As far as what Barr is hoping to do with his canvas, Gerson says he is committed to the “hierarchical” and “authoritarian” premise that “a top-down ordering of society will produce a more moral society.” That isn’t too far away from what Barr himself articulated in a 2019 speech at the University of Notre Dame. In Barr’s view, piety lay at the heart of the founders’ model of self-government, which depended on religious values to restrain human passions. “The founding generation were Christians,” Barr said. Goodness flows from “a transcendent Supreme Being” through “individual morality” to form “the social order.” Reason and experience merely serve to confirm the infallible divine law. That law, he said, is under threat from “militant secularists,” including “so-called progressives,” who call on the state “to mitigate the social costs of personal misconduct and irresponsibility.” At their feet, Barr places mental illness, drug overdoses, violence and ѕυιcιdє. All these things, he said, are getting worse. All are “the bitter results of the new secular age.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/william-barrs-state-of-emergency/ar-BB14SdzS?ocid=spartandhp

. . . the announcement by Attorney General William Barr that the Trump administration would reverse an Obama era moratorium and resume executions by the federal government. Should Barr, a prominent Catholic, now be denied communion?

Church teachings are clear on the death penalty. Pope St. John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) that “Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity, and God himself pledges to guarantee this.” Pope Francis affirmed his predecessor in 2017, saying “no matter how serious the crime that has been committed, the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and the dignity of the person.”

Last summer these teachings were codified in Section 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Barr, in ordering the executions, is—with clear intent and knowledge—acting and advancing a policy of government that is contrary to the catechism. His actions in this matter, thus, are more serious than simply voting for a candidate whose policies are contrary to church teachings, more serious than merely serving in an administration with policies contrary to the church’s, and more serious even than a Catholic legislator voting to provide funding for evil policies.

Barr’s actions are purposeful and direct. In the language of canon law, Barr is “formally” and “explicitly” cooperating in grave actions that the catechism forbids.
https://www.uscatholic.org/articles/201907/william-barr-death-penalty-and-catholic-communion-wars-31781