Kennedy/Kerry:"If the bishops won't do anything about that, don't come to me. It's their problem."

FIRST THINGS ^ | October 2003 | Richard John Neuhaus

[Polycarp]

We may not need a string of highly publicized excommunications, but the Catholic people certainly deserve a more adequate explanation of what appears to be episcopal indifference to prominent Catholics who, in explicit and persistent defiance of the Church's teaching, promote and abet the "abominable crime" (Vatican II) of abortion. Canon law states, "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae [automatically] by the very commission of the offense." Why is a frightened young woman who procures an abortion excommunicated while a politician who encourages her by telling her it is her right to do so, and works to secure her liberty to do so, welcomed at the altar? Why are prominent Catholics who persistently and publicly promote what the Church calls the culture of death apparently immune from public discipline? The Catholic people have waited a very long time for convincing answers to these questions.

Until such answers are forthcoming, it would seem that Senators Kennedy and Kerry are right. "If the bishops can't or won't do anything about that, don't come to me. It's their problem, not mine." Call it taunting, or call it throwing down the gauntlet, but Kennedy and Kerry have rendered an important service by clarifying that it is up to the bishops to make their problem the problem also of Kennedy, Kerry, and a host of others who count on bishops not having the nerve to be bishops. That, at least, is how many faithful Catholics see the matter. If they're wrong, maybe the bishops, or at least some bishops, will explain why they're wrong. Publicly.

Excellent essay!

Ping. (As usual, if you would like to be added to or removed from my "conservative Catholics" ping list, just send me a FReepmail. Please realize that some of my "ping" posts are long.)

[sitetest]

Dear Polycarp,

You are a gentleman. I was too lazy to type this one in. I was going to wait until next month when it came out on the First Things website.

Thanks for saving me the effort.

And bttt.


sitetest


PS: Everyone should subscribe to First Things. It's cheap, it's easy, and they just increased the font size of the type, so I can delay getting reading glasses for at least another year or two.

[ninenot]

Note also the "paleo-con" Bethell gets a little slap from the "neo-con" Fr. Neuhaus along the way.

I think I'll cc this to Dolan here in Milwaukee. This is a VERY target-rich environment.

[RichardMoore]

Kennedy and Kerry have already excommunicated themselves by admitting that they publicly difer with Church teaching on abortion. The fact that they try to hide behind the cowardice of their Bishops means nothing except that it is a scandal added to scandal added to scandal. They know that what they are doing is politically expedient,.They have made their bargain with the prince of this world.

[ClearCase_guy]

I live in Mass., so I know Kennedy and Kerry. Their bishop knows them too. I do not want to engage in any Catholic bashing, but I think it is obvious that the Church tolerates them for a simple reason: power (and money) is the primary focus of the church. Attention to doctrine and the plight of mens' souls is secondary (at best).

If you disagree, please explain why Kennedy's can be so pro-abortion without repercussion, and how they can get divorced (excuse me, annulled) so easily.

[Gerish]

Excellent article. Moral authority needs to happen on the part of some U.S. Bishops. Many Catholics have been waiting for this for generations!!!!! You can't exercise that moral authority by hiding under rocks!

[Polycarp]

You are a gentleman. I was too lazy to type this one in.

I wish I could take credit for that, but I can't. A very good faithful Catholic women on the west coast did it and forwarded it to a couple friends on an email loop, including myself.

[ElkGroveDan]

The way to deal with it, he says, is for the bishops of Kennedy, Kerry, and the many others who take the same position to call them in and say: "Look, we just can't have this. It is causing grave scandal. And your soul is in jeopardy.

Bishop William Weigand of the Sacramento Diocese did just that to Gray Davis. I pray that with time more will, and that they will follow up on their admonishments. Unfortunately, in California we have a Cardinal complicit in all the shenanigans of the far left who I'm certain must have his foot on Weigand's head preventing any further action.

Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cruz Bustamante: three apostate Catholics in the most prominent political election in the country (two of them from the very same parish). What a great message it would send to the world if someone with courage stepped in set the record straight.

[sitetest]

Dear Polycarp,

"I wish I could take credit for that, but I can't. A very good faithful Catholic women on the west coast did it and forwarded it to a couple friends on an email loop, including myself."

That explains the paucity of typos.



;-)


sitetest

[dangus]

>>"Why is a frightened young woman who procures an abortion excommunicated? "

Um... name one.

Last I knew, only one person related to the abortion trade, a clinic owner from Corpus Cristi, has ever been *personally* excommunicated. Personal excommunication (sorry, forget the latin term) is exceptionally rare in the Church.

[sitetest]

Dear dangus,

Any woman who procures an abortion to kill her unborn child is excommunicated latae sententiae, that is, automatically.

No bishop or otherwise need announce it, in fact, none need know the abortion was procurred for the excommunication to be incurred.


sitetest

[Polycarp]

Um... name one.

Every Catholic one. An excommunication can be latae sententiae; latae sententiae excommunication = automatic sentence of excommunication.

Title VI OFFENSES AGAINST HUMAN LIFE AND FREEDOM Can. 1397 -- One who commits homicide or who fraudulently or forcibly kidnaps, detains, mutilates or seriously wounds a person is to be punished with the deprivations and prohibitions mentioned in can. 1336 in accord with the seriousness of the offense; however, homicide against the persons mentioned in can. 1370 is punished by the penalties specified there. Can. 1398 -- A person who procures a successful abortion incurs an automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication. [The Latin original reads: Can. 1398 -- Qui abortum procurat, effectu secuto, in excommunicationem latae sententiae incurrit.] An excommunication is the heaviest spiritual sanction the Church can render. So long as it is in force, it bars the excommunicated person from the church community and from receiving most of the sacraments, as well as from all public associations affiliated with the Church. An automatic (or "latae sententiae") excommunication is an especially severe penalty. The nine or so latae sententiae excommunications in the Code are reserved for use against certain things the Church particularly wants to deter, like assaulting the pope (can.1370) and priests divulging matters heard in the confessional (can.1388). Most excommunications can only follow a tribunal trial (can. 1425, §1, 2°). But latae sententiae penalties operate like a bill of attainder in that there is no "process" for their imposition--the fact that the person voluntarily performed the proscribed act, in the absence of some exception provided in the law, means the penalty is incurred. An excommunication can usually be lifted by the local bishop (the "local ordinary") and sometimes by a priest during confession (can. 1354-1357).

[dangus]

I'm not so convinced that it's simply about power. The Catholic Church dreads schism more than anything else in the world. (The reason they've been so tough on SSPX is precisely because they know that SSPX doesn't *want* to go schismatic!) The US Catholic Church was dangerously close to informal schism during Bernadin's reign. Although that situation has improved, the sex-abuse scandals keep the overall picture very difficult. The tough thing is that so many church-going American Catholics are so deeply heretical, that informal schism is easy.

Whether or not I agree with the choices Rome is making, I believe that they are preferring heresy to schism. Heresy can be corrected; history has proven that once a schism forms, the schismatics go further and further into anti-Catholic doctrine. (case in point: Luther was *much* more Catholic than 99.9993% of Lutherans.)

Americans think in terms of election cycles; Rome thinks in terms of millennia.

Your frustration is understandable, and your dissent from the choice Rome appears to be making is reasonable, even possibly correct. I encurage you to get active in righting the situation you perceive to be wrong. Correct evil actions, but please refrain from ascribing evil motives to Church officials.

[wideawake]

If you disagree, please explain why Kennedy's can be so pro-abortion without repercussion, and how they can get divorced (excuse me, annulled) so easily.

(1) Because many bishops are weak and afraid of controversy.

(2) They are afraid that if many nominal Catholics are forced to choose between the Democrats and the Church they'll choose the Democrats because so many Catholics in the pew have been so poorly catechized.

This means an open schism in the Church, and no bishop wants to be accused of mishandling a situation and giving occasion for a schism.

Trust me, if the bishops were motivated purely by money, every scandal-ridden priest would have been immediately defrocked and excommunicated, if only to avoid multi-million dollar lawsuits.

In reality, bishops want to smooth things over - even things that simply cannot be smoothed over.

[Aquinasfan]

Yet another bishop friend is very candid in saying that we all know the answer to the question: all hell would break loose.

"I didn't come to bring peace, but division." -Jesus

[lizbet]

God is going to clean His house...thoroughly. Those people who flaunt wrong choices and lifestyles will have it thrown back in their faces.

[Aquinasfan]

...all hell would break loose.

And 33 million dead babies is... what?

[wideawake]

God is going to clean His house...thoroughly. Those people who flaunt wrong choices and lifestyles will have it thrown back in their faces.

In time He will. Until then, there will be tares among the wheat.

[Aquinasfan]

If you disagree, please explain why Kennedy's can be so pro-abortion without repercussion,

I can't. But I'd bet on plain cowardice and rationalization.

...and how they can get divorced (excuse me, annulled) so easily.

That's an easier one. If at the time of the wedding Ted didn't consider marriage to be a lifetime commitment, then grounds for an annulment exists.