Posted on 04/26/2004 4:30:38 PM PDT by Polycarp IV
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome
Code: ZE04042623
Date: 2004-04-26
U.S. Bishops' Task Force to Discuss Pro-Abortion Politicians
In Wake of Cardinal Arinze's Comments
WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 26, 2004 (Zenit.org).- A task force set up the U.S. bishops' conference will discuss the reception of sacraments by Catholics whose political advocacy directly contradicts Church teaching.
Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the episcopal conference, announced the task force in the wake of a Vatican press conference last week in which Cardinal Francis Arinze said that politicians who support abortion must not go to Communion. He also said that priests must deny such politicians the sacrament.
Cardinal Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, was presenting a new Vatican instruction, "Redemptionis Sacramentum" (The Sacrament of Redemption), aimed at ensuring the proper celebration and reception of the Eucharist.
Bishop Gregory noted that the prefect's comments extended to U.S. politicians and said: "Cardinal Arinze stated it is the responsibility of the bishops of the United States to deal pastorally with such situations as they exist here."
"Each diocesan bishop has the right and duty to address such issues of serious pastoral concern as he judges best in his local church, in accord with pastoral and canonical norms," Bishop Gregory said.
"To assist us in our common discernment, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has established a task force to discuss issues with regard to the participation of Catholics in political life, including reception of the sacraments, in the cases of those whose political advocacy is in direct contradiction to Church teaching," he said.
"The establishment of this task force is a clear sign of the seriousness with which we take these issues and continue to consider how best to interpret and apply the norms of the Church in their regard," said the bishop of Belleville, Illinois.
He added: "It has always been our hope and expectation as bishops that men and women in political life, whatever their religious convictions, would be guided by and live out the truth of the faith given them by God with integrity."
When the Pope, or my bishop, tells me I cannot talk about optional celibacy, I will cease.
Neither have done so.
Politics is apparently another matter. American Conservatism is what Bill Buckley, Bill Rusher, Wilmoore Kendall, John Chamberlain, Will Herberg, Frank Meyer, M. Stanton Evans, Fighting Joe McCarthy and their many associates created in the aftermath of, ummmm, Pearl Harbor and it is still quite useful today after 9/11. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Neville Chamberlain was a pantywaist and a despicable fool whose spineless performance of isolationism cost tremendous casualties in World War II because he lacked the gonads to deal with the Axis early on. His name is synonymous with mercenary cowardice in office. He fully deserved his sorry reputation and then some. Hanging would have been too good for him. He got to live for a while which must have been more painful by far than death.
The very use of the specious word "neo-con" is a major league tipoff. When one uses "neo-con" to describe a group of octogenarian and nonogenarian former liberals in NYC and its vicinity who came about 2/3 of the way to conservatism (the real kind) and some, like Midge Decter, all the way, that is one thing and accurate. McGovern and the evils of the antiwar movement converted these folks. If "neo-con" is reflexively applied to those Jewish in matters of public policy of any generation (Wolfowitz, Perle, Pipes, Luttwak and many others) who are neither Marxists nor enthusiasts for the Palestinian "Authority" gangsters who are directly responsible for the slaughter of Chassidic schoolchildren by lunatic bombers or other Islamofascisti or to anyone who believes in the vigorous, effective and interventionist application of American military power to whatever problems may confront us as preferable to a lot of weaselly diplocowardice, if you think Sobran to be other than a once promising talent but now just an embittered embarrassment and failure who has through obsession against Jews ruined himself, if you believe that we need any international permission to defend ourselves, our allies (including Israel) or our interests, if you believe the eccentro"con" swill of Sobran, Justin Raimondo (have they no shame?), Tom Fleming, Srdj Trfkovic, the Rockford Institute, Llewellyn Rockwell, antiwar.com, Chronicles Magazine or whatever, we part ways on matters political. The whore of Empire?????????
Bill Buckley was wrong on Mater et Magistra and on Humanae Vitae and thus in supporting (to whatever extent) Curran. I really don't remember any fond words of Bill for Cuomo or for Marxist/Leninist Patrice Lumumba who was thankfully killed by Mobuto's forces many years after Bill left the CIA. Better late than never, at least for the Congolese. Bill has also regrettably been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations for many years which makes him less favorable to war than many conservatives. It is no sin to maintain strong relations with such as Norman Podhoretz, Midge Decter, Irving Kristol, Gertrude Himmelfarb, and the handful of distinguished Americans who are the genuine neocons. He has also spent many winters in Switzerland with ubersocialist John Kenneth Galbraith without much visible agreement between the two. Many people lead sufficiently flexible lives to have numerous friends who are not in ideological lockstep with them. If you are going to be an isolationist and only associate with those who are, your life will be far poorer for it. Bill's dad was, well, an anti-semite like many in his generation. They do exist and did.
The West was generally quite ashamed of itself after viewing the results of the midcentury festival of murder and antisemitism in Central Europe. Conservatives ought not to sit idly by and allow any repeat performances. Our strength ought not to be begging forgiveness on our knees after holocausts but rather to use the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force to prevent them. Catholics acknowledge that we are our brothers' keeper and that Jews are also children of God deserving of our protection from those who would exterminate them.
In spite of his listed flaws and any others, Bill Buckley is very OK. I have had the privilege of his acquaintance for some years although I am now too far from New York City or Stamford to have seen him lately. He is generous to a fault, a complete gentleman, a vastly accomplished man, entertaining to the nth degree but, believe it or not, very much the introvert. He has also been more of a force for conservatism than the entire sorry bundle of his perpetually disgruntled enemies who falsely imagine themselves on the Right. An accurate rendition of the struggle between actual conservatism and the Lilliputian eccentro"cons" is the April 7, 2003, National Review article: Unpatriotic Conservatives.
http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/news/pressroom/releases/2004/arinze_commencement.html
It is equally true we differ on politics.
Generally speaking, I am a paleo-con and I think highly of Thomas Fleming and the Chronicles Crew. Men such as Scott Reichart and Tom Piatak and Chilton Williamson are light-years closer to the truth then the neo-cons.
Whatever happened to Robert Taft Republicanism? Were he alive today Nat. Rev. would be excoriating him as a Neville Chamberlain.
No one expects the likes of Fleming, Raimondo (you still aren't observing as to Raimondo???) or Rockwell to join the war effort or normal America or the defense of Western Civilization (in any effort requiring military bloodshed) any time soon as did the 1940s paleos. You could also socialize easily and comfortably with Taft, Flynn and Lindbergh according to the best evidence.
I really don't care much what happens in Montenegro but I do drive a car like most Americans.
Also Robert Taft (study up on him) was not like conservatives in other ways. He is the father of housing projects, for one thing.
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