Canadian Pro-Abort MP Gerry Byrne Receives Holy Communion From Archbishop O'Brien

Gerry Byrne, a Catholic, is the Liberal MP for Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte riding in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. According to the Campaign Life Coalition candidate evaluations for the 2006 Federal Election, Byrne’s voting record indicates he is pro-abortion, voting also in favour of cloning and embryo experimentation (ESCR).

On Sunday past, July 15, 2007, according to a highly reliable eye witness, Archbishop Brendan O’Brien of the diocese of St. John’s, NL, served the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ to Gerry Byrne at the Basilica of St. John the Baptist in St. John’s NL.

Archbishop O’Brien is one of Canada’s five newest Archbishops and was recently chosen as the new Archbishop of Kingston. Having been to Rome with the other four Archbishops to attend special ceremonies with the Pope, Archbishop O’Brien will be taking up his new appointment in Kingston possibly this week.

Vote Life, Canada! issued a press release last week calling on these new Archbishops to cease from their hypocrisy and to adhere faithfully to Church teaching for the sake of Canada’s Unborn. The release pointed out particularly,

In 2004 the Pope, then Cardinal Ratzinger, reaffirmed existing provisions of Church Canon Law and issued a directive indicating that Catholic politicians who obstinately persist in supporting pro-abortion laws MUST be denied Holy Communion. Yet there is no record of any Bishop in Canada ever acting on such guidelines, despite nearly four decades of Canadian rule by pro-abortion, pro-sodomy “Catholic” Prime Ministers.

In a related but more detailed statement on June 18, 2007, in its Open Letter to the Catholic Bishops of Canada, Vote Life, Canada! noted

the desecration of the Eucharist by obstinate, dissenting ‘Catholics’ living in grave sin and counts this widespread and large-scale practice as the single greatest contributing factor to Canada's moral descent and disrespect for human life.

The Open Letter is published on another Canadian website in the form of a petition which any Canadian may sign.

The Open Letter asks,

How is it possible to foster respect for human life when disrespect for God Himself, through the Body and Blood of Christ, is not only tolerated but modeled at every Mass?

When Archbishop O’Brien distributed Holy Communion to pro-abortion Gerry Byrne at Sunday Mass, the Archbishop was making a very powerful statement to all those present who knew the Catholic MP. As intermediary for Christ, he was confirming that a Catholic who supports the status quo on child-killing in Canada, thus scorning and defying Church teaching, may simultaneously be in communion with Jesus Christ and with His Church.

For all those witnessing the event with purely human eyes it would have been clear at the very least that the Archbishop himself, a high representative of Christ and His Church, was in communion, i.e. agreement, with the communicant, i.e. Gerry Byrne. During this Mass, in regard to Byrne's reception of the Eucharist, no other message, whether subtle or overt, could have taken precedence over that one.

To reiterate further the message sent to the Bishops of Canada in the Open Letter:

This sacrilege of handing over Jesus to His enemies, through Holy Communion, is no less a crime today than when it was first perpetrated by Pilate 2000 years ago. The Scriptures warn, "For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." Furthermore, the Christian "cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons." Communion with Christ and communion with devils cannot be had at once. Christians, who by association, sympathies, and actions participate in devilish strategies that destroy life, family and the Common Good, cannot participate in Holy Communion. Unless the Holy Scriptures can lie, the implications of this truth are clear and astounding: No such wholesale sacrilegious communion could take place unless so many Bishops had been communing with demons!

Shockingly then, just as "pro-choice" Pontius Pilate, who was "personally opposed," nevertheless delivered Jesus over to His enemies, so too many Bishops of Canada have dispensed the Body and Blood of Jesus to any and all persons in the communion line, even though independent sources cite that as many as 90% of "Catholics" reject the authority and certain crucial teachings of His Church. The truly faithful Catholics have been scandalized and demoralized for decades by this officially sanctioned sacrilege.