Posted on 05/14/2007 5:19:23 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
A group of House Democrats yesterday publicly repudiated the Pope’s recent suggestion that politicians who support abortion rights should be excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
Eighteen House Democrats, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), are responding to Pope Benedict XVI’s statement that indicated he would support Mexican bishops if they were to excommunicate Mexican legislators who voted last month to legalize abortion in Mexico City.
The Pope made his remarks last Wednesday during a news conference aboard a plane before he was to begin a five-day visit to Brazil.
“We are concerned with the Pope’s recent statement warning Catholic elected officials that they risk excommunication and would not receive communion for their pro-choice views,” the lawmakers said in a statement issued yesterday. “Advancing respect for life and for the dignity of every human being is, as our church has taught us, our own life’s mission.”
The Democratic lawmakers said that the suggested penalty “offend[s] the very nature of the American experiment and do[es] a great disservice to the centuries of good work the church has done.”
The Pope’s spokesman later clarified the pontiff’s remarks, saying that, ‘’Legislative action in favor of abortion is incompatible with participation in the Eucharist,’’ and politicians who favor abortion rights should ‘’exclude themselves from communion.’’
Other lawmakers were not as politic as the House Democrats.
“I’ve always thought also that those bishops and archbishops who for decades hid pederasts and are now being protected by the Vatican should be indicted,” said Catholic Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who spoke to reporters last week.
Over the last several years, a few Catholic bishops have threatened to deny communion and other sacraments to politicians who favor abortion rights because their views are not in-step with Church doctrine. The decision to withhold sacraments is made by individual bishops, said Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The debate over whether pro-choice Catholics should receive communion could intensify in the 2008 race for the White House.
In 2004, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the first Catholic Democratic presidential nominee since President John Kennedy ran in 1960, received communion one day after a top Vatican cardinal said politicians who back abortion rights should be denied the Eucharist.
Kerry lost the Catholic vote by 13 points to President Bush, according to DemocracyCorps, a Democratic polling firm. There are four 2008 presidential candidates who are Catholic: Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), Sen. Christopher Dodd (Conn.), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. They all support abortion rights.
On the Republican side, Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.), former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, and ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani are Catholic. Brownback and Thompson oppose abortion rights while Giuliani favors them.
In February, former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) was under pressure to fire two female bloggers who had criticized the Catholic Church before joining the campaign. While Edwards decided not to fire the two women, one subsequently resigned.
Some Catholic organizations have criticized the Pope’s statement.
Jon O’Brien, the executive director of Catholics for a Free Choice, said, “[Pope Benedict] is still putting dogma ahead of the lived reality of the Catholic laity… it will only push Catholic politicians further from the institutional church.”
The House Democrats’ letter mirrors a “statement of principles” that 55 Democrats, encompassing a broad ideological swath of the caucus, signed last year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who is Catholic, signed the letter, as did anti-abortion rights Reps. Bart Stupak (Mich.) and Jim Langevin (R.I.).
In the statement of principles, Democratic lawmakers wrote that they agreed with the Roman Catholic Church’s position on the “undesirability of abortion” and that “each of us is committed to reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies and creating an environment with policies that encourage pregnancies to be carried to term.”
Meanwhile, Catholic voters’ attitudes towards abortion are changing, according to an ABC-Washington Post poll released in March. Only 10 percent of those polled believe that abortion should be legal in all cases, a 16 percent drop since 2004. But there has been a corresponding rise in the number who said it should be legal in most cases.
I haven't. When they catch up to where I am I may rejoin. Their change on abortion is a good start.
I haven't heard any such questions, nor would I expect any. It's not entirely facetious to suggest that it is against their religion to be fair to Catholics, or to any Christians, or to anyone who believes in a Higher Being. In fact I can't imagine a media person informed well enough about Catholic doctrine to ask an intelligent question.
“Eighteen House Democrats...”
Is there a complete list somewhere?
Good comments about the bushel basket, very interesting analogy! I would like to clarify that “they” is not really the Church, but a majority of bishops, particularly U.S. bishops.
Now that more of them are becoming clear and outspoken about the truth, hopefully these valiant ones will start the tide turning with the weak bishops. Of course, a few bishops are heretics and there I have to agree with you; those few that deliberately mislead should have been excom’ed by Rome officially.
I don't think even the Democrats would be stupid enough to do something that unconstitutional.
You mean pederasts like democrat congressman Gerry Studds should have been indicted? Oh wait, democrats re-elected him six times.
Exactly which pederasts should be indicted? I'm confused.
“In fact I can’t imagine a media person informed well enough about Catholic doctrine to ask an intelligent question.”
That seems to be very true. It was surprising when the Venerable Servant of God, Pope John Paul, died, and then the conclave convened and Pope Benedict was elected. Almost every hour of the coverage during those days some TV reporter was misstating or misinterpreting the meaning, the procedures, the translations, the history, or something. They obviously had desperately relied on some quick “research” by other non-Catholic underlings to give them the talking points, because they just, almost comically, made one error after another.
The truths of Christianity have been revealed to the Catholic Church over 20 centuries, they cannot be fully understood with half an hour of Googling.
To Jim O’Brian: Get Catholic out of your organizations name because you all have excommunicated yourself, like it or not.
To all the “Catholic” Democrats and Republicans (looking at you Rudy): You’re not.
It’s unreal how people think they can just go completely against the Pope on just about the only thing that can still get you excommunicated, and still think they’re “entitled” to identify themselves as Catholics.
“Catholic” Dems and Reps who support abortion. Brain got ahead of my fingers.
That one really cracked me up. People need to remember the cojones the Clintons both have—how DARE a Cardinal of the Catholic Church decide what’s right for the Catholic Church!
I hope you’re right.
May God bless you and yours, brother!
And thank you!
We’ll see! I remain optimistic about our Christian brethren in America.
I agree. The RATS are anti-God, anti-American, anti-life and anti everything that is decent and moral. Money and power is their god!
This evangelical, and I trust millions of others, will stand with our Catholic brethren if/when this happens.
I will stand with them too! It's a fight between good and evil! We cannot let them win!
Yes, when he was Bishop of La Crosse in Wisconsin regarding some local Congressional representatives and during the 2004 presidential election regarding Kerry.
They have a lot of nerve.
There’s so much wrong here...
“A group of House Democrats yesterday publicly repudiated the Pope’s recent suggestion that politicians who support abortion rights should be excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church”
First of all “catholic” democrats....it ain’t up to you, it’s up to the Pope - you lose. Every time.
Dear Patrick Leahy - yes - those pederasts and their enablers should be denied communion as well - IF they refuse to reconcile with the Church.
And oh yeah....Guliani is not a catholic - and neither are the Catholics for a Free Choice.
“I have been told that the church didn’t specifically say abortion was a no-no until the 19th century. I’m not disagreeing with your point, but I am wondering what backs that idea, since I’ve heard it many times over the years. If you know, or anyone else knows about this specific point, let me know”
I don’t know the specifics - or the dates here. But I suspect it has something to do with not being able to pronounce definitively on something where actual knowledge was limited.
In understanding the nature of how conception occurs, how embryos develop into fetuses, and how fetal development proceeds until birth -these are things that are fairly “recent” in how we understand them.
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