Posted on 03/24/2014 6:24:52 AM PDT by Arthur McGowan
Here is the text of Canon 915: “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
Several American bishops have made statements to the effect that a bishop must exercise “discretion” regarding whether to “impose the penalty” of denial of Communion. Among them: Chaput, Dolan, O’Malley, and Wuerl.
All bishops who refuse to “impose the penalty” are participating in a lie. Namely, that denial of Communion is a penalty.
Denial of Communion is NOT a penalty.
So? What is the import of this fact?
It means that denial of Communion is not an option that MAY be chosen. It is MANDATED by Canon 915. No bishop, priest, or other minister of Communion is free to disobey Canon 915, for the simple reason that the action Canon 915 forbids is ALWAYS gravely sinful.
It needs to be emphasized that Canon 915 is NOT a canon that may be “applied” or “not applied.” Canon 915 can only be obeyed or disobeyed. And disobeying Canon 915 is always gravely sinful.
Canon 915 exists precisely because giving Communion to a person “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin” is always gravely sinful. Doing so is always to give grave scandal, and to participate knowingly in a sacrilegious act.
Let that sink in. Always gravely sinful.
In terms perhaps more familiar to the laity: To give Communion knowingly and deliberately to ANYONE delineated in Canon 915 is ALWAYS a mortal sin.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl has been the most outspoken of those bishops who refuse to obey Canon 915, but all of them are on record, as he is, as endorsing the commission of MORTAL SINS by their priests and other ministers of Communion. Cardinal Wuerl has even punished those who have obeyed Canon 915.
Of course, this is something he has no right to do, because no bishop has the authority to command anyone to commit a mortal sin!
“Bearing in mind the nature of the above-cited norm (cfr. n. 1), no ecclesiastical authority may dispense the minister of Holy Communion from this obligation in any case, nor may he emanate directives that contradict it.” Cardinal Wuerl and many other bishops have been doing PRECISELY what they are EXPRESSLY forbidden to do by this statement from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts!
They have also emanated specious arguments. Here are some of Cardinal Wuerl’s preposterous, irrelevant statements, made in these or very similar words:
That’s not my style.
I follow a “pastoral approach” rather than a “canonical approach.
”We need to find out if the canon was written for the purpose of bringing politicians to heel.
I will not deny Communion to anyone who has not been formally excommunicated.
Now, that is a stunning statement, because the divorced-and-illicitly-remarried are not excommunicated. Yet, does anyone doubt that, were Cardinal Wuerl to direct all ministers of Communion in his jurisdiction to give Communion to the divorced-and-illicitly-remarried, the news would flash around the world, and Rome would take action within hours?
But Canon 915 mentions no particular SPECIES of sin! That is, the KIND of sin in which a would-be communicant is publicly involved is of no account!
In other words, Cardinal Wuerl’s long-standing determination to give pro-abortion people Communion is precisely as outrageous and scandalous as would be a directive to give Communion to the divorced-and-illicitly-remarried. Yet, there is no evidence that this massive scandal has attracted the attention of Rome.
It is said by many, including Cardinal Wuerl, that Communion should not be used as a political weapon.
Absolutely true. And the reception of Communion is being used as a political weapon—by pro-abortion politicians. As long as they are permitted to receive Communion, the bishop (e.g., Cardinal Wuerl) endorses their claim to be “ardent Catholics” whose promotion of abortion is NO SIN.
Abraham Lincoln is credited with the statements: You can fool all of the people some of the time. You can fool some of the people all of the time. Cardinal Wuerl and other bishops appear to be relying on the truth of these observations. It appears that it has been left up to the laity to demonstrate the truth of Lincoln’s further statement: But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
If this scandal is to end, Rome needs to hear a great deal more noise from the laity. As Pope Francis told the youth of Brazil: “Raise a ruckus.”
For further reading on Canon 915, please see the following links:
http://tinyurl.com/canon915 http://www.canonlaw.info/a_denialofeucharist.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_915
A native of Washington, DC, Fr. Vincent Fitzpatrick is a retired priest of the Diocese of Fargo.
Why be a Catholic priest if you don’t believe in the Church?
Inquiring minds sure would like not to know. Sounds to me like you have all priests pegged into being little democrat mouthpieces. Now, that is being very, very naive. Email Cardinal Burke or Father Frank Pavone and ask them who they voted for. They won’t tell you but I can guarantee you it was not the Kenyan.
Isn’t Arthur McGowan a priest?
I hope so, then he can answer my question. Which is why be a Catholic priest is you can’t abide by the teachings of the faith? I certainly think most do.
Oh, I am. I made the mistake of thinking you were Catholic though.
>>>>>
I can hear the other readers now, wonder what those two nuts are talking about?,ha,ha.
I was at a penance service ten years ago. One of the priests—who I already knew was a Yellow Dog Democrat—suddenly asked the assembled priests: “So. What are we going to do to get Kerry elected?”
In 1984, Archbishop Roach of Minneapolis/St. Paul hugged Walter Mondale in public, declaring: “This is the real pro-life candidate—He’s against nuclear war.”
I cannot begin to count all the occasions over the years where a pastor of a parish, or the president (a priest) of a Catholic college has bestowed some sort of honor on a pro-abortion politician. Where were you when Chris Matthews, Ted Kennedy, Geraldine Ferraro, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, Tom Daschle...on and on and on...have been honored as commencement speaker or with honorary degrees or both? Have you forgotten Notre Dame’s shameful hosannas for Obama?
A few years ago, the USCCB adopted a policy against such scandalous actions. The Jesuit colleges have been systematically, diligently defying this policy ever since.
The vulgar, grotesque funeral of Ted Kennedy was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Cardinal O’Malley to slobber on Obama and revel in the presence of celebrities. Read the Cardinal’s blog if you think this is an exaggeration.
http://www.cardinalseansblog.org/2009/09/02/on-senator-kennedys-funeral/
The clergy—especially the bishops—have, in the main, been the enemies of the pro-life movement. This is something that any Catholic who has been truly involved in the pro-life movement knows.
The clergy—especially the bishops—of the United States have amassed a record of toadying and groveling to pro-abortion Catholics that would entitle the clergy and bishops of Germany in the 1930s to hold their heads high.
Quote to me anything I’ve said that indicates that I “don’t believe in the Catholic Church.”
I never said you didn’t believe in the Catholic Church, the question was how can a man commit his life to Christ and His church, and be totally against the teachings of their own faith. To me it boggles the mind.
Tell me what teachings of the Catholic faith I don’t believe.
Father, I don’t think he’s saying this about you. I think he is questioning the other priests and bishops who are not (who do not vote) pro-life, etc.
OOooh!
The answer is really pretty simple.
Respect. Easy life (if you want that). Undermine what you hate from the inside.
I suppose there are people who ask: “If Obama hates the U.S.A., why would he want to be President???”
We all know the answer to that one.
The molested child and the unborn child are equally human beings in the estimation of God and the Catholic Church. Molesting children and aborting the unborn are horrendous sins. Are you REALLY arguing that molesting, however horrible, is actually worse than dismembering and murdering the unborn?
Another way to put it would be: If you could wave a magic wand and end one or the other of these sins once and for all but not affect the other, which would it be? End all abortions or end all molestations? You can choose only one.
I am not talking about you. I am specifically talking about those Catholic priests who believe in abortion and any other of the social issues of the church that are not up for negotiation, ie, the truths of the Christian faith. Abortion is murder and homosexual “marriage” is against nature and not part of God’s plan. Why don’t these priests that are obviously at odds with their own faith leave that faith. That I will never understand.
Why don’t they leave?
Do you remember when Charles Curran was at Catholic University?
He was always the first person the press ran to for an opinion (always heretical) about sexual issues.
Finally, in 1986, Cardinal Ratzinger ordered him out. Curran went to Auburn University, a Protestant institution.
He hasn’t been heard of since.
“Since he continues to dissent from orthodox Catholic Church teaching, Curran has been deemed, by the Vatican, unfit to teach Catholic theology”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Curran_%28theologian%29
Did you not see post #111? Father explained why.
The episcopate, corporately, isn't especially pro-life. At least, not when it conflicts with other purposes, goals, and desires.
As a Knight of Columbus, I can tell you that our order is officially pro-life, and we try our best to put our money where our mouth is. Corporately, we engage in the political arena, the social arena, and we just try our best to help women in crisis pregnancies. We help do the logistics for various marches for life around the country, we engage in letter-writing campaigns, we provide the manpower to drive parish-level, diocese-wide pro-life efforts.
We tax each member a small bit of money to raise millions of dollars per year to provide for pro-life and pro-family activities and advertising in the wider society, to try to influence people generally to acknowledge the right to life. Some folks in the wider society have criticized us for these efforts, seeing us as little more than a propaganda arm for the Republican Party.
Local councils have built housing for women in crisis pregnancies, have conducted campaigns to collect money, food, clothing for these women. Local councils in conjunction with Supreme have bought numerous ultrasound machines to give to crisis pregnancy centers so that women can see their unborn child before making any decision to have him or her killed.
Yet, we have “men” within our ranks who are pro-abort. Some of these men are Democrat politicians. At the grassroots level, many councils have tried to remedy the scandal of publicly pro-abort K of C politicians by relieving these vermin of their membership within the order.
I have spoken with officials as high as State Deputy (the top Knight in each state), and essentially, it is the bishops who stay our hand. Some folks criticize us, and perhaps some day, we will have to break with the evil bishops on this, and just do the right thing and hang the pro-abort bastards out to dry. But that would be a radical and sad step, as the Knights have always tried to be in step with the hierarchy, not off doing our own “Catholic” thing against the hierarchy. If we were to break with the bishops on this, part of the purpose of our order would be vitiated.
The bishops have higher priorities than unborn babies. They have presidents to meet and see, to wine and dine. They have to entertain and maintain their political viability. They don't want to be seen as too partisan. The closeted homos among them would like to remain in the closet. They like their French cuffs and their beautiful cufflinks and other finery. They have their thug union brothers to consider, their neo-Marxist agendas, their mansions, hot tubs, and swimming pools.
And for those who ostentatiously live "humbly" and "simply," they have their reputations for simple living to keep intact.
sitetest
Thanks for weighing in on this. I know that a lot of bishops are politicians first, pastors second. The one we have here in Eastern Washington is a conservative and I am grateful of that.
Speaking of the Knights of Columbus, rumor has it that the republican hold-outs in the NY State assembly (that would not vote for homosexual “marriage”), were also members of the KofC. Apparently Cuomo made them a deal that couldn’t refuse, they flipped, now homosexual “marriage” is the law in NY State, without the people voting it in. If this is true, it’s absolutely outrageous that these Catholic men could support this kind of evil. In the end they will have to answer to the master and he’s not going to be too happy. The KofC donated big bucks to defeat the homosexual “marriage” amendment a couple of years ago. But in the end they could not compete with the liberal billionares like Bill Gates and others, so now Washington State has homosexual “marriage”. I too know some fellow Knights that vote democrat. The council that I am a member of is mostly conservative Catholics, despising Obama and everything about him. Thanks for being a Knight. Vivat Jesus
So you are saying that there is no such thing as an immoral law?
There is no such thing as an immoral action by the State?
Putting Jews in ovens was done by the government—which makes it a “political” act. Therefore, according to you, it is illegitimate for anyone to say that putting Jews in ovens is immoral.
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