Denial of Eucharist a 'slippery slope,' cardinal tells journalists

Published: 2004-06-01

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, addressing a crowd at a Theology on Tap session held in conjunction with the Catholic Press Association convention in Washington, said denying Communion to politicians is a "slippery slope." "When you begin to do that, you go on a slippery slope," by first denying the Eucharist to politicians who take positions opposed to church teaching, then to Catholics who vote for those politicians, Cardinal McCarrick said May 27 to about 40 Catholic journalists crowded into a bar in the hotel where the CPA convention was held. On the denial of Communion, he said, "I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to ask my priests to do it." He reiterated a point he made in his May 13 column in the Catholic Standard, Washington's archdiocesan newspaper, when he told the group, "We should have no confrontation at the altar" when it comes to the withholding of Communion from politicians who support legal abortion. "I'm not going to have a fight with someone holding the sacred body and blood (of Christ) in my hand," Cardinal McCarrick said.

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