CatholicVote, one of the country’s largest political advocacy groups, has called for Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says certain “particularly grave sins” can incur the church’s most severe ecclesiastical penalty. Healey — a baptized Catholic — appears to be the ideal candidate after signing an atrocious abortion law.
On Aug. 10, Healey signed a bill that permits physicians to perform late-term abortions up until birth if, in their sole discretion, they deem killing a full-term child who can survive outside the womb “medically necessary.”
In a statement issued shortly before the act became law, Catholic bishops in Massachusetts called it “a radical measure which is gravely immoral.” Former Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life advocate and Catholic convert Abby Johnson called Healey’s act “barbaric.”
The Massachusetts government website claims the “new law ensures patients facing serious pregnancy complications can receive medically appropriate care from trusted providers.” This is simply not true because the new law doesn’t merely strengthen or clarify anything. As a lawyer, Healey certainly knows the language of the statute, with its total lack of restraints, opens the door wide for just about any reason to abort a child a doctor can come up with, including the mother’s feelings.
A Proudly Pro-Death Catholic Who Got A Private Papal Audience
The previous Massachusetts abortion law permitted late-term abortions to preserve a patient’s life, for physical and mental health reasons, or for lethal or severe fetal abnormalities. Pro-life doctors have publicly testified that abortion is essentially never medically necessary in such circumstances. But Healey and her cronies claimed allowing abortions of babies up to six months old in the womb wasn’t “accessible” far enough. Today, cats have far more protection in Massachusetts than unborn humans.
Healey proudly identifies as a Catholic. After securing a private audience with Pope Francis in 2024, she said: “As a Catholic, I think about what we were taught about making sure that we look after those around us — that we pay particular attention to those who are the most vulnerable among us.” Is there anyone more vulnerable than a child in a mother’s womb?
Healey nevertheless went on to defend her position on abortion, stating: “To me, it doesn’t make me any less of a Catholic or detract from my relationship to the faith.”
Any conscientious Catholic would beg to differ. Throughout its entire history, the Catholic Church has maintained that abortion is a grave sin. Section 2271 of its catechism states: “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. The teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.”
The Just Consequence Is Obviously Excommunication
The catechism further states that “formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense” to which the church “attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime.”
Excommunication can occur in one of two ways. Automatic excommunication occurs when a Catholic commits one of several acts listed in the church’s Code of Canon Law, which includes procuring an abortion (section 1397), heresy, desecrating the Eucharist, and more. In other cases of grave sin, the decision is left up to a local bishop or judicial tribunal.
Is Healey guilty of procuring an abortion or procuring many by signing such an egregious law? Or is her act a lesser sin that will trigger a ferendae sententiae proceeding?
The Code of Canon Law also states that those considered to be “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion,” arguably left up to the decision of the local priest. Bishop Thomas Paprocki, a bishop in Pope Leo’s home state of Illinois and, like Pope Leo, a canon lawyer, has said this should be applied to politicians who publicly and obstinately advocate for abortion.
Several years ago, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) debated whether then-President Joe Biden, a Catholic, regular Mass-goer and staunch supporter of abortion rights, should continue to receive communion. Under section 916 of the Canon Law, a person who is conscious of grave sin, as Biden should have been, may not receive communion without sacramental confession.
The USCCB subsequently issued a teaching document on the Eucharist, but declined to rebuke the president. A few days before, Biden had a private audience Pope Francis, and later bragged that the pope had allegedly proclaimed him “a good Catholic” who “should keep receiving Communion.” Emboldened, stalwart Catholic abortion advocates kept at it.
In response, a few brave Bishops spoke out. San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, recently appointed to the Catholic Church’s Supreme Court, barred then U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from communion, noting the “grave evil” of her abortion advocacy.
In 2025, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced plans to bestow a lifetime achievement award on Catholic Sen. Dick Durbin for his open borders advocacy. Bishop Paprocki, who had barred Durbin from communion in his diocese, objected once again, pointing out Durbin’s decades-long support of abortion. Durbin later declined to receive the award.
CatholicVote, founded by Brian Burch, who is currently U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, has now called for Healey’s excommunication. On August 13, Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the USCCB, called Healey’s action “shocking” and “horrendous.” He further stated the USCCB had no excommunication authority and called on the Massachusetts bishop to address the matter.
Excommunication would not mean that Healey would be thrown out of the church. That’s a common misunderstanding. Nor is excommunication designed to be punitive. The intent is medicinal in order to correct and encourage repentance and restoration to the faith. There’s another important purpose, which is to avoid scandal and confusion among Catholics and others regarding the church’s teaching on the sanctity of human life.
Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said, “Families facing devastating pregnancy complications deserve compassion, support and the ability to receive care from the doctors they know and trust.” But not one iota of that is incompatible with also preserving life and avoiding savagery.
The position of the Catholic Church on abortion is clear and unequivocal. It always has been. Yet according to a 2026 Pew Research study, 56 percent of Catholics support the legality of abortion. Let’s hope Healey’s censure comes soon, and that it’s not too late for a course correction on the confused minds of American Catholics, including other so-called Catholic politicians such as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
