Posted on 07/06/2004 12:31:01 PM PDT by areafiftyone
In a private memorandum, top Vatican prelate Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told American bishops that Communion must be denied to Catholic politicians who support legal abortion.
While never mentioning Sen. John Kerry by name, the memo implicitly aims at the pro-choice Catholic Massachusetts senator and presidential candidate.
But the ban is broad and includes all other pro-abortion Catholic politicians who are defying the church's ban on abortion.
According the the Culture of Life Foundation, which obtained a copy of the confidential document, the Cardinal began by stressing the serious nature of receiving Communion and the need for each person to make “a conscious decision” regarding their worthiness based on “the Church’s objective criteria.”
But the Cardinal adds that it is not only the responsibility of the pro-abortion politicians such as Kerry to make a judgment about their worthiness to receive Communion.
It is also up to those distributing Communion to deny the sacrament to those in conflict with the Church's prohibition of abortion and the duty of office holders to oppose the procedure.
“Apart from an individual’s judgment about his worthiness to present himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, the minister of Holy Communion may find himself in the situation where he must refuse to distribute Holy Communion to someone, such as in cases of a declared excommunication, a declared interdict, or an obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin.”
If a politician such as Kerry “still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it, ” Cardinal Ratzinger wrote.
He added that such as denial does not mean that the minister of Communion is judging the politician’s soul but is a reflection that he is in a state of obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin.
“Nor is the minister of Holy Communion passing judgment on the person’s
subjective guilt, but rather is reacting to the person’s public unworthiness to receive Holy Communion due to an objective situation of sin.”
The document also address the issues of the death penalty and war, contrasting these issues and with abortion.
“Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia ... There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia,” Ratzinger wrote.
The memo was one of the subjects of an interim report by a task force of seven bishops established to address the Communion question.
The topic was also addressed by the American Bishops during their mid-June meeting in Dallas.
At that meeting the Bishops approved a document titled “Catholics in Political Life” which while it had harsh words for pro-abortion leaders, did not make specific recommendations on whether or not they should be denied Communion instead leaving the decision to individual Bishops.
Implicit in what the the Cardinal was saying, however, is that the bishops are required to state unambiguously that pro-abortion politicians must be denied Holy Communion, thus removing the decision from the bishops' discretion.
They will IGNORE him as usual and continue to lead souls to hell while pushing the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and voting for Democrats.
The Kerry Affair: What Ratzinger Wanted from the American Bishops (Rome: "REFUSE Eucharist!")
US bishops rejected Ratzinger's advice
Democrats Secret Weapon - How American Bishops Kept Abortion Legal for Thirty Years
in a state of obstinate persistence
couldn't have found a better way to describe liberals.
But one exhibits piety when one acts in conformity to the will of the gods, and certainly the gods seek only that which is right.
There's no doctrinal position on the death penalty, so it wouldn't matter.
You find that a good feature? Yikes. That's the very definition of mob rule.
Majority opinion is mighty powerful all on its own. The role of a legislature in a Republic is not to stick its finger into the wind and blow along with it. Burke has this one nailed.
The power of the majority who can't get its will validated by a legislator is to replace him - which was Burke's point to his constituents at Bristol.
Is it a sin for the true believer to walk past an abortion clinic and do nothing?
How about a little uniformity in your moderators' practices? The Kerry issue is too important to use this kind of thread censorship to further personal vendettas among your mods.
Not in the church Kerry attends. He goes to some sort of leftwing 'Catholic' church in Boston. They would probably disobey an order from the Pope.
It won't be enforced; it is just a document.
MEDIA SUING TO OPEN KERRY'S SEALED DIVORCE PAPERS
More Bias and spin in the many newspaper articles to protect the liberal democrat. Kerry provided NO evidence of an annulment and he was married to Heinz, his second wife worth Billions, in the back yard of a home on Martha's Vineyard which is not ordinarily allowed for Catholics and there is also NO evidence of any RC priest who married them.
I wish the reporters would question him for the truth. Dream on.
Teresa on the Stump, Teresa Heinz Kerry, from Mozambique, PRO-ABORTION Catholic, UN Employee, etc.
Teresa Heinz Kerry, Drummond Pike and the Communist TIDES FOUNDATION
The Bible and homosexuality [Kerry thinks the bible is for homosexuality]
Kerry’s Dirty Deeds (How, pray tell, do they comport with religious belief
Catholic Pro-Abortion, Pro-Homosexual
Catholic and 100% Pro Abortion
CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH
DOCTRINAL NOTE
on some questions regarding
The Participation of Catholics in Political Life
Living the Gospel of Life:
A Challenge to American Catholics
A Statement by the Catholic Bishops of the United States
Faithful Citizenship:
Civic Responsibility for a New Millennium
Canon Law and Abortion
Sign Petition: To Excommunicate Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians
The Gospel of Life--Evangelium Vitae
Herod's Heroes, Sign Petition
Kerry, Candidate and Catholic, Creates Uneasiness for Church
A Primer on Canon 915 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
Catholics Against Kerry
1400 Ecclesial communities derived from the Reformation and separated from the Catholic Church, "have not preserved the proper reality of the Eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Holy Orders."236 It is for this reason that Eucharistic intercommunion with these communities is not possible for the Catholic Church. However these ecclesial communities, "when they commemorate the Lord's death and resurrection in the Holy Supper . . . profess that it signifies life in communion with Christ and await his coming in glory."237
Can. 844 §1. Catholic ministers administer the sacraments licitly to Catholic members of the Christian faithful alone, who likewise receive them licitly from Catholic ministers alone, without prejudice to the prescripts of §§2, 3, and 4 of this canon, and ⇒ can. 861, §2.
Sin to vote for pro-abortion politicians?
By Father Matthew Habiger, OSB
Kerry Will Hold Pro-Abortion Rally Prior to Sunday's Abortion March
The Deadly Dozen CALIFORNIA’S DEADLY DOZEN Crusade for the Defense of our Church
.
The Issue here is not Religion.
It's KERRY bullying his way to the Communion Rail for the benefit of his Catholic TV Audience/Voters.
Period.
I am proud of a Catholic Church that finally bites back, justly, at a KERRY who sided with our Terrorist Enemy HO CHI MINH's War on Catholics in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
.
"I wonder if it will make waves at the Republican Convention, where (at least) three pro-abortion Catholics are expected to give major speeches: Giuliani, Pataki, and Schwarzenegger."
Doubtful. This is obviously a ban on Democratic candidates only, as seen by the sentence below:
"While never mentioning Sen. John Kerry by name, the memo implicitly aims at the pro-choice Catholic Massachusetts senator and presidential candidate. "
I guess it's OK to be pro-abortion if you include a (r) after your name?
Church + Politics = Always good for a hypocritical chuckle.
I think he is quite a bit higher than 78, but I don't think he is #1. IIRC he is in the top ten list for next Pope.
In that situation, a "true believer" can pray for the end of that evil. That is definitely "doing something". The sin comes in when the true believer not only refuses to pray, but looks at the place and thinks to himself: there are those heroic doctors defending the rights of women. You go guys.
I agree with the position to ban communion from pro-infanticide politicians. However, what's next, banning the communion to those who believe in capital punishment? Whoops.
I take it you're not Catholic. Good Catholics are taught from a very young age to say a "Hail Mary" or an "Our Father" when they hear an ambulance siren. Likewise, when we knowingly pass an abortion chamber, the least we can do is say a prayer.
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