Posted on 05/04/2003 4:58:05 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Pro-choice Catholic politicians support abortion mostly for political reasons. The U.S. bishops say this is unacceptable. So why do they accept it?
Do you know what the Negro is? Leander H. Perez once asked in 1965. Animals right out [of] the jungle. Passion. Welfare. Easy life. Thats the Negro. As a state judge and political boss of Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana, Perez was able to enforce his racist views on the countys 3,000 to 4,000 African-American residents. Because of him, black people essentially couldnt vote, get decent housing, or even mix with whites. Yet for decades Perez was in full communion with the Catholic Church. After all, Perez had not only helped modernize the rural county with roads and electricity but was a stout anti-Communist, according to historian Glen Jeansonne in Leander Perez: Boss of the Delta.
But to New Orleans Archbishop Joseph F. Rummel, racial segregation was an intolerable evil. In 1949 he denounced it as un-Christian, and in 1953 he rebuked Perez and other Catholic segregationists, for keeping the archdioceses schools all white. His pastoral letter of that year, Blessed Are the Peacemakers, was read aloud in all of the archdioceses churches. Perez and his allies didnt budge. And when the archbishop threatened in 1956 to excommunicate them, they responded in kind, withholding church contributions and staging protest rallies. At one point, a cross was burned on the archbishops lawn.
By 1962, Rummel had enough. On March 23 he announced that in the fall, the citys Catholic schools would admit black students. And when Perez and his allies persisted in their opposition, the archbishop delivered the ultimate Church penalty: On April 16, he excommunicated Perez, state senator E. W. Gravolet, and activist B. J. Gaillot. By the fall, 104 black children were admitted to the citys Catholic schools. By 1968, Perez repented and, after his death in 1969, was given a Catholic burial.
More than 40 years later, after the great victories of the civil rights movement, we no longer think of Catholic politicians advocating such evil policies. They seem smart and diverse, not autocratic and racist. Sure, they may be pro-choice but at heart seem committed to social justice. Take Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic Partys leading nominee for president of the United States. Or Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican on close terms with President George W. Bush.
Of course, this gauzy view of politicians, Catholic or otherwise, has always been false. Aside from being fallen human beings, they commit evil for many of the same selfish political motives and with the gross illogic that Perez did. Consider what happened in the U.S. Senate on September 18, 1998, and October 21, 1999, when that body voted on whether to override President Bill Clintons veto of a bill to ban partial-birth abortion. In each case the measure fell short, by three votes and four votes, respectively. In each case about a dozen Catholic senators, more than enough to ban the procedure, failed to override the veto.
As a result of their votes, at least 2,000 children have died each year since, according to a recent survey by the Alan Guttmacher Institute. Actually died is too imprecise a description. Partial-birth abortions are typically done in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancybut sometimes even later. The abortion is performed by partially delivering the baby (leaving the head in the birth canal) and then puncturing the base of the skull with scissors in order to insert a catheter. The babys brain is then sucked out, causing the skull to collapse, killing the child.
Can anyone doubt these Catholic politicians have committed grave sin? In November 1998, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released an eloquent pastoral letter, Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics, that sharply criticized Catholic politicians for supporting abortion and euthanasia. On January 16, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the USCCB, issued a statement welcoming the doctrinal note issued by the Vatican that denounced Catholic politicians who favor abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage, and human cloning. Said Bishop Gregory, Catholic politicians cannot subscribe to any notion which equates freedom or democracy with a moral relativism that denies these moral principles. Both of these statements flow naturally from the seriousness the Catholic hierarchy attaches to abortion in particular. As early as 1975, the bishops described the right to life as among basic human rights.
As for actual penalties, the bishops in 1998 suggested that prohibiting culture-of-death politicians from Catholic institutions might be necessary. And while many prelates have taken this step, many have not. This February when pro-choice Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton was asked to give the homily during Sunday Mass at St. Sabinas in Chicago, the normally staunch pro-life Francis Cardinal George refused to pull the plug, saying that canceling Sharptons visit would be a futile gesture and a waste of effort.
Needless to say, not all shepherds are leading the flock. Culture-of-death politicians, while denying life every year to thousands of human beings, are themselves not denied use of the sacraments. Like Leander Perez before his repentance, they continue in their sin. Yet unlike him, almost none have had to face a modern-day Archbishop Rummel.
The Road Not Traveled
The most important political bodywhen it comes to abortion and cloningis the 100-member U.S. Senate. Since the early 1980s, the upper chamber has been a veritable graveyard for pro-life legislation, culminating in last years failure to ban all forms of human cloning.
Throughout this time, about a dozen pro-abortion senators have been Catholics, or at least publicly identify themselves as such. Today there are 15. Five are women. Eight come from the Northeast. Two are Republicans; the other 13 are Democrats.
Of this group, the best known is 71-year-old Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy, who has served in the Senate since 1962. Although he is to conservative Catholics what Jesse Helms was to the Leftwhich is to say a figure of pure derisionKennedy was actually once pro-life. As late as 1971, Kennedy wrote, Human life, even at its earliest stages, has a certain right which must be recognizedthe right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old.
But soon after Roe was handed down in January 1973, according to Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography by journalist Adam Clymer, Kennedy reversed his position. He has gone so far as to support federal funding of abortions and, in 1987, helped defeat a pro-life Supreme Court nominee by resorting to demagoguery (Robert Borks America is a land in which women would be forced to back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters ). One can never really know why politicians switch positions on issues, especially on an issue as sensitive as abortion. Still, its safe to conclude that Kennedy did so partly out of political expediencya conscious decision to sell his pro-life soul to gain the world of national Democratic leadership.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s the Democratic Party, trying to recover from the disaster of the 1968 convention in Chicago, was undergoing a shift within its leadership ranks. Formerly it had been run largely by the big-city and state political party bossesmen like Chicagos Mayor Daley and Connecticuts John Bailey. These groups tended to be working-class, Catholic, and socially conservative. But the McGovern-Fraser Commission (1969 to 1972)enacted at the Chicago convention as a sop to antiwar studentshelped end their rule through a series of internal party reforms. Principally, presidential delegates had to be, more or less equally, women, blacks, and people under 30. As a consequence, states had to greatly elevate the importance of primary elections.
Soon, the bosses were replaced by feminists and college-educated professionalspeople like Bella Abzug, Ann Wexler, and Gary Hart. Both groups tended to be more diverse in ethnicity and religion and were generally socially liberal. As Kerry told Windsurfer magazine in 1998, I grew up in college during the civil rights movement, during the early days of the conflict over the war in Vietnam, the environmental movement, and the womens movement. The movementsbeing involved, making a difference, committing yourself to something other than just yourselfwere a large part of the formative experience that I fell into in my generation . And that stays with me. Its a very important component of why I do what I do. As a result of this leadership shift, the partys stance on cultural issues changed. While the party was once more pro-life than the Republican Party, that no longer was the case.
Many Democrats have since followed Kennedys path, and theres a reason for that: The whole party machinery works against pro-life Democrats who aspire to a national platform. Hollywood and feminist donors dont give them money. And social liberals and college-educated women wont back them in a Democratic primary, in which working-class voterswho are more likely to oppose abortiongenerally dont vote.
For a northeastern Republican like Collins, the problem is possibly even worse. There arent many pro-life voters in Maine and the ones who are pro-life are more likely to be Democrats.
Still, as difficult as it is for Democrats and northeastern Republicans to be pro-life, it doesnt follow that they must support abortion. They do have options. They could stay and fight, trying to carve out a new constituency, as Democratic Senator Zell Miller of Georgia has done. They could seek a lesser office, in which voters dont penalize a politicians pro-life stance. They could quit the office, as John F. Kennedy, in his famous September 12, 1960, speech to Houstons Protestant ministers, suggested. Or most risky of all, they could follow the path of Lyndon Johnson, who despite favoring civil rights personally had to oppose it publicly until the mid-1950s. By then, Johnson had a national reputation as Senate majority leader, and Texas voters didnt dare kick him out. And so Johnson became the driving force for civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.
Yet pro-abortion Catholic senators have steadfastly avoided these paths and havent shown any indication of planning to do otherwise. Instead they argue, poorly, about the separation of church and state and the importance of not imposing ones religion on others. Id say the same thing President Kennedy saidseparation of church and state, Kerry said. What he didnt mention is that Kennedy in the same speech called for ending U.S. relations with the Vatican, a church-state relationship Kerry presumably supports.
Conscience Is a Pest
Kerry invoked the words of Kennedy on January 23 at the U.S. Capitol, and he did so by leaning slightly into me, sizing me up briefly, and flashing a half-smile. That night, I ended up talking to five other Catholic senators who supported abortion and human cloning, and each of them had a similarly uneasy response to my questions. This was odd. In the years that Ive covered Congress for various daily newspapers around the country, House and Senate members have rarely gotten that fidgety, except during President Clintons impeachment saga.
What made their unease especially striking was the contrast between their discomfort and the Senates cheery atmosphere that night. The long-delayed fiscal 2003 federal budget was about to be wrapped up, and the next day was the start of a four-day weekend. In the south side of the Senate where I was stationed, senators could be seen smiling and chatting. Around 7 p.m., the Senate Democrats dining room smelled of cheap fish. Spotting Senator Hillary Clinton, one reporter called out, Hey, cant we pass a law banning Long John Silver in the Senate? Clinton, feigning seriousness, said, You know, I think thats a good idea. At 7:35 p.m., as if to underscore the nights fraternal bonhomie, Bill Clinton himself emerged from an elevator. Grinning broadly, he surveyed the scene and waited for his wife to accompany him to the Senate floor.
It was in this atmosphere that Kennedy left at 8:44 p.m. and headed toward the white marble steps. He still retains the Irishmans thick shock of hair, although his face is puffy and he now waddles. I asked him about the Vaticans doctrinal note on Catholic politicians. Well, as I said the other day [at the National Press Club], I take my beliefs, I take my religion very seriously. My religion has made an enormous difference to my family and my parents, he said calmly, shuffling down the steps.
At this point we were on the first floor, about to head outside. I asked him how he reconciled his liberal stance on social issues with the bishops view of Catholicism. By the time I finished my question, we were past the maple doors and outside, alone, in the cold northeastern winter night. He stopped and turned almost directly toward me. Look, he said, displaying that characteristic Ted Kennedy indignation. I know who I am, he said, pausing for half a second, and what I believe.
It was that first comment that hit its markrather predictably I conjured up images of his two assassinated brothers and imagined all the grief that he and his family had endured. I suddenly felt as if I had no right to question him. In terms of personal suffering, the gulf between us was as wide as an ocean. He walked away, and after dismissing me with a wave of his left hand, I thought the interview was over. I was wrong. Six or seven yards away and still obviously upset, he said of the bishops, Its their problem, not mine. Turns out his faith isnt so private after all.
While Kennedy was merely disgusted with my questions, Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland was borderline hostile. I find the Church has an inconsistent view. It talks about abortion, but it never talks about the death penalty, she said underneath the Capitol, waiting to board a tram to her office. The sheer falsity of her claim was jarring: The popes last trip to the United States in 1998 was all about the need to abolish the death penalty. Indeed His Holinesss plea prompted Mel Carnahan, Missouris prodeath penalty governor, to commute one mans imminent execution.
When I asked her about the morality of abortion and cloning, things got worse. The Church doesnt have a very good record on child abuse, now does it? she asked rhetorically. Well, I said, theres a difference between policy and the execution thereof. To this, she lowered her head and glowered. The Church doesnt have a very good record on child abuse, does it? After adding the irrelevant point that she was a child-abuse worker for Catholic Charities, shelike Kennedywaved me away.
Mikulskis reaction wasnt surprising; staffers regularly rate her as one of the meanest bosses on Capitol Hill. But something about the topic of abortion was stirring up anger even in senators known for their equanimity. Such was the case with Kerry, who cant exactly afford to annoy reporters nowadays. Not only is he running for his partys presidential nomination, hes trying to counter the image of himself as an aloof rich guy. Kerry is tall and lean, with a bushel of gray hair and good looks that give him the appearance of someone vaguely famous. He should be. After attending boarding school in Switzerland, Kerry went to Yale and is nowat 59married to Teresa Heinz, the ketchup heiress.
Around 8:50 p.m., I saw Kerry just off the Senate floor. Again I asked him about the Vaticans doctrinal note. I have not read it, he admitted. I slipped quickly into an elevator with him, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, and two others. Kerry pointed me to Durbin, another pro-abortion Catholic. Why dont you ask him? Kerry suggested with a nervous smile. He has a direct line to the Vatican.
Durbin, his expression blank, said nothing.
The elevator released us, and I walked with Kerry down the escalator to wait for the tram to his office. I have to represent all the people in my state, and to tell Jews and Buddhists otherwise he said, trailing off.
After a pause, he began again. President Kennedy settled this in 1960. We got into the tram, and he sat diagonally from me, in part to stretch his long frame. Abortion should be the last approach for a woman, he said, seemingly pained by the thought of it. It should be infrequent, but it should also be available and safe. We heard this rhetoric in 1992, and while the abortion rate dropped, the procedure remains the most common one performed on women in this country.
Kerry and I got off the tram, walked into a foyer, and passed a red brick wall to the elevator. Sensing the end of our interview, I asked him about Bishop Gregorys remark that one cant be a good Catholic if one is pro-abortion. I understand what theyre saying. [But] I would have to say what [former House Speaker] Tip ONeill said in front of several thousand priests and several thousand nuns: that 68 percent of them support Roe v. Wade. If the bishops cant do and dont say anything about that, dont come to me, he answered, his voice rising. You know what Im saying?
He got off the elevator and disappeared down the darkened second floor of the Russell building.
Of course hes right that many Catholic priests and religious are pro-abortion. Still, his statement was at heart insincere. Two nights earlier, Kerry, along with five other Democratic presidential hopefuls, spoke at a dinner hosted by NARAL Pro-Choice America (formerly, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League); the occasion was to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Courts decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. From an audience of 1,300, Kerry drew cheers when he said, We are not going to turn back the clock. There is no overturning of Roe v. Wade. There is no packing of courts with judges who will be hostile to choice.
At least Mikulski, Kennedy, and Kerry answered questions. Another class of respondents simply refused to discuss the subject. Like Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island. Collins also fell into this category. At 8:20 p.m., she walked off the Senate floor. She was wearing a green dress suit and smiled slightly while I introduced myself. But when I asked her about the Vaticans doctrinal note, the smile disappeared. Im not going to comment on that, she said, getting into an elevator. May I ask why? I probed. I have nothing to say, she said, the door closing in front of her.
Collinss staff was only slightly more helpful. Her spokeswoman, Felicia Knight, sent an undated five-sentence statement from the senator. After citing the importance of personal liberty and separating church and state, Collinss statement read: As a practicing Catholic, I respect the Churchs view that abortion is wrong. As a United States Senator, however, I will not make criminals of those women who do not agree with the Catholic Churchs position on this difficult issue. There you have it: To Collins, abortion is a religious issue, not a moral one; and even if it is a moral issue, personal liberty is paramount.
Anger, hostility, insincerity, and silencethese generally are not what one expects of U.S. senators, even on hot- button topics like abortion and cloning. But in spite of their protests, Mikulski, Reed, and Kerry said they hadnt even read the doctrinal note. Nor did any of them try the more diplomatic dodge: Ive read the document and prayed over it. Still, I must respectfully disagree. So its hard to claim that these are the well-formed conscience(s) that the Church requires of dissenters. Instead their attitude was summed up best by Kennedy: Its their problem, not mine.
Dead Letter Office
Until quite recently, the notion of excommunicating or interdicting Catholic politicians who dissent on life issues seemed extreme and, well, medieval. Even at the two recent March for Life rallies in Washington, one rarely saw signs calling for it. But among a few Catholic leaders, the idea has resurfaced.
On January 22 the American Life League, the pro-life movements firebrand, announced a lobbying campaign to this effect. Aside from vowing to spend between $100,000 and $1 million on newspaper ads, the organization has written letters to twelve bishops and cardinals, each of whom has a pro-choice Catholic senator in his diocese, and urged that they deny the senators Holy Communion. We have waited patiently for 30 years for Catholic bishops to point out these politicians hypocrisy, President Judie Brown said at a morning press conference held at the National Press Club in downtown Washington. These human beings have not only brought misery to the Church but are also jeopardizing their immortal souls. It is the job of these priests to bring these people back into line.
Probably the more important announcement came later that day. Bishop William K. Weigand of Sacramento called on pro-choice Catholic politicians like Democratic Governor Gray Davis to refrain from taking Holy Communion. As your bishop, I have to say clearly that anyonepolitician or otherwisewho thinks it is acceptable for a Catholic to be pro-abortion is in very great error, puts his or her soul at risk, and is not in good standing with the Church. Such a person should have the integrity to acknowledge this and choose of his own volition to abstain from receiving Holy Communion until he has a change of heart, he said at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento.
In the late 1980s Bishop Leo Maher of San Diego went even further, excommunicating a pro-choice Catholic state assemblywoman, Lucy Killea. Both Bishops Weigand and Mahers actions had a solid grounding in Church law. According to Canon Law 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. Indeed canon law, even the updated 1983 version, uses a term that perfectly describes such politicians: exiles from Christian society.
Some distinguished Catholic scholars agree that denying the sacraments to culture-of-death politicians may be necessary. Monsignor Robert F. Trisco, the editor of Catholic Historical Review and an eminent historian of Vatican-U.S. relations, said that excommunicationwhile extrememight be needed here. I would say a harsh law [abortion rights] requires a harsh response. Perhaps its a necessary time to use a harsh penalty. Now thats easy for me to say sitting here, but Catholics do have a positive obligation to not procure or assist in the procuring of abortion. Its an automatic excommunication. Rev. Ronny Jenkins, an assistant professor of canon law at the Catholic Univer-sity of America, agreed. He stressed that Church officials must warn abortion-rights politicians about their immoral position but that excommunication may need to be used against them. My personal view is we should always do the good and right, but I have not made...a decision on this. As such, he said, Certainly its going to take some courage [for the bishops] to carry out these teachings.
Yet other than Bishops Weigand and Maher, the vast majority of U.S. bishops have not shown courage on the issue. Of the twelve Church leaders the American Life League contacted, only one as of late February had responded. Bishop Robert Carlson of South Dakota said that as far as he can tell, Senate minority leader Tom Daschle rarely attends Mass and doesnt receive Communion when he does. Daschle spokespersons did not return several calls for comment. The other eleven Church leaders ignored the letters.
None of these politicians has been denied the sacraments. None has been interdicted, that is, they could receive penance and Holy Communion at the time of death but would be barred from a church burial or (in effect) the other sacraments. And obviously none of them has been excommunicated, in which the Christian can no longer attend Mass or receive the sacraments.
Why wont the bishops take these pro-choice Catholics to task? The problem doesnt seem to be halfhearted pro-life support. At this years March for Life in Washington, D.C., about 20 top Church officials, from St. Louis to South Carolina, were present. It was a brutally cold day, the wind whipping about with temperatures in the low 20s. After the bishops appeared on stage, I happened to track down then- Bishop Daniel Hart of Norwich, Connecticut. I asked him if he considered abortion a greater or lesser social evil than segregation or slavery. He looked me in the eye and shot me a slightly wounded look, as if I had spoken in praise of torture. I think its worse, he said.
But when I asked him whether he would deny Holy Communion to anyone, his body language changed. A beefy six-foot-three and the type of man who looks as if he could chop wood for hours, he grew tentative and resigned. It just so happens that his diocese is the home of pro-choice Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd.
I dont think its good practice to refuse Communion, he said.
Why not? I asked.
Well, we dont refuse Communion. Its a matter of personal conscience.
How about giving Communion to, say, a slaveholder?
Bishop Hart looked askance at this question. Then he said, Well, it would be a very rare situation that we would deny Communion to anyone.
Have you talked to Senator Dodd about his views on abortion and cloning?
That would be a personal thing, he said plainly.
Can you think of any circumstances in which Communion would be denied?
Bishop Hart paused. He turned slightly and thought the matter over for about ten seconds. Finally he said, with the air of someone genuinely stumped, I cant think of any situation where I would deny Holy Communion.
Bishop Harts response is typical of many top U.S. Church officials: They regard ones personal conscience as paramount, as something that must be honored at nearly all costs. And yet the U.S. bishops in their 1998 pastoral letter criticized pro-choice Catholic politicians for appealing to personal conscience: Most Americans would recognize the contradiction in this statement, While I am personally opposed to slavery or racism or sexism, I cannot force my personal views on the rest of society.
And yet isnt this exactly what the U.S. hierarchy itself is saying? While we are personally and publicly opposed to abortion or human cloning or euthanasia, we cannot deny Holy Communion to politicians who support and make those evils a reality.
Some theologians have argued that pro-abortion Catholic politicians are guilty merely of material offense. In a February 2002 story for the Catholic World Report, canonist Phil Gray, vice president of Catholics United for the Faith, was quoted as saying, Although having an abortion can result in an excommunication, governmental support for abortion is not a similar offense. But in some circumstances this is clearly inapplicable. The Senates votes in 1998 and 1999 on partial-birth abortion are a good example. Had the dozen or so pro-choice Catholic senators approved the measure, it would have been enacted into law.
Other top Church officials oppose sanctioning pro-choice Catholic politicians for social and communal reasons. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver said in an e-mail exchange that he can imagine situations where excommunication is necessary and advised Church officials to warn abortion-rights Catholic politicians, but he was reluctant to deny them Communion:
Most Catholics dont even know what excommunication means, or why its so extremely serious. Penalties are uselessin fact, theyre worse than uselessif they mean nothing to the person penalized, or if the wider Catholic community doesnt understand them. And thats really the heart of the problem. The un-Catholic behavior of many of our elected Catholic officials isnt an isolated illness. Theyre exactly the officials we deserve, because at the grassroots, too many rank and file Catholics have become more devout Americans than they are believers. Should we excommunicate them, too? It isnt that simple. We have a deep and widespread faith problem in this country just below the surface of our church attendance. Until thats addressed, not much will change.
To be sure, Archbishop Chaput laid out a commonsensical and spiritually necessary way for Church officials to deal with dissident Catholic politicians. The first step, and probably the second, third, and fourth step, is for a bishop to speak with the politician privately, he wrote. Persuasion almost always works better than coercionthats just human nature.
But when persuasion failsrepeatedlyisnt coercion then necessary?
Be Ye Men of Valor
The bishops leadership on this issue in many ways has been exemplaryfrom their new ad campaign to supporting crisis pregnancy centers to abortion grief groups. And it will surely be argued that given the sex-abuse scandal, now is an especially bad time for bishops to be holding politicians morally and publicly accountable.
But such rhetoric must retreat in the face of the 1.3 million abortions performed every year43 million since 1973. Through their support of the horrors of abortion, the souls of countless Catholic politicians are in danger.
Despite conventional wisdom that has the bishops constantly thundering about abortion, the opposite is true. Recall Archbishop Rummels war on segregation. In 1953 he required every church in the diocese to read his pastoral letter. By contrast, Catholic prelates today generally confine their message to diocesan newspapers and pro-life groups. As Ray Flynn, former two-term mayor of Boston and ambassador to the Vatican, said, Bishop Gregorys statement, as positive and sincere as it is, didnt get followed up much in the press or in the Catholic press. When I ran for mayor in 1983, I went to 76 mayoral debates or meetings. It wasnt one meeting that people understood my message; it was all of them collectively. So you have to drive the message home consistently and with repetition. Thats the only way people learn. Its not enough for the U.S. Catholic bishops to attend a conference and issue a statement.
If more American Catholic prelates decide to challenge their local culture-of-death Catholic politicians, theyll need courage. Unlike the battle for desegregationwhich had the support of Hollywood, the media, the universities, and the courtsthe pro-life war has only the White House, one branch of Congress, and two Christian denominations.
Yet this is all the more reason why every cardinal and bishop must expose this evil. And if that involves warning and denying the sacraments to culture-of-death Catholic politicians, so be it. As the bishops have already written, challenging these politicians isnt voluntary. Its a duty and a pastoral responsibility.
We get the public officials we deserve, they wrote five years ago. Their virtueor lack thereofis a judgment not only on them, but on us. F
Mark Stricherz is a writer living in Washington, D.C.
I've said it before many times - the Catholic Church is not a political organization whose doctrine can be changed over time through moral "change" or majority opinion. His Word and Teachings do not "evolve" - what is right is right, today as it was 2000 years ago.
Duh... lemmme think...maybe because their voters don't care what U.S. bishops say about it... Ya'think?
To borrow from Tom Daschle, "I'm deeply saddened." Why? ... Because the Catholic Church has lain with the whore, to speak metaphorically, and Biblically!
Bishop Hart looked askance at this question. Then he said, Well, it would be a very rare situation that we would deny Communion to anyone.
Have you talked to Senator Dodd about his views on abortion and cloning?
That would be a personal thing, he said plainly.
Can you think of any circumstances in which Communion would be denied?
Bishop Hart paused. He turned slightly and thought the matter over for about ten seconds. Finally he said, with the air of someone genuinely stumped, I cant think of any situation where I would deny Holy Communion. In such a posture, communion wouldn't be Holy from this Bishop, merely a hollow ritual.
Such an man does not represent MY LORD and Savior. The Catholic Church presents itself as intermediary between man and God. If the Church cannot and/or will not as policy withhold the Flesh and Blood of My Lord from persons supporting the slaughter of fellow individual human beings, the Church is no longer in touch with God and has lain with the whore.
What the failure of the Church to uphold righteousness is leading to is the tacit acceptance of human cannibalism. Imagine, it will be the cannibalized bodies of individual human lives conceived solely for harvesting body parts that the Church will be completely impotent to oppose, because the Church has not stood for righteousness regarding the alive unborn with their own members!
The 'whoremongering' Church has given cover to the enemies of Life for so long now, the Church is no longer in touch with The Savior. Some Priests and Bishops still strive to serve Our Lord, but as a body, the edicts of the Holy Father are routinely ignored by Priests and Bishops thus giving cover to reprobate catholics. It is the Lord who will judge this whoremongering, this gross failure to be His Priests. It is the Lord's forgiveness the Church ought seek, and prove repentance with action.
The Church gives lip service to piety yet allows the practicing Catholic to establish the rules, individually. It is clear that Jesus is no longer the acknowledged leader of the Church, establishing what is written at the end of Judges, "In those days there was no King in Israel, and everyman did what was right in his own eyes." Read again what Bishop Hart asserted, and see in his smarmy complicity the words found in Judges: That would be a personal thing, he said plainly. Yes, to choose what is right and wrong is a personal thing, not the purview of a Church laying with The Whore.
How're ya, anyway? Hope all is well with ewe. ;)
Open wide, Kerry. I got a movement for ya.
If more American Catholic prelates decide to challenge their local culture-of-death Catholic politicians, theyll need courage. Unlike the battle for desegregationwhich had the support of Hollywood, the media, the universities, and the courtsthe pro-life war has only the White House, one branch of Congress, and two Christian denominations.Yet this is all the more reason why every cardinal and bishop must expose this evil. And if that involves warning and denying the sacraments to culture-of-death Catholic politicians, so be it. As the bishops have already written, challenging these politicians isnt voluntary. Its a duty and a pastoral responsibility.
Bump!
Catholic Church asks Tom Daschle to stop calling himself a Catholic
On Catholic Politicians and Faith
Vatican Urges Catholic Politicians to Vote Along Church Lines
Senator Santorum on Being Catholic and a Politician
William E. Simon, Sr. and Jr. Devout Catholics, Philanthropists and Politicians
Deadly Dozen senator taken to task over claims of Catholicism
THE BISHOP AND THE SENATOR [author links to FR thread regarding Daschle in her online column]
Indeed, and politics have a lot to do with it.
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