48 House Catholics send warning to Bishops

MSNBC ^ | May 20, 2004 | Alan Cooperman

[NYer]

Forty-eight Roman Catholic members of Congress have warned in a letter to Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington that U.S. bishops will revive anti-Catholic bigotry and severely harm the church if they deny Communion to politicians who support abortion rights.The letter's signers, all Democrats, include at least three House members with strong antiabortion voting records.

"For many years Catholics were denied public office by voters who feared that they would take direction from the Pope," they wrote. ". . . While that type of paranoid anti-Catholicism seems to be a thing of the past, attempts by Church leaders today to influence votes by the threat of withholding a sacrament will revive latent anti-Catholic prejudice, which so many of us have worked so hard to overcome."

The three-page letter, dated May 10, was sent to McCarrick because he heads a task force of U.S. bishops that is considering whether, and how, the church should take action against Catholic politicians whose public positions are at odds with Catholic doctrine.

McCarrick's spokesman, Susan Gibbs, said he would not comment on the letter. She said the seven-member task force is "listening to many different voices" and will grant the 48 House members' request for a meeting. "They will be heard. It just hasn't been arranged yet," she said.

[ninenot]

Got a response, unfortunately the source is NRLC, which is a bit flaccid in its assessments.

Stupak is 91% pro-life; the only bad vote was on Medicare Modernization.

Of course, there could be OTHER reasons for which his Bishop is giving him troubles--dunno about that.

[ninenot]

See my post # 181 re: Stupak.

[Darnright]

>Forty-eight Roman Catholic members of Congress have warned in a letter to Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington that U.S. bishops will revive anti-Catholic bigotry and severely harm the church if they deny Communion to politicians who support abortion rights.The letter's signers, all Democrats, include at least three House members with strong antiabortion voting records.<

Let's see. Democratic politicians bleat and (pardon the pun) pontificate regularly on the importance of maintaining the separation of church and state.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Democrat Catholic political hack.

[xlt]

Isn't this just like the slavery issue. But in reverse. As a Catholic I can see No reason for a Democrat that is Pro Choice to even bother to come to Mass. A line Is being drawn in the sand. On one side stands "evil" and on the other side stands "good". There's No gray area concerning the child in the womb.

[ninenot]

You've hit the nail! Precisely because the Bishops are telling the CINO's that they are not allowed to receive Communion, the CINO's want to involve the State in religion--big time.

[miloklancy]

This is despicable on the part of those trying to co-opt Church doctrine through politics. I'm an atheist and I can see the treachery of this. Liberals are going to have to face up to the fact that Catholicism, which is the really the root of Western Christianity is immovably against abortion and does not accept the homosexual lifestyle. If these ideas seem incompitable with liberals, then it is time for them to find another faith. Yet my feeling is I doubt they are that sincere in their Christian or Catholic faith anyway.

[dangus]

I got lousy information about who the pro-life Democrats were. So, here is the corrected information. Sorry for the misinformation.

Alexander
Berry
Costello*
Davis
Doyle*
Holden*
John*
Kildee*
Lucas
Mollohan
Murtha*
Oberstar*
Rahall
Skelton
Stenholm
Stupak*
Taylor
(Pro-lifer Hall was a Democrat in 2003.)

Lipinksi(IL)* and Peterson(MN) voted against the 2 amendments to widen the availability of abortion, but did vote to allow cloning.

Kanjorski*, Michaud* and Ryan voted against 1 of the 2 abortion authorization bills.

[OrioleFan]

Forty-eight Roman Catholic members of Congress have warned in a letter to Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington that U.S. bishops will revive anti-Catholic bigotry and severely harm the church ... "For many years Catholics were denied public office by voters who feared that they would take direction from the Pope

Sounds like voters have a reason to deny these DemocRATs re-election.

[ninenot]

Yet my feeling is I doubt they are that sincere in their Christian or Catholic faith anyway.

They are not the first, nor will they be the last.

BTW, you seem to be a rather enlightened atheist--keep it up!

[JohnnyZ]

A church has to stand on the Bible. Let's see if this one goes ahead with this or bend to financial blackmail by politicians.

The Catholic Church will continue to stand strong.

The American bishops and administrative structures are another story, but there are encouraging signs.

[dangus]

I got lousy information about who the pro-life Democrats were. So, here is the corrected information. Sorry for the misinformation.

Alexander
Berry
Costello*
Davis
Doyle*
Holden*
John*
Kildee*
Lucas
Mollohan
Murtha*
Oberstar*
Rahall
Skelton
Stenholm
Stupak*
Taylor
(Pro-lifer Hall was a Democrat in 2003.)

Lipinksi(IL)* and Peterson(MN) voted against the 2 amendments to widen the availability of abortion, but did vote to allow cloning.

Kanjorski*, Michaud* and Ryan voted against 1 of the 2 abortion authorization bills.

[arkady_renko]

Voters do not react well to threats, even Catholic voters. The fact that most Catholic bishops have not joined the chorus ought to give pause to those who have.

Silly me. I thought the issue was souls, not votes.

Sorry, I misunderstood and was caught up in the 'wide is the road that leads to destruction and narrow is the way that leads to life' mentality. I was delighted that some courageous Bishops actually took a side on an issue concerning the eternal souls of their flock.

A_R

[arthurus]

Sounds like classic extortion.

[victim soul]

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Rosa is a strideent pro-abort activist Congresswoman from Rhode Island.

[Antoninus]

I'm not sure it is. The American Catholic Bishops do not have a reservoir of goodwill to draw from, given their sorry record on clerical abuse. Even Deal Hudson is concerned that the one-upmanship exhibited by bishops like Sheridan will cause a severe backlash. I think he's right.

Guys like Deal Hudson are not to be counted on when the chips are down. Neither are certain "deacons" who can be counted on to take the pro-contraception/pro-sodomy/pro-libertinism side with regularity.

If the bishops showing strength and teaching the TRUTH fearlessly results in a "backlash" then by all means, let us have the backlash!

[irish_links]

"...The Roman Catholic Church is not spineless AmChurch.
At its best, as ever it is true that the Roman Catholic Church says what it means and means what it says.

Let us separate the wheat from the chaff....."

I am with you BlackElk and do pray that the Bishops demonstrate in this instance that they are vertebrates after all. Still, I think the Church needs to employ careful logic in this matter. I, poor Catholic that I am, am aware that in the wake of the decline of people taking advantage of the sacrament of confession that the number of us receiving the Holy Eurcharist improperly is legion. Not only Democrat politicians endanger themselves in this way. Given this fact pattern, it may not be appropriate spiritually to single out pro-abortion politicians.

In my mind the justification for denying communion in a case like this is that pro-abortion politicians or any Catholic who publicly supports unfettered abortion rights encourages others to sin in a most grievous manner. To publicly encourage others to commit a mortal sin, thereby potentially sentencing them to an eternity of damnation is in my mind irrefutible grounds for refusal of communion.

I hope the Bishops can come up with a construction along these lines. It will clarify the issue and to a degree remove it from the political realm to the spiritual realm where it belongs.

MTLBWY

Irish_links

[sinkspur]

Neither are certain "deacons" who can be counted on to take the pro-contraception/pro-sodomy/pro-libertinism side with regularity.

I wouldn't know.

And, you may get your backlash.

[victim soul]

Ditto:

"If the bishops showing strength and teaching the TRUTH fearlessly results in a "backlash" then by all means, let us have the backlash!"

[sinkspur]

If this were about souls, how come did the bishops wait until an election year to make an issue out of how certain politicians vote?

[BlessedBeGod]

You really do want a sympathy vote for the Democrats, don't you?

You're putting the election before your faith.