Dr. Edward Peters, a consultant to the Vatican’s highest court of cannon law, told CNS News that Cuomo committed an “objectively sacrilegious” act that “produces grave scandal” when he received communion on New Year’s Day. Cuomo, a Democrat, is pro-choice and supports gay marriage, two positions the church vocally opposes. Of serious concern to Peters, however, is that Cuomo, who divorced Robert Kennedy’s daughter Kerry eight years ago, is currently living with Food Network host Sandra Lee.

“Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, and Sandra Lee, a television celebrity, live in what is known technically as public concubinage,” Peters wrote on his blog after Cuomo’s inauguration last month. “The fact that both Cuomo and Lee are divorced renders the concubinage adulterous on both sides as well.”