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LISBON, March 11, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Franciscan priest in Portugal has taken out an advertisement in the local paper telling Catholics that if they are in public opposition to Catholic law regarding abortion, they may not receive communion. Father Nuno Serras Pereira, OFM, wrote the text of a lengthy ad that appeared March 2, saying that according to the Catholic Code of Canon Law, he is forbidden to give Holy Communion to Catholics who have publicly acted against Church teaching on the life issues.

In an unusually comprehensive list, Fr. Serras Pereira calls his flock to adhere to Catholic teaching on abortion, euthanasia, artificial contraception, in vitro fertilization, eugenic embryo selection, freezing of human embryos, experimentation with human embryos, research with embryo stem cells,‘fetal reduction’– that is, abortion to reduce the number of children in the womb – and cloning.

Fr. Serras Pereira also specifies that he will be obliged to refuse communion to politicians who have supported legislation in favour of abortion, including those who voted for it or promoted pro-abortion campaigns. Fr. Serras Pereira says he must refuse communion to those political figures, “who publicly expressed acceptance of the Portuguese ‘law’ approved in 1984 [that allows abortion in the so called hard cases and when there is danger to the mental health of the mother].” In Catholic teaching, a law that is in contradiction to the divine moral law is, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, not a law properly speaking.

Fr. Serras Pereira says he has taken this step, “in order to guarantee the reverence that must be observed when approaching the Son of God in the Eucharistic Sacrament.” Catholics believe that the Eucharist is literally the body and blood of Jesus Christ, miraculously made present on the altar at Mass and that to receive the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin is a sacrilege.

The Cardinal of Lisbon, Jose da Cruz Policarpo, responded by calling Serras Pereira’s declaration an “exaggerated” and “obsessive”“personal attitude.” He said the text was “exaggerated because the pastoral attitude of the Church cannot be defined in this way. I hope that everybody understands that that position [of Father Nuno] is not the official position of the Church.”

Cardinal Policarpo said, “(Fr. Serras Pereira’s) declarations must be seen as an announcement of its personal point of view and the evidence of his concern, almost obsessive, focused on a single topic and, in practical terms, that has few consequences.”

The personal opinion of the Cardinal that these are matters of no importance, however, is not shared by many in Rome. Nor is it shared by his fellow bishops in the US who have forcefully supported the refusal of communion for public dissenters from the faith. Further, the Bishops of Croatia recently stated that in vitro fertilization was a “serious crime,” adding that the 15,000 children born due to that process cost the lives of 285,000 others.

Fr. Serras Pereira wrote that his position was based not on his personal opinion, but on the Catholic Church’s own explicit law. “The extreme importance of what is at stake certainly helps understanding why the (canon) 915 disposes such an extreme measure that must be observed by all ministers of the Eucharist.” Canon 915 says, “Those…who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.” Canon 916 makes a similar interdiction: “Anyone who is conscious of grave sin may not celebrate Mass or receive the Body of the Lord without previously having been to sacramental Confession.”

Fr. Nuno’s superior, Br. Isidro Lamelas, has also failed to support the priest, inexplicably claiming that the Catholic Church no longer excommunicates those who are in opposition to her doctrines and disciplines. In a press release sent to Ecclesia news agency, Br. Lamelas, the Provincial Superior of the Franciscans, said he prefers “charity over law, forgiveness over morals, communion over excommunication.”

The ad and the responses of the priest’s superiors has caused a media furor in Portugal, whose population is largely Catholic. Fr. Serras Pereira writes in a second press release that he has received numerous phone calls and e-mails from supporters of his stand.

He writes, “It appears to me indisputable…that whoever manifestly advocates, contributes to or promotes the death of innocent human beings is publicly unworthy, and, therefore should not be allowed to receive the Holy Eucharist… I do not need any Bishop, Cardinal or Pope to authorize me to deny communion to anybody who is publicly unworthy.”

Read Catholic World News coverage:
Portuguese Priest Sparks Row over Denial of Communion
https://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=35761

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