Speaking on Monday’s Boston Public Radio, the Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett Price expressed joint frustration with Catholic leaders who've argued that President Joe Biden shouldn’t be allowed to receive communion because of his stance on abortion. Biden is the nation’s second Roman Catholic president, after John F. Kennedy.
"The whole idea that because you disagree with Biden, that he shouldn’t be allowed to have Communion … that’s problematic because it’s using religion as a weapon, and certainly a form of social control,” Monroe said.
"He’s not focused on sexual politics,” she added, referencing a recent New York Times piece, "but more on combatting poverty, climate change, as well as racial inequity."
Read More: Biden Is Catholic. He Also Supports Abortion Rights. Here's What That Could Mean
"Here’s what needs to happen,” Price said. "I think the cardinals need to avail to the bishops the keys to the Sistine Chapel, so they can all go, in seclusion … and lock themselves in a room, and stay there."
"For these folks to be deciding these important issues ... [and] whether the president of the United States can take communion or not? Come on,” he chided.
The Rev. Irene Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist, the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail and a visiting researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at the Boston University School of Theology. The Rev. Emmett G. Price is executive director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Together, they host GBH’s All Rev’d Up podcast.
