There have always been many factors that might cause a pastor to deny Communion to someone. Heretofore, a person's voting record has not been one of them. That might be about to change.

Receiving Communion is not simply a private act between God and the communicant. When we receive Communion — the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus — we publicly express our union with the body of Christ, the Church. And the Church, in turn, publicly ratifies that union.

But what if the communicant is obviously drunk? What if the communicant left his wife for another woman? What if the communicant makes a living performing abortions? All these circumstances would disqualify a Catholic from receiving Communion.

When it comes to how a communicant votes, the matter is a little more difficult. To what degree does a politician cooperate with abortion by his vote? And what other votes should be off limits? If a communicant supports capital punishment or a war that is unjust, should he be denied Communion?

These are the kinds of questions that have prevented bishops worldwide — including bishops who are pro-life activists — from denying Communion to pro-abortion politicians.

Until a trickle started in the middle of the dam.

In fall 2001, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani first made the argument that abortion is a special case. He commissioned a document described as “a pastoral and sacramental response to the worsening culture of death as well as consistent criteria to deal with this grave moral problem” and sent it to all the pastors in the Archdiocese of Lima, Peru.

The document, in its questions & answers section, reminds pastors that the Church calls abortion “a heinous crime” because “it takes away the life of an innocent creature entitled to be loved by his or her parents and who has been deprived from enjoying the goods of this life, in particular baptism and the graces of Christianity.”

Politicians and other public figures who support abortion, it said, “are committing a grave sin, because they are supporting a crime.”

For this reason, the document instructs: “[T]he pastor who has a parishioner in this condition can deny him or her holy Communion in public after warning him or her in private.”

In January 2003, Sacramento, Calif., Bishop William Weigand echoed Cardinal Cipriani's statement, but he stopped short of formally forbidding politicians Communion. What he couldn't have foreseen was what would happen in the next nine months.

First, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued guidelines for politicians, spelling out which votes are beyond the pale for Catholics. That helped set some ground rules. Second, the U.S. bishops addressed the matter of abortion and politicians at their November meeting. They set a commission in place that would report in a year.

Now more bishops are starting to deny Communion to politicians. In each case this step is taken only after a bishop has issued warnings to politicians in private.

Bishop Raymond Burke of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wis., (soon to be archbishop of St. Louis) issued these guidelines on Communion:

“Catholic legislators who are members of the faithful of the Diocese of La Crosse and who continue to support procured abortion or euthanasia may not present themselves to receive holy Communion,” he wrote. “They are not to be admitted to holy Communion, should they present themselves, until such time as they publicly renounce their support of these most unjust practices.”

Then, on Jan. 14, New Orleans Archbishop Alfred Hughes wrote:

“When Catholic officials openly support the taking of human life in abortion, euthanasia or the destruction of human embryos, they are no longer faithful members in the Church and should not partake of holy Communion.”

This seems to be the next stage in the Church's battle over the right to life. Catholics can expect more such statements in the future. The bishops conference should ratify the courage these bishops have shown.

And they should start by removing pro-abortion politicians from their own commissions and boards.