Deny Daniel Andrews Communion? – The Spectator Australia

Flat White
Paul Batten
23 December 2022
7:00 AM
23 December 2022
7:00 AM
Christmas is coming and Daniel Andrews, a self-professed Catholic, has been naughty, not nice. His actions, words, and policies often conflict with the established teachings of his professed faith. If he publicly goes against the Church’s teaching while calling himself a Catholic, then the Church leadership should bar him from receiving communion, and in doing so, publicly recognise his stance on moral matters.

The Church teaches the grave evil of abortion and euthanasia while calling for freedom of religion. Daniel Andrews recently stated: ‘[My faith] guides me in my sense of what is right and what is wrong.’ Is he sincere or a hypocrite?

Meanwhile, the church leaders who are tasked with guiding the flock while the wolves are at the gate, are as meek and silent as lambs. These are the same church leaders that are cancel proof – who, barring absolute catastrophe, will have a job and a roof over their heads come rain, hail, or shine. Why aren’t they leading?

I’m not a politician or a bishop. As a sincere, straight-talking engineer I’d probably make a terrible politician and an even worse bishop. I was ineligible for my high school leadership camp because of well-meaning insubordinate behaviour. I have no special status that makes me a spokesperson on these issues.

I am a Catholic. I’ve denied myself Communion more times than I can count, going to confession before allowing myself Communion again. Aside from the spiritual benefits, I have found that there is a certain genius to this inbuilt accountability and feedback mechanism. Being denied isn’t a bad thing when it calls one to amend their behaviour.

The Australian Catholic Church must wake from its slumber. The focal point of the Catholic faith, Holy Communion, can be withheld from those who publicly bring the Church into disrepute while influencing others, including politicians. Earlier this year, Rev. Cordileone, the Archbishop of San Francisco, stated that Nancy Pelosi would be denied the sacrament because of her vocal support for abortion.


We live in post-Christian times. The Christian ethos which underpins our society is under attack from progressive ideologies. Our church leadership needs to respond, to speak out from a place of strength, willing to suffer for what they believe, remembering that the church is made stronger in torment and persecution.

The world needs the church to start having a voice. Jesus wasn’t known for the delicacy of delivery. He didn’t pander to those who walked away when many of His own weren’t happy with His ‘hard teaching’. He wasn’t passive-aggressive, He wasn’t emotionally manipulative, He wasn’t cleverly distorting the truth and evading blame. Ultimately, He was willing to die for what He said. This is the example that the church’s bishops and priests are called to emulate.

Our church leaders give the impression that they think the opinions of the Victorian state government or the Essendon Football Club have more weight than the teachings of the universal church. It must be kept in mind that the church has survived twelve times longer than any of these institutions. The Catholic faith has 1.3 billion believers worldwide, a thousand times more than the Labor government’s 1.3 million believers in the recent Victorian state election. On moral matters, the church’s teachings transcend the sentiments of the day of these Victorian institutions.

As successful, popular, and charismatic as he is, I don’t find Daniel Andrews admirable. He studied politics. Worked for unions. Joined a political party where he was elected and rose through the ranks. He is the epitome of a professional politician with no real-world experience outside that often toxic world. None of which is what we would call virtuous.

Modern society seems to have the notion that church and state must be kept separate at all costs – but only in one direction. State can control church, but church cannot control state. Like all imbalanced dynamic systems, ideas like this don’t take long to get out of kilter. The balance is dynamic – there are times when the church should mind its own business, sticking to what it knows. At other times it should intervene, holding the state to account on moral issues. Vice versa with the state holding the church to account.

I tried to get over my high school embarrassment by becoming a rally driver and later a McLaren engineer. During that time I learnt the crucial role feedback loops play in active control systems. A traction control system works by guessing the road conditions and reacting where the prediction is wrong. When the system is anticipating a dry, grippy road, there needs to be a feedback element built on top of the prediction that comes to your rescue when you hit a patch of ice. Right now the Victorian state has hit a moral ice patch and the church seems powerless to provide feedback. When that happens in a 700-horsepower supercar it’s frightening. An out-of-control state is scarier than a supercar.

The same applies in reverse. The state needs to keep the church accountable. But it isn’t a one-way street, and it isn’t static, it’s continuously adaptive.

‘Once more unto the breach’; the church’s leadership needs to speak up. Less buddying up and more manning up. Daniel Andrews has rejected the teachings of the church, voluntarily revoking his own right to Communion, the Body of Christ. The church needs to officially recognise that renunciation.

Removing the immeasurable privilege of Communion acts as feedback. It could save Daniel Andrew’s eternal soul. Further, it helps the state navigate these treacherous times with the strong moral feedback it is equipped to provide.

Paul Batten is the founder of LifeMapp, iMediTrial, and is a former senior vehicle dynamics engineer at McLaren Automotive. 

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