Posted on 10/18/2004 9:42:39 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
A canon lawyer seeking to have Senator John Kerry excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church because of his support for abortion rights said on Monday that he had ammunition in the form of a letter issued at the request of a senior Vatican official.
The lawyer, Marc Balestrieri of Los Angeles, who heads a conservative Catholic nonprofit organization called De Fide, also said that, based on the letter, he would now seek to have four other Catholic politicians excommunicated: Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mario M. Cuomo, the former governor of New York.
"Senator Kerry, and all pro-choice Catholic politicians, who publicly call themselves Catholic yet who blatantly violate canon law by continuing to profess heresy and receive Holy Communion, must publicly reject their abortion advocacy for the sake of their own souls, and the others they have scandalized," Mr. Balestrieri said in a statement. "They have been excommunicated."
Only Ms. Collins is not a Democrat.
The letter to Mr. Balestrieri, written by another American canon lawyer at the request of a Vatican official, says that "if a Catholic publicly and obstinately supports the civil right to abortion, knowing that the church teaches officially against that legislation, he or she commits that heresy" and is "automatically excommunicated."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
*** Only Ms. Collins is not a Democrat ***
close enough !
what about Daschle, Kennedy, Pelosi ?
I've already sent a copy of this to Rush, Mike Reagan, Laura Ingraham, Chris Matthews, Bill O'Reilly, and my local talk-radio hosts.
Louisiana would appreciate it very much if you would please add the name of Senator Mary Landrieu to your list of Catholics that support abortion by refusing to vote against it. She hides behind the "I am personally opposed to abortion but I believe in the right to a woman's choice." I am sure if the issue were slavery she would take the same position.
Whoa!
After watching hourly re-posts of wishful thinking on this,
the NYT gives the story some cred?
What's next, columns written by the SBVFT?
You know where I think we're headed? To an abortion Oct Surprise with Bush. If in fact there is fire behind the smoke on that rumor, Kerry and his hacks will absolutely uncover it.
I've sent copies to my parents and other Catholic friends that still just don't get it.
Seriously, how do you think Kerry et al will personally take this?
Drudge has it.
The letter, first reported on Friday by Eternal Word Television Network, a Catholic station in Alabama, was written last month after Mr. Balestrieri met with an official at the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In June, Mr. Balestrieri filed a complaint accusing Mr. Kerry of heresy and seeking to have him excommunicated. The complaint was filed with the Archdiocese of Boston, where Mr. Kerry lives. The archdiocese, which declined to comment Monday, can decide whether Mr. Kerry should be excommunicated because he supports abortion rights.
Mr. Balestrieri said that when he was in Rome, he did not disclose to the Vatican that he had filed the petition against Mr. Kerry. He said he merely asked whether someone who publicly supports abortion rights was guilty of heresy.
Experts in canon law say Vatican officials frequently receive questions about matters of church doctrine. They can choose to answer those questions officially, giving their answers the weight of church law, or they can choose to answer them unofficially, delegating the matter to a canon lawyer not affiliated with the Vatican.
In Mr. Balestrieri's case, the undersecretary of the office, the Very Rev. Augustine di Noia, asked a friend, the Rev. Basil Cole, an associate professor at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, to write an "unofficial" response to Mr. Balestrieri's question, Father Cole said in an interview.
A spokesman for Mr. Kerry, Michael Meehan, would say only: "Kerry's a Catholic who attends Mass regularly and receives communion. That explains his standing in the church."
A spokesman for Mr. Kennedy declined to comment. Mr. Harkin, Ms. Collins and Mr. Cuomo could not be reached.
Well you do acknowledge that AWOL came back with a vengeance this go around even though it was whispered in 2000? I think the abortion thing is a likely bomb the Rats will drop before the election. That would be a base dispiriting bomb against Bush-- something Kerry has already shown that he feels he needs to do, see the Mary Cheney comment. I would be amazed if they don't drop it.
Ping
If I remember right, Kerry's parents became Catholic to escape religious persecution. They were originally Jewish. I'm not sure a man with morals really cares if he has been excommunicated from the Catholic Church, when other churches would be happy to take him under their wing with his millions $$$.
He'll try to ignore it
We'll have to see what happens here.
I know I sound stupid here, but... How will he be notified?
Altho I am a Catholic, I have never known anyone to be excommunicated. This is great. The Church is finally doing something about these folks. Ted Kennedy should have been gone a long time ago.
If nothing else, we can thank Dan Rather and SEE-BS for immunizing Bush to these kinds of attacks. While they can still use Iraq, and the other standard Democrat talking points (Medicare, Social Security, etc), pulling a DUI type story isn't going to work this time around.
Ummm .. I don't think so and Mr. Meehan needs to bush up on the Catholic Rules
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