Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
Posted on 01/16/2004 6:16:49 AM PST by NYer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ Catholic politicians who support abortion, assisted suicide or any other issues out of step with church teachings should refrain from taking communion, the head of the Archdiocese of New Orleans says.
Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes' statement, contained in his column in this week's Clarion Herald, the archdiocesan newspaper, is in stride with nationwide pressure by Catholic bishops to enforce orthodoxy among Catholics in public life. ``When Catholic officials openly support the taking of human life in abortion, euthanasia or the destruction of human embryos, they are no longer faithful members in the Church and should not partake of Holy Communion,'' Hughes wrote.
The pronouncement from the archbishop comes on the heels of several recent steps the Church has taken to try to bring elected Catholics into line with Vatican doctrine on abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, cloning and the death penalty.
The issue came to the fore in November at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington where church leaders decried adherents picking and choosing which doctrines to uphold.
Speaking for the New Orleans archdiocese, the Rev. William Maestri drew a distinction Thursday between what Hughes' column means to a politician and what it means to a Catholic. Maestri said the church is not defining the parameters of a person's politics but of their faith. He said, however, that the lines are particularly clear on abortion, which Pope John Paul II has declared the defining issue of our time. ``To publicly support abortion is to be clearly outside the Catholic Church on a fundamental moral issue,'' Maestri said. ``It is simply unacceptable to cloister these things, if you will, to have these public-private walls of separation on fundamental commands such as those respecting life.''
Maestri said Hughes is calling for the voluntary withdrawal of opposing politicians from communion rail and not for priests to refuse to serve them.
Another year of judicial usurpation of politics - an Editorial
Every year has its so-called highlights, events or people in the news that stand out as extraordinary or bizarre, as worthy of praise or as despicable and demeaning. For one thing, judicial activism, more properly, judicial imperialism, continued on its high road to usurpation of politics and law. Our Supreme Court is poised to rule on whether school children have the right to recognize the Deity in their recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. The Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco says that using the words "under God" in the pledge is tantamount to establishing a religion and therefore a violation of the First Amendment. This is utter nonsense, of course, but what does sense have to do with many of our courts' decisions? None whatsoever.
The highest court in Massachusetts (land of Harvard and far-out liberal legislators and jurists) determined that marriage should be open to same-sex couples and demanded that the Legislature rewrite the state's marriage laws accordingly. God created human beings male and female and told us humans to increase and multiply and to have dominion over the earth. He fashioned the male and female bodies to become one in marriage for that purpose. The concept of marriage as an institution in society and in law are and should be restricted to man and woman. Jefferson spoke of truths being "self-evident" but in modern society and law "self-evident" no longer holds privilege of place.
Liberal Episcopalians took the gay agenda another step forward by ordaining an openly gay bishop whose homosexual partner was at his side as he was elevated to the episcopal hierarchy.
In Florida, a judge sided with a husband who appealed to the court to permit him to starve his comatose wife to death, to deprive her of the nourishment and water she was being provided to keep her alive. It took an act of the governor and the Legislature to prevent this euthanasia. The phony argument that we put animals our of their misery and we should do the same for human beings sounds logical and compassionate. It is neither. We are of a higher order than animals, and life is our most precious gift - a gift bestowed on each individual by our Creator, not by any Constitution or Legislature or judge.
Two more incidents attest to the lack of common sense in our society and proper respect for the real rights of children and basic freedom. A 15-year-old student in Bossier Parish was expelled from school for bringing Advil to school and taking one to relieve a headache. The parish school board backed up the principal who followed the letter of the regulations and expelled the girl from school. Over in Zachary at Northwestern Elementary School, a teacher, in her zeal to maintain separation of church and state in her second grade class, told one of her students who was reading a Bible stories book during a silent reading period that the dangerous religious book was not permissible reading. Even the zealous ACLU's state leader Joe Cook acknowledged that the teacher was wrong to ban the Bible booklet from silent reading.
A suggestion for the year 2004: Begin each day by considering one of the wonderful attributes of God you will praise him for especially this day:
His love; His compassion; His power; His mercy; His generosity; His omnipotence; His providence and care of me personally; His kindness; His truthfulness (He keeps all His promises); His holiness; His beauty; His goodness; His omnipresence (He is everywhere, including at my side); His unchanging character; His unconditional love for me personally, with my handicaps and weaknesses, my past mistakes and sins, my talents and abilities, my joys and sorrows, my good intentions and my desire to love Him more each day; His magnificence displayed in nature, from a grain of sand, to a minute this day, to the farthest star in the cosmos.
Happy New Year!
Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
Me too.
This call keeps going out from the church hierarchy.
It's a good and necessary first step.
There is nothing said about refusing them communion at the altar rail
Let's pray that this comes next.
Great news! It looks like this movement is picking up steam.
Anyone keeping track of this? So far, we have Hughes, Burke, Olmstead(?) ... who else has jumped on board?
As this picks up steam, it should be intersting for all of us to see who holds back. Not that we expect too many surprises there ;-D
Reminder
Bishop Raymond Burke (Archbishop-designate of St. Louis) Conduct of diocesan pro-abortion Catholic politicians (Live via satellite)
The World Over Live - 8pm EST - Friday, January 16, 2004
Funny thing: I saw "LA" in the headline and though "Los Angeles"! Like what, has Mahoney had some sort of epiphany or visitation, and come to his senses? No such luck.
In any case, Hurrah! for Bishop Hughes.
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