Lawyer buoyed on Kerry 'heresy'

Washington Times ^ | 10/19/04 | Julia Duin

[kattracks]

A Catholic canon lawyer who filed heresy charges against Sen. John Kerry in June says he has received an unofficial green light from the Vatican to press his case for the Democratic presidential nominee's excommunication over his pro-choice stance on abortion.
    "The often-cited 'Cuomo defense': 'I am personally opposed but I support the right to choose' has now been cut in half," Mark Balestrieri said.
    "A pro-choice Catholic politician who says he is 'personally opposed' to the act of abortion itself still commits heresy by publicly supporting the civil right to choose abortion," he said, characterizing the letter from the Rev. Basil Cole, a moral theologian at the Dominican House of Studies in Northeast Washington. But the informal, private letter, which Mr. Balestrieri made public on his Web site last week, has been downplayed by Father Cole.
    In June, Mr. Balestrieri sent an 18-page document to the Archdiocese of Boston, Mr. Kerry's home diocese, asking that the senator be charged with heresy for his pro-choice views.
    In late July, he traveled to Boston, where he said archdiocesan officials assured him the case had not been rejected. In August, he traveled to Rome to submit documents to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's chief doctrinal enforcement arm.
    Mr. Balestrieri received the letter from Father Cole on September 11, saying the Rev. Augustine DiNoia, undersecretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had asked Father Cole to give an unofficial opinion on the matter.
    Which was, Father Cole added, that "if a Catholic publicly and obstinately supports the civil right to abortion, knowing that the Church teaches officially against that legislation, he or she commits that heresy envisioned [by canon law]." And thus, "one is automatically excommunicated."

[lepton]

'I am personally opposed but I support the right to choose'

Kerry's position was made a bit differently:
I am personally opposed but I support forcing those who oppose it to pay for it.

[Boundless]

The real story here is that this is a legacy media story at all.

We've seen the underlying traffic on FR for days.

Why does it suddenly have traction?

Has the word gone out from Chappaqua ?

[narses]

Ping

[narses]

The MSM sees Bush as the winner. Time to pile on sKerry so they have a plausible excuse for his defeat.

[cpforlife.org]

This is the text of link on Drudge top of center column, in Red:

MOVE TO
EXCOMMUNICATE KERRY
AND OTHERS
ADVANCES...

If they EXCOMMUNICATE KERRY they will have hundreds of others to EXCOMMUNICATE as well.

[narses]

Tom Daschle is deeply saddened.

[cpforlife.org]

THE ARTICLE GOES ON WITH SERIOUS BACKPEDDELING in fear BY Fr. Cole:

Father Cole is lamenting the fact that his missive was brought up Friday on the Catholic cable channel EWTN and is being discussed widely on the Internet since Mr. Balestrieri posted it on his Web site, www.defide.org.

"It's a letter about an abstract question," the priest said. "It's not from the Vatican at all. It has no authority at all. None. Zip. Zero. It's not the teaching of the church; it's me implying what I think are the teachings."

"abstract question" how is this an "abstract question"

The good Fr. Cole who is himself a consultor to Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith should be joyous to be proclaiming the truth in defence of the innocent unborn, not shying away from it!

"I went to Rome in person to submit two critical questions to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith," Balestrieri is quoted as saying. "The first: Whether or not the church's teaching condemning any direct abortion is a dogma of Divine and Catholic Faith, and if the denial and doubt of the same constitutes heresy. The second: Whether or not a denial of the church's teaching condemning every right to abortion also constitutes heresy. Father Cole, an expert theologian who studied the matter carefully, responded in the affirmative on both counts."

Prayers for renewed Courage and Zeal for Fr. Cole.

[Siobhan]

I must say Julia Duin is one of the best journalists on religious issues in the USA.

Her background was conservative Episcopalian -- though after the Windsor Report and all that has happened with the Anglican Communion I don't know how she identifies herself these days.