Cardinal Arinze Reiterates - for the N'th Time - No Communion for Pro-Abort Politicians

LifeSite ^ | July 25, 2005

[NYer]

PITTSBURGH, July 25, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - According to Francis Cardinal Arinze, the Vatican's chief over the administration of the sacraments, the denial of Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians is a no-brainer. Speaking at a dinner in Pittsburgh over the weekend, Arinze responded with his usual wit to the question, "Should Catholic legislators who support legal abortion 'be refused' Communion?"

The Cardinal elicited laughter when he rejoined, "I ask you, do you really need a cardinal from the Vatican to find the answer?"

He quipped, "Are there no children from First Communion to whom you can pose the question and receive the answer? You do not need a cardinal to answer that. Because it is a straightforward matter." In the Catholic Church, children are prepared to receive the Sacrament at the age of approximately seven years.

The Cardinal, moreover, is speaking not from his personal opinion but from the Church's Code of Canon Law which states, "Those who…obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."

Apparently, however, the bishops do need a Vatican Cardinal to tell them. The US and Canadian bishops, with only a handful of exceptions, far from endorsing this requirement of the Church law, have evaded the issue or remained silent. Cardinal McCarrick of Washington, soon to retire, went so far as to withhold from the meeting of the US bishops' conference, the pertinent section of a letter by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, (CDF) in which he said such legislators "must be refused" communion.

Cardinal Arinze is the Vatican's Prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and Sacraments, is the third highest authority in the Church matters pertaining to the sacraments, after the Pope and the current head of the CDF. He spoke at a benefit dinner hosted by a lay group, the Apostolate for Family Consecration.

In book-length interview with journalist Peter Seewald, the future Pope Benedict XVI said of bishops whose first instinct is to avoid conflicts, "Peace is not the first civic duty, and a bishop whose only concern is not to have any problems and to gloss over as many conflicts as possible is an image I find repulsive."

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Since Denver Meeting Divisions Between US Bishops on Communion Issue Continue to Surface http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jul/04071210.html

Read coverage in Post Gazette:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05206/543242.stm

[annalex]

It is a big mistake on the part of the Vatican to think that the American Church, apart from some exceptional dioceses, can pastor itself.

[annalex]

Right, he is implying all that. But he does not say so straightforwardly. Nothing in what he says can be quoted to support the position he implies.

[patent]

>>>>It is a big mistake on the part of the Vatican to think that the American Church, apart from some exceptional dioceses, can pastor itself.

I don't think its a mistake so much as a cost they are willing to bear. They take the long term view. In that view (I think) they are deciding that a short term fix of the political system isn't worth taking all the authority away from the Ordinaries. There are simply too many negatives to Vatican interference here. While the Pope has the power to shut down this issue, I really doubt he will do so. Better to fix the Bishops than to change the whole Church's operating structure to deal with the lousy Bishops we have now.

Problem is, fixing the Bishops takes along time, and they obviously got started much too late.

patent

[Coleus]

How many times?