By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – Passage of the Reproductive Health Act, a preservation of abortion rights, has cost House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) and Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) the opportunity to receive communion in the Diocese of Springfield.
Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, who says this applies to all Catholic lawmakers who voted for the bill last week, says Holy Communion is not to be taken lightly.
“To receive Holy Communion is a very sacred thing in the church,” said Paprocki.
“Church teaching is that those who are in a state of serious sin should not approach Holy Communion, because that in fact compounds their sin and becomes a sacrilege for doing so.”
Paprocki says Madigan and Cullerton persist in promotion abortion through the legislation they’ve allowed to go up for a vote. That includes House Bill 40 in the last term. That bill, signed into law by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner after Rauner told Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich he’d veto it, keeps abortion legal in Illinois regardless of whether Roe v. Wade is overturned.
Pro-choice U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has been denied communion for years.
A spokesman for Cullerton says he does not worship in Springfield, and it’s believed Madigan doesn’t, either.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]
