Communion cops

* Like church teachings on all things sexual, there is also only one category and one degree of sin, mortal, when it comes to the abortion issue (NCR, Oct. 5). Why is it then that there has never been any mention of the almost infinite number of mortal sins that priests who have raped girls and boys have committed? Has Communion ever been denied to those reprobates? No. They are still permitted to celebrate Mass privately. Why has there never been any mention of excommunication in regard to these pedophiles, some of whom have raped and molested scores of children over many years? I wish that Archbishop Raymond Burke and the rest of the Communion cops had had the chutzpah to protect our children from predator priests with the same single-minded resoluteness they have in denying "the sacraments to the unworthy." Archbishop Burke's words are not so much "a scholarly tour de force," as Fr. Richard John Neuhaus said, as they are an example of the definite loss of any credibility the bishops of the United States still possess. Do they really not know why no one is listening?

CATHERINE MARY HENRY

Havertown, Pa.

* I am shocked by the article stating Archbishop Burke's decision that all eucharistic ministers must deny Communion to all who publicly support abortions. Doesn't he realize the heavy burden this places on Communion ministers? Didn't Christ warn the religious leaders of his day about placing burdens on the people? Also why wouldn't the archbishop include those who make and threaten to use nuclear weapons among the people to be denied Communion as well if he plans to go through with this strange and seemingly unfair decision?

(Sr.) ARLENE WELDING, OSF

Kingman, Ariz.

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