.m. mass on Sunday at Saint Anthony Catholic Church in South Carolina.
“Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden,” Morey told the Morning News in Florence, South Carolina. “Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.”
The Biden campaign did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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