Kerry cited in Catholic heresy case

Washington Times ^ | 7/1/04 | Julia Duin

[Elkiejg]

A Catholic lawyer has filed heresy charges against Sen. John Kerry with the Archdiocese of Boston, accusing the Democratic presidential candidate of bringing "most serious scandal to the American public" by receiving Holy Communion as a pro-choice Catholic.

The 18-page document was sent to the archdiocese June 14, but released to the public only yesterday by Marc Balestrieri, a Los Angeles-based canon lawyer and an assistant judge with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' tribunal, an ecclesiastical court.

[Elkiejg]

The problem with this suit is that it well may get Kerry votes from the non-christian Americans AND cast him in the "victim" role.

[xsmommy]

HAH! this is great.

[OpusatFR]

Maybe. That could happen. But, it is far more important for the Church to uphold its belief than pander to any political consideration.

[ought-six]

Kerry already has the non-Christian vote.

[The Mayor]

bump for later

[Free_at_last_-2001]

Excellent - time to fight back!

[Elkiejg]

Kerry already has the non-Christian vote.

You are absolutely correct!!!!

[AndyJackson]

I remember controversy in New York about some heretical art being displayed. The local liberals got themselves in a real knot because they forgot what a high percentage of their constituency were Irish, Italian or Hispanic - Catholics. Kind of reality check time.

[Izzy Dunne]

Why would I believe the church has any intention of following its own rules on this?

I believe there were (are) rules against priests buggering young boys, and the church swept THAT under the rug for years.

Maybe they can't exactly sweep this under the rug, but they can pooh-pooh it and debate it, and argue it, and the next thing you know, it's 2013...

[MadIvan]

Kerry cited in Catholic heresy case

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition...our chief weapon is surprise, surprise and fear, fear, surprise and ruthless efficiency...get the comfy chair...

Regards, Ivan

[stocksthatgoup]

I thought only Demoncrats used the court system to win their argument. Finally conservatives are learning to use the levers of justice. Don't you love it?

[ardara]

It keeps the issue alive. Just like last Sunday after Mass, we registered church-going Catholics for the November 2,2004 election.

[tkathy]

I wonder how many votes this will get for Kerry.

[kitkat]

I am confused by the Kerry:Church equation. Did he or did he not get a church annulment? He refuses to say, or cannot prove it. If he married his first wife in church, and if both he and his first wife were baptized, then he could not marry again w/o a church annulment. If he did so, he is a fallen-away Catholic. But he's just not going to tell us where he stands.

HE IS NOT BEING HONEST WITH THE VOTERS.

As far as religion/politics are concerned, Kerry has placed the church in an awkward position. The church will not want to make a martyr of him which could get him sympathy votes. Perhaps the longer view taken by the church is to get a religious, non-abortion president re-elected.

[Little Bill]

seamole ping, sounds interesting.

[secret garden]

Hoo boy, here we go.

[hobbes1]

Well, once again, it all comes down to the prostitution of his ostensible Catholic ethnicity, rather than anything he may or may not believe.

I hate to be the realist, but there are no winners in this.

Kerry is a loser, regardless of this situation.

Those controlling the Church, who are bad enough for letting 31 years lapse, and doing nothing, will only cause the Church to look poor publicly, no matter what they do.

If they take the correct action, the public vilification from the secularists will be bad.

If they are restrained, or hold out, then truer damage is done.

And both of those actions are reflected upon the laity as well. Which is all the more reason to condemn the original loser in the first place. As much as I have an issue with the Princes of the Church for not dealing with the life issue more forcefully, for all these years, what amount of intelligence, and prudence would it have taken for any one of them to pull that a$$h*le aside, and warn him off of the Public prostitution of his ETHNICITY (he obviously has no faith) in trolling for votes?

[doc30]

The charges must be filed in the diocese where Mr. Kerry lives. If the Archdiocese of Boston rejects the case, Mr. Balestrieri can appeal it to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in Rome.

Ratzinger is as conservative in faith as a Cardinal can be. Even if it gets debated for years, He will make sure the faith stays strong.

[GBA]

I, for one, would like to see this happen. I would like to see the Catholic Church stand up for itself and it's beliefs. We are told from birth to stand up for our beliefs and values and it's time for the Catholic Church to follow its own advice. Either this is important or it's not, no grey area, no middle ground. Stand up for what you believe or sit down, shut up and keep your values and your morals to yourself. If you are luke warm, I will spit thee out.

[ardara]

Surprisingly,I could not find this story on Drudge, the NT Times,AP or the NY Daily News.I wonder why.

[Little Bill]

Draft a letter, I was baptized Catholic, V2 did me in though. FReep mail me it and I will send one in, if Church courts are anything like normal courts we need the proper language.

Bill

[Little Bill]

John F'n Kerry's father was a convert, his mother a Protestant(?), he has no faith.

The Church, in Boston, traded theology for politics (Power) years ago.

[jmaroneps37]

Another sad reminder of the fact that if the Church is to be defended in America, Lay people will have to do it.

We here at catholicsagainstkerry.com are fighting against this genuine threat to the life of the American Catholic Church.

We need Catholics to stand up here and now. Join us and become part of history. Don't wait for history to happen to us. View the truth and E mail everyone you can. Ask them to view it as well. Tell them to tell their friends. Lets get this out to American Catholics all over the country.

[vanmorrison]

"Bishops have had 31 years [since the Supreme Court made abortion an individual right] to do something on this matter, but they've done nothing," he said."

But they have. By mouthing the words of anti-abortionism without acting on them, they have aided and abetted the crime.

I read yesterday about six Mexican priests who were canonized because they were martyred during the Mexican revolution in the 1920s. Most people don't realize that the Mexican revolution was a Communist takeover that happened at the same time as the Bolshevik revolution. These six priests were tortured and shot or hung simply because they wouldn't stop giving the sacraments to their parish members. Nothing more.

It made me think how the bishops and priests in this country have shown such absolute cowardice on the abortion issue. In the US, there is no threat to life and limb for advocating an unpopular position. Yet the Church has failed to muster the full support of its own congregation. This is the real scandal!

[Condor51]

"...warn him off of the Public prostitution of his ETHNICITY (he obviously has no faith) in trolling for votes?"

With all due respect, I didn't know Mr. Kerry KOHN was trolling for the Bohemian vote.

And yes he's Bohemian. That's where his paternal grand-pappy was from, Bohemia. (And he has ZERO Irish in his blood.)

An aside; I don't give a hoot that his grand-dad converted to Catholicism from Judaism, that's irrelevant. But Mr Kohn keeps denying his true heritage. That IMO is repugnant. Why is he ashamed of being Bohemian???

[Aquinasfan]

A Catholic lawyer has filed heresy charges against Sen. John Kerry with the Archdiocese of Boston, accusing the Democratic presidential candidate of bringing "most serious scandal to the American public" by receiving Holy Communion as a pro-choice Catholic.

Excellent!

[TonyRo76]

may get Kerry votes from the non-christian Americans

So? Kerry has already consolidated his base among atheists, pagans, wiccans, agnostics and other unchurched voters.

[detch]

Here is O'Malley writing on abortion before going to Boston.

It is sad to see him fold his tent like he has done since...

---

January 2003

Media Statement from

The Most Reverend Sean Patrick O'Malley O.F.M. Cap.

Bishop Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach

Contact: Deacon Sam J. Barbaro, Director of Communications
Voice: 561-775-9529 - Facsimile: 561-775-9502
P.O. Box 109650 - Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410-9650
E-mail: sbarbaro@diocesepb.org

Dearly Beloved in Christ,

As slavery was the great moral and ethical crisis of American History, in our own times, the worst moral blindness finds its expression in abortion. There is a sadness in my own heart that wells up each time I recall the tragic mistake of our Supreme Court in the decision of Roe vs. Wade that opened the flood gates of abortion. This egregious betrayal is akin to the Dred Scott decision in the radical way that the court devalued human life and excluded innocent human beings from the protection of the law. After three decades and millions of abortions, the danger of complacency is great.


Every Catholic must work to promote the Gospel of Life in all its facets; not to do so is to fail in our mission to make this a better world where people take care of each other and make sacrifices for the most weak and vulnerable. Our obligation to protect and nurture human life does not end when the baby is born; but the other works of mercy and social entitlements are meaningless to the baby girl who has died a victim of partial birth abortion. As a society, the first thing we can do for a child is to respect the inalienable right to life that comes to us from God and is enshrined in the foundational documents of our nation.


This year, as I have done for the last 30 years, I shall go to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and there with young people, priests and faithful veterans of the cause of life, we will pray for the end to abortion in our country and in the world. I am so proud of the fact that each year we are joined by thousands of young people who pray with us at Mary's Shrine and then walk in the March for Life. Their faith and idealism fill me with hope. They are there despite the hostility of so many advocates for abortion who want to ridicule our cause and dismiss us as "social conservatives." But the cause of life cannot be dismissed. Life is precious and the defense of life is both a privilege and a duty.


We pray for just laws that will protect human life, but we must work to change human hearts to make room at the table of life for all our brothers and sisters. A huge challenge is to change people's attitude towards adoption. We are confronted with the strange logic that somehow it is better to kill a child rather than entrust a child to a loving family. Thousands of childless couples are longing to give a home to an unwanted baby. In our Church we must celebrate adoption and support birthmothers and adoptive parents who want to give life a chance. We must build a society where every baby is wanted.


The kinds of changes we strive for demand spiritual renewal and prayer. It is in prayer that we will experience God's power and love. In prayer we shall learn compassion for the unborn child, for the mother and even for the abortionist who tramples the noble vows of the Hippocratic Oath.


We must not allow our rightful indignation over the crime of abortion to diminish our love and concern for those involved in these horrendous situations. Recall how Dorothy Day, whose cause has been presented for sainthood, in her youth opted to have an abortion after her lover abandoned her. Likewise, Dr. Nathanson the champion of NARAL and personally responsible for thousands of abortions has become Catholic and a staunch defender of human life. God's grace can turn people's lives around; we must never cease to proclaim this consoling truth.


As a community of faith we need to reach out to women who have had the misfortune to have aborted their child. We must try to help them to recover spiritually and psychologically from the violence that abortion causes women. We are grateful for Project Rachel, which has been a powerful instrument of healing for the families of aborted children.


This year by a vote of the United States Bishops' Conference and confirmation by the Holy See, it is a particular law of the Church for Catholics of the United States that January 22nd will be observed as a day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person through abortion and as a day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life.


The liturgical calendar (Ordo) states that the Mass for Peace and Justice should be celebrated with purple vestments. It is also a day when we are all asked to fast and pray and to make sacrifices as we do during Lent. I would certainly encourage people to try to attend Mass on that day and to pray the rosary.


Even as we pray for changes in our laws and in the hearts of our fellow citizens, we must redouble our efforts to work for a more just and caring society where women will be less prone to abort their babies. We need to get the word out that our faith community stands ready to help every woman in a difficult pregnancy.


The Catholic community must stand ready to help those families that are suffering economic insecurity and are most vulnerable to "facile solutions" promised by a culture of death. We must also do a better job of preparing our young people for a vocation of marriage and parenthood.


Let me say a word of thanks to our brothers and sisters who are already working tirelessly to make the world safe for unborn children and to those who are helping women contemplating an abortion or who have already had an abortion.


We must embrace the Gospel of Life not in a spirit of self-righteousness but with humility and compassion and also with a sense of fulfilling the mission that Christ has entrusted to His disciples. Christ has not sent us to judge or condemn people but to invite them to conversion and to life. Our quest for respect for life is not a political issue, it is a moral imperative. Life is precious at all stages, and we must be prepared to defend life through all the stages of life whenever it is threatened.


I pledge my prayers for all of you but especially for our young people that you will all be apostles for the Gospel of Life and that together we may make ours a better world; a world where human life is deemed precious and where we bear one another's burdens with compassion.


Devotedly in Christ,


Most Reverend Sean P. O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap.


Bishop of Palm Beach

[Between the Lines]

But, it is far more important for the Church to uphold its belief than pander to any political consideration.

There are millions of American Catholics that have beliefs just like Kerry. This may alienate them from the Church. The situation did not get like this overnight. The church let them slip into heresy gradually and did little or nothing to stop it. I think that iron fist tactics like this will cause great harm for the church. It would be better to to guide them back from heresy with a loving spirit.

And should the church choose this type of tactic, then I think it should start with the heretical priests and Bishops that started and propagated these heresies in the first place.

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

Perhaps, the Catholic Church will take this on. Archbishop Sean O'Malley is no lightweight.

John Kerry and his anti-Catholic ways are the only thing out there to place the allegations of misconduct by the clergy on the backburner. Not that anyone wants these atrocities to be hidden nor forgotten... I think the congregation needs something to unite it once again.

Let the decent people and the clergy fight this beast on a united front. Let some healing begin.

[narses]

If you join this suit, consider adding the charge of public blasphemey -- when Kerry took "communion" publicly in the AME Church he became an apostate.

[hgro]

Kerry cited in Catholic heresy case

What about the sealed divorce papers of F-ing Kerry. The Chicago Tribune pried open Jack Ryan's (Republican Senatorial candidate from Illinois) sealed divorce papers. It is even more critical to know what is in sealed papers of a presidential candidate.

[jwalsh07]

Truth is not a problem. The rejection of truth is. Let the chips fall where they may.

[karenbarinka]

Don't bet the farm on Ratzinger. I've heard he had a hand in waving off the bishops from unilaterally denying communion to pro-abort pretend Catholic politicians at the recent USCCB meeting -- McCarrick is rumored to have confered with Ratzinger before the meeting and was told to lay off -- the Vatican didn't like the building press pressure cooker. Just a rumor, but.......plus there is always the rumor going around about Ratzinger retiring..........

This story is fascinating in that it increasingly is lay Catholics who are sick and tired of apostasy.

[BobCNY]

Can anyone reach the site referenced in the article, www.dedfide.com, that has the letter??? I would like to see it and see if a template could be made of if for us non-cannon lawyer types could use. Thanks!

[Aquinasfan]

Here is O'Malley writing on abortion before going to Boston.

It is sad to see him fold his tent like he has done since...

Sad and tragic. When he was bishop of Fall River he called "Catholic" politicians who support abortion "KKK without the sheets."

[vanmorrison]

"So? Kerry has already consolidated his base among atheists, pagans, wiccans, agnostics and other unchurched voters."

...And apostate Catholics!

[pgyanke]

There are millions of American Catholics that have beliefs just like Kerry. This may alienate them from the Church. The situation did not get like this overnight. The church let them slip into heresy gradually and did little or nothing to stop it. I think that iron fist tactics like this will cause great harm for the church. It would be better to to guide them back from heresy with a loving spirit.

I couldn't disagree with you more. The Church needs to stand up for the truth and trust in God for the congregation's reaction. I think the reality is that we would find far more converts through an unswerving devotion than through a watered-down, touchy-feely philosophy.

This has been shown numerous times in recent decades. The churches which have taken the hardest lines have been the fastest growing... the faithful aren't looking for validation, they're looking for someone to stand up for the truth.

[olinr]

"Yet the Church has failed to muster the full support of its own congregation. This is the real scandal!"

Unfortunately, this can be said for ALL faiths, today! No one is willing to stand up to Biblical scripture and denounce the evil being supported in this country. Maybe we need a little "stake burning" pilgram!

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Truth eventually wins in the end. Kerry is a dork and, on a moral level, he is a barbarian. This is funny. Let's see how the bishops handle this.

[maryz]

The 18-page document was sent to the archdiocese June 14, but released to the public only yesterday by Marc Balestrieri, a Los Angeles-based canon lawyer and an assistant judge with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' tribunal, an ecclesiastical court.

I can't get to the site either. Does seem curious, though, that he's associated with Mahony's archdiocese. (Was associated?)

[AmericanChef]

True, but I can't help going "Hee-hee!".

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

wonder how many votes this will get for Kerry. 13 posted on 07/01/2004 4:41:56 AM PDT by tkathy

They can all laugh about it...in Hell.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Another sad reminder of the fact that if the Church is to be defended in America, Lay people will have to do it. 24 posted on 07/01/2004 5:52:08 AM PDT by jmaroneps37

That's OK. Lay people had to defend the church and Christian civilization from the Vikings, the Danes, the Moslems, and the Mongol horde. Some things never change. This guy gets a Charles Martel Award.

[FlatLandBeer]

I understood one can take communion at another Christian chuch but that it does not fulfill ones Sunday obligation. In other words he still has to take communion at his own church for it to be "legal" Thsi is not blasphemey as I understand it.

[sandyeggo]

Ping

[IncPen]

bump

[Salvation]

Catholic Discussion Ping!

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[maryz]

The site is up now: De Fide.