Posted on 03/25/2009 10:10:37 AM PDT by NYer
President Obama's nominee to head the agency that guides federal abortion policy is the latest Roman Catholic politician to find herself torn between her political beliefs and her faith.
Already admonished against receiving Communion because of stands she has taken on abortion as governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius now faces even closer scrutiny from the church since she was nominated to serve as secretary of health and human services earlier this month.
What began as a local matter between Mrs. Sebelius and Archbishop Joseph Naumann, the archbishop of Kansas City, Kan., has taken on larger dimensions with the prospect that Mrs. Sebelius could reside in Washington.
Earlier this month, Archbishop Raymond F. Burke - formerly the archbishop of St. Louis but now prefect for the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's highest court - declared that Mrs. Sebelius should not approach the altar for Communion in the United States.
"After pastoral admonition, she obstinately persists in serious sin," he told CatholicAction.org, a conservative Web site.
Archbishop Naumann, meanwhile, has been in contact with Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of the Washington Diocese to inform him of the Kansas City prelate's discussions with Mrs. Sebelius.
A spokesman for Archbishop Wuerl said church officials in Washington would act in accordance with the admonition from Kansas City. A church official in Washington said the admonition does not prohibit priests from serving Mrs. Sebelius if she does present herself, but declined to speculate on what would happen in that event.
Baptist theologian and Mercer University professor David P. Gushee said the situation between Mrs. Sebelius and the Catholic bishops "is a very uncomfortable situation for those of us who are concerned about the role of faith in the public square.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
IOW...”just between you and me (nudge, nudge)”...and in the meantime, the general population can go on believing that these are “Catholics in good standing”...no wonder they keep getting elected/reelected
You have stated it quite well. One need only look through history books to see what comes next. EWTN aired film footage of Catholic Churches being destroyed under Stalin, the faithful fleeing with icons and sacramentals that were hidden in their homes. Priest 'holes' were also created and priests would travel under cover of darkness, by foot, to say Mass in those homes. Many of them were martyred for the faith.
This is the time for weeding out the unfaithful. The rest of us will soon go underground, much as they did in Russia and China.
It's this combination that is dangerous grounds.
Why just politicians? Should each church record the politics of each parishioner?
What if other groups wished to ex-communicate other politicians for their political stands? This "Official Ex-Communication" that some clamor for also has a history of abusive tendencies. The Church does not want to create conditions for political wars among and between parishes.
Abortion has become politics; but its root is spiritual. The Church is right to tread carefully on the politics. Their proper role is to address the root, and in the Church's view this means they have separated themselves from the Church and the Body of Christ. This means the cannot recieve the Body of Christ without seriously harming themselves by doing so.
They are outside the Church yet have a clear path back, as always: true repentance.
How this is done is within the proper role of the local Bishop of the parishioner.
The Pope's proper view, IMHO, is that her bishop has acted properly, he doesn't need my approval and there is nothing to disapprove.
>>>turn their sights onto their own Church
And I think the obvious weapon they will use is to politicize, divide, the Church. They already have their framework of “socialism is Christian” in several forms.
However this challenge is met, I think keeping the Church grounded as it always has been in spirit, keeping Her from being politicized is important.
IMHO, of course.
They don't get voted for by Catholics in communion.
All of those are now clearly aware of their fellow parishioner ex-relationship with the Church.
Should the Pope hold a press conference to inform the rest, non-Catholics what the Pope thinks?
Disciplining those commiting blatant and persistent public evil in order to teach what the Church believes wouldn’t be shocking to me. Baby butchery will never be seen for what it is by badly edjumcated Catholics unless the bishops act like they believe what they say it is.
Freegards
Yes
The Body of Christ was founded by Jesus Christ, not a or ‘the’ Church. Human beings created denominations. My church is a small nondenominational church and believe me, if our pastors know that someone is in sin and are unwilling to repent, they do not get away with it.
The Catholic Church is NOT a democracy; it is a theocracy. Contemporary secular society has this nasty habit of lumping individuals by political stances; hence they project and attribute the same categorization on religious organizations. Hence the great misunderstanding over the pope's statement regarding HIV Aids and condoms.
Founded by Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church has existed for 2000 years. The Church is apostolic. She is built on a lasting foundation: 'the twelve apostles of the Lamb' [Rev 21:14.]. She is indestructible (cf. Mt 16:18). She is upheld infallibly in the truth: Christ governs her through Peter and the other apostles, who are present in their successors, the Pope and the college of bishops. (ccc 869)
Many rulers have tried to topple her, without success. The one reassurance we Catholics have is that the gates of Hell will not prevail against Christ's Church (Matthew 16:18).
-- Contact your Senator here and Call your U.S. Senators & Sen. Brownback today at 202-224-3121.
-- Catholics Against Sebelius petition
-- Susan B. Anthony List petition
-- American Life League petition
-- Fact Check
-- e-mail 0bama
Call Sen. Brownback the Traitor
-- ALL's Judie Brown on Sen. Brownback: "I'll never use 'pro-life' to describe him again"
-- Brownback waffles but will vote to confirm Sebelius
-- Sam Brownback - the latest GOP traitor?
Read and pass around these two articles about Sebelius:
-- InsideCatholic.com: Obama's Choice of Sebelius Heats Up the Pro-life Battle
-- USA Today: Kansas Gov. Sebelius told not to take Communion
Call the RNC and ask Chairman Steele (who is Catholic and pro-life) to officially mobilize the party against the Sebelius nomination and to expose her radical pro-abortion views: 202.863.8500
Hat-tip to Coleus for assembling this data, THANK YOU!
Would that affect your vote for her one way or another?
I’m an informed voter, so no it wouldn’t...however, I do think it would affect less informed voters.
Less informed voters would need the Pope to tell them this woman is a big time pro-abortionist or need the Pope to inform them again that abortion is morally abhorrent?
Not necessarily the Pope, but yes, someone should out her to the general public...a less informed voter might not know her stance on abortion “since she is a Catholic” (in their minds).
Isn’t “outing her” a matter for her bishop as he sees fit? Hasn’t she been outed by him, and now by a prefect for the Apostolic Signatura?
What further role do you see for the Church?
Who is McCaskill’s bishop?
Well, she's not technically "excommunicated," just "barred from Communion." Those are two different things. (I know, I know, these maddening technicalities...)
If she were excommunicated, she could not receive ANY Sacrament in the Church (couldn't receive Communion, couldn't be married in the Church, couldn't receive the Last Rites, or even be buried in consecrated ground) unless the ban of excommunication were lifted, and that would only be by her bishop (or someone specifically designated to stand in for the bishop.)
That's such a total nuke of a penalty, that as I understand it, the Church makes extra-and-specially sure that it's not just based on some difference of opinion between you and your bishop, and provides for all kinds of "procedural due process" if the excommunicated person wants to appeal it, all the way up to Rome.
In other words, it could get tied up in a lot of legal procedures. Not a bad thing, per se. The faithful have rights, too, and one right is to receive the Sacraments, and to get yourself a canon lawyer and argue before a Church tribunal if you think you've been unjustly deprived.
On the other hand --- and I'm no canon lawyer, so if somebody knows better, please correct me ---- I think that what's happening with Sebelius is just the enforcement of Canon 915, which requires priests, deacons, and others who distribute Holy Communion, to deny Communion "to those obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin." (Each word here is important.)
Up until recently, most priests (and even bishops) pretty much confined this to refusing Communion to Catholics who were involved in invalid second marriages (after divorce) when the Church continued to recognize the first marriage, and thus regarded the attempted second marriage as adultery.
It was kind of an open-and-shut case, inasmuch as the scandalous second marriage was public (the canonical word is "manifest") and thus nobody was "guessing" about the state of your soul, they were just saying that, objectively, you were not in a position to receive Communion.
The big change came when the brilliant Raymond Burke was appointed to a post analogous to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Burke has been THE key man in saying, "Look here, an invalid second marriage is not the only kind of "obstinate persistence" in "manifest grave sin" that we have to deal with. How about politicians who openly and publicly are material accomplices in the grave sin of abortion?
Burke's analysis of the situation has made all the difference. That's why these lovable squid-like bishops are now growing some vertebrae.
Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.
Like I said, I'mo no canonist, so somebody please correct me if I've made some basic error here.
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