Posted on 06/24/2004 7:02:07 AM PDT by presidio9
WASHINGTON, June 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today, American Life League's Crusade for the Defense of Our Catholic Church is releasing its newest ad -- a response to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' statement on dealing with pro- abortion Catholic public figures. That statement sidestepped the necessity to enforce Church law regarding reception of Holy Communion by pro-abortion public figures who claim the Catholic faith. "By refusing to enforce Church law, the bishops' conference has in effect said that either the Holy Eucharist is not all that good, or abortion is not all that bad," said Judie Brown, president of American Life League.
The full-page ad in today's Washington Times depicts bishops at the base of the Rocky Mountains with the headline, 183 Catholic Bishops Lost in the Rockies. "The bishops' conference issued a statement that ignores critical facts and suggests that each bishop can do his own thing. The statement reveals that genuine leadership is sadly lacking in far too many members of the American episcopacy," said Brown.
"After three decades of 'dialoguing' with Catholic public figures who say they're 'personally opposed' to abortion, but will do nothing to stop it," Brown said, "the bishops have in effect said they're personally opposed to pro-abortion individuals claiming the Catholic faith, but will do nothing to stop it. Canon 915 of the Church's Code of Canon Law provides that those 'who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to communion.'
"Why won't the bishops simply say, 'abortion is a grave sin, and in order to protect the Holy Eucharist from scandal, we must insist that persons in public positions who endorse and promote the sin of abortion will not be permitted to receive Holy Communion'? Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II addressed this concern in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia. The pontiff wrote, 'in cases of outward conduct which is seriously, clearly and steadfastly contrary to the moral norm, the Church, in her pastoral concern for the good order of the community and out of respect for the sacrament, cannot fail to feel directly involved' by excluding such persons from Holy Communion. How can that possibly be unclear?"
Today's ad will also run in several national newspapers over the next 10 days. In January 2003, American Life League initiated the effort to encourage bishops to bar pro-abortion Catholics in the public eye from receiving Holy Communion by enforcing Church law. This campaign will continue until such time as the bishops decide to enforce Canon 915. To view the ad, click http://www.all.org/crusade/rockies.pdf
Contact: Joe Giganti of American Life League, 703-928-9695 or jgiganti@all.org
ping
As nationally-known chef Emeril Lagasse would say: "BAM!"
"Why won't the bishops simply say, 'abortion is a grave sin, and in order to protect the Holy Eucharist from scandal, we must insist that persons in public positions who endorse and promote the sin of abortion will not be permitted to receive Holy Communion'?"
The bishops won't say this because neither Pope John Paul II nor Cardinal Ratzinger themselves haven't said this. And the reason they won't is because the money received from the American Catholic Church and the money saved from the American government policy of non-taxation of Church assets would be jeopardized by the secular left and their own misguided leftist church members. A large number of whom are bishops and priests.
It's another example of the Catholic hierarchy, at the national and international levels, selling out Holy Mother Church and the faith community entrusted to their "pastoral care".
This is just the American scandal. If you watch what is happening in the Middle East and Asia, you would see Catholics being butchered, mutilated, and enslaved in the millions by Moslems, yet the Church would have us believe that the US and Israeli governments are the focus of evil in the world.
And I write this as a practicing Catholic!
I LOVE the Catholic religion....it has the answer to EVERY question, but I don't like that Bishops are not in total agreement on this.
You can slice this issue both ways. I have donated over the years to ALL, because I strongly support their basic goals. But at times I think Judie Brown goes over the top.
For instance, she has not, IMHO, lent much support to George Bush, probably because Bush has said that he is against abortion except in cases of rape, incest, and saving the life of the mother. I don't agree with those exceptions either, but you have to take what you've got. Bush has done more for the pro-life cause than any other president, even Ronald Reagan. Politics is the art of the possible. The pro-aborts moved one step at a time down the road to death, and pro-lifers probably have to move one step at a time back to a right to life and dignity for all human beings.
The same thing here. I would have liked to have seen a stronger statement, but the bishops made the main theological points. And it is true that as a matter of Church governance bishops conferences are still undefined and questionable, as Cardinal Ratzinger pointed out. Each Ordinary is responsible for teaching and discipline in his own diocese. Bishops can and should advise and rebuke their brother bishops if they go astray, but they have no direct authority to interfere in other dioceses.
What we need is not so much a stronger statement from the conference, but better bishops. Until we get better bishops, the problems will continue. And even when we do get better bishops, they will have a fearful mess to clean up. What do you do when you are a new bishop and a good percentage of your priests are dissidents, but you can't remove them because you have no extra faithful priests to run the parishes and bring the sacraments to the faithful? It's not going to be solved quickly.
The experiment of episcopal collegiality fails yet again. How may more failures must we endure before the Vatican finally comes to terms with reality?
"......it has the answer to EVERY question..."
Really? What is it's answer to this one:
Can God make a mountain so big that even God can't move it?
No priest of mine has ever answered that one.
:)
The answer is no. To do so would be contrary to God's nature. You ascribe a human trait to him when you consider that for God to move one mountain that is larger than another he must exert more effort. God does not exert effort. He just moves it.
Bulls---. The stance of the Pope and the Church is perfectly clear.
58. Among all the crimes which can be committed against life, procured abortion has characteristics making it particularly serious and deplorable. The Second Vatican Council defines abortion, together with infanticide, as an "unspeakable crime".... Especially in the case of abortion there is a widespread use of ambiguous terminology, such as "interruption of pregnancy", which tends to hide abortion's true nature and to attenuate its seriousness in public opinion. Perhaps this linguistic phenomenon is itself a symptom of an uneasiness of conscience. But no word has the power to change the reality of things: procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth.
The moral gravity of procured abortion is apparent in all its truth if we recognize that we are dealing with murder and, in particular, when we consider the specific elements involved. The one eliminated is a human being at the very beginning of life. No one more absolutely innocent could be imagined. In no way could this human being ever be considered an aggressor, much less an unjust aggressor! He or she is weak, defenceless, even to the point of lacking that minimal form of defence consisting in the poignant power of a newborn baby's cries and tears. The unborn child is totally entrusted to the protection and care of the woman carrying him or her in the womb. And yet sometimes it is precisely the mother herself who makes the decision and asks for the child to be eliminated, and who then goes about having it done. ...
59. As well as the mother, there are often other people too who decide upon the death of the child in the womb. ... responsibility likewise falls on the legislators who have promoted and approved abortion laws, and, to the extent that they have a say in the matter, on the administrators of the health-care centres where abortions are performed. A general and no less serious responsibility lies with those who have encouraged the spread of an attitude of sexual permissiveness and a lack of esteem for motherhood, and with those who should have ensured-but did not-effective family and social policies in support of families, especially larger families and those with particular financial and educational needs. Finally, one cannot overlook the network of complicity which reaches out to include international institutions, foundations and associations which systematically campaign for the legalization and spread of abortion in the world. In this sense abortion goes beyond the responsibility of individuals and beyond the harm done to them, and takes on a distinctly social dimension. It is a most serious wound inflicted on society and its culture by the very people who ought to be society's promoters and defenders. As I wrote in my Letter to Families, "we are facing an immense threat to life: not only to the life of individuals but also to that of civilization itself".56 We are facing what can be called a "structure of sin" which opposes human life not yet born. ...
62. ... Given such unanimity in the doctrinal and disciplinary tradition of the Church, Paul VI was able to declare that this tradition is unchanged and unchangeable. Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, in communion with the Bishops-who on various occasions have condemned abortion and who in the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed throughout the world, have shown unanimous agreement concerning this doctrine-I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church's Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.
No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church.
Papal Encyclical "Evangelium Vitae", 1995
There is nothing ambiguous there at all. The Pope says that both Vatican II and he himself define abortion as unspeakable crimes against the moral code of the Lord Jesus. "Catholic" supporters of legal abortion, such as Senator Kerry, are heretics and abetters of murder.
The thought of them receiving communion, and the Bishops abetting them makes me physically ill. Communion is not to be given to heretics and murderers. Rather, such people should be publicly censured and excommunicated.
"The thought of them receiving communion, and the Bishops abetting them makes me physically ill. Communion is not to be given to heretics and murderers. Rather, such people should be publicly censured and excommunicated."
There is no verbiage in your lengthy posting that requires a bishop or priest to withhold the Holy Host from anyone who doesn't adhere to the stated position of the Church. None whatsoever! Therein lies the problem. Until this is made absolutely clear by the Church hierarchy the scandal will continue.
Why on earth and in heaven can't the Church EVER take an unambiguous stand on this matter? THIS is the REAL scandal! Certainly this seeming cowardice on the part of the Church hierarchy is every bit as scandalous as the behavior of the reprobate politicians.
Can. 915 Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion.
Can. 1364 §1 An apostate from the faith, a heretic or a schismatic incurs a latae sententiae excommunication
Can. 1369 A person is to be punished with a just penalty, who, at a public event or assembly, or in a published writing, or by otherwise using the means of social communication, utters blasphemy, or gravely harms public morals, or rails at or excites hatred of or contempt for religion or the Church.
Just enforce the law. The Magisterium tells us these folks are heretics supporting and abetting grave sins.
Can you say: "Politically Correct?" Abide by God's laws not man's law.
Come on. That question was too easy. Is that the best you can do?
Bishop Burke on the Dignity of Human Life and Civic Responsibility [Pastoral Letter]
TREND? "Pro-Abort Politicians "Shouldn't Dare Come to Communion", Madison Bishop Backs Burke
Bishop Burke Says USCCB Can't Force Him to Back Down from Refusing Communion to Abortion Supporters
Saw 2 girls walk out of an abortion chamber on friday,see the girls.
The survey page just rolls past and says file not found. Anybody else having this problem?
But I se the text for 1/2 a second!
Brown said, "the bishops have in effect said they're personally opposed to pro-abortion individuals claiming the Catholic faith, but will do nothing to stop it. Canon 915 of the Church's Code of Canon Law provides that those 'who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to communion.'
If the truth hurts, wear it.
You go Judy.
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