Does canon law permit bishops to deny communion to the likes of pro-abortion Governor Gray Davis?
If so, should they? “Yes and yes,” responds Charles Wilson, director of the St. Joseph Foundation, a Texas-based group which specializes in canon law. “Davis is being openly contemptuous of the teachings of the Catholic Church,” said Wilson. Canonical penalties, which range from denial of communion to excommunication, exist for just such an occasion, Wilson argued. “That’s why the penalties are listed in canon law, to repair breaches of order in the Church like this one.” But Sacramento Bishop William Weigand, who in January publicly told Governor Gray Davis and other pro-abortion politicians that they should refrain from receiving communion, appears to have ruled out any canonical penalties against them. In an interview with National Catholic Register reporter Tim Drake, Weigand said that he will not deny communion to Davis. “Some people thought I was ‘considering formally forbidding the [governor] from receiving Communion.’ I did not intimate that I had any such thing in mind, nor th
