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 agree with you that it matters. (thank you for acknowledging that I already knew that) It matters a lot, and I am overjoyed that they are finally speaking up, I want them to continue, and I wish them well.
At the same time, I can hardly contain my disgust. It was just these kinds of major failures in the churches that I quit attending.
What is your point?
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.”
Saying that Catholics for a Free Choice is a Catholic Organization is the same as saying that WITCHCRAFT is a Sacrament.
Catholics for a Free Choice is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation...
Jon O’Brien, the executive director of Catholics for a Free Choice, ...
At one time in Ireland, people could become SOUPERS.
A friend of mine told the story of his meeting a man whose family came from SOUPER's in Ireland on an airline...
A SOUPER in Ireland was someone who changed religion for a bowl of soup (i.e., left the Catholic Church to join the Protestant Church for a BOWL OF SOUP. This was at a time when food was very hard to come by -- potato famine times, for example...
Sounds like we have Soupers in Congress...
Liars. Then what are they afraid of???
Fixed it!
Good one!
Are you familiar with the Catechism of the Catholic Church and what it says about abortion?
**Catholics for a Free Choice**
This group is a dissenting group of CINOs.
This is what you call Cafertia Cathoics Monk be honest like Ted Kennedy of MASS and even my State speaker Nancy Pelosi
What really bug me is Nancy is Italian grandma HELLO Italian mothers don’t go for this average one they smack you upside the head
| Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) | Promotes artificial contraceptive "rights," including abortion. Their focus is the "intersection of Catholic teaching and public policy." Bishop Bruskewitz excommunicated those that belong to this group in his Diocese. Member of Catholic Organizations for Renewal. They have been condemned by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB). |
-A8
The organization is just a front for several anti-Catholic foundations. It has no members, but it gets lots of money from the same groups that support Planned Parenthood.
Friend,
Drive on down from Colorado to St. Louis, and let me introduce you to Archbishop Burke. Here's a leader who is not afraid to take all kinds of heat from anybody, to stand up for the unborn. He is extremely gentle and soft-spoken in person. But he is not in the least afraid to stand up for the truth, especially about abortion and ESCR. He is ridiculed by the St. Louis paper for doing so, but it doesn't weaken him. I can't imagine a better leader, and role model, especially for the seminarians here. By his example and courage, he is teaching them all to have a backbone, even while retaining humility and gentleness. The people Archbishop Burke is following people; they are Jesus, Mary, the Apostles, Martyrs, Saints, and the Pope. The question for you is this: are you going to follow his lead, or are you going to keep complaining about the lack of Catholic leadership on this issue?
-A8
A lawsuit should be broguht by the St. Thomas More Society against any politicians who make statements that clearly violate the separation of Church and State. The State has no business interfering with the Catholic faith. If the Holy Father indicates that those who procure or materially support abortion are excommunicated from our Catholic faith, it is not for any politician to even voice an opinion. It is none of the government’s business who the Church allows in or invites out.
I am not a Catholic, so the short answer is no. However, I think I can safely sum it up by saying that the Catholic Church has always proclaimed that abortion is a sin.
My point, on this thread, is that for the last 20 or 30 years they have proclaimed it from under a bushel basket, to use a Biblical phrase.
Not until the last year or two, when they have been lead by their congregations, have they had the courage to throw off that bushel basket they've been hiding under and proclaim it loudly, openly, and with the threat of excommunications.
I will take you at your word.
That hardly detracts from the point I was making, however.
How many Catholic excommunications have occurred in the last few decades for politicians who voted their support for abortion related legislation? I don’t know the answer to that, but my guess is that number is closer to zero than it is to ten.
Has Archbishop Burke ever refused communion to persons who have announced public support for abortions? I’m hesitant to venture a guess because I don’t know him at all. However, if he has, he is one of a small handful who has.
Our Churches, all Churches not just Catholic, have been utter failures on this great issue of our time.
Regard your question “Will I keep complaining or will I follow the churches lead?”, I am not a Catholic, but I wholeheartedly support their current public stand.
I pleased that the Church has decided to follow the lead of their congregations. The “complaining” I’m doing is that it took the Church so long to do so. I urge members to step aside for a moment, long enough to allow Church ‘leaders’ to take their rightful place at the forefront of this new (to the Church) movement.
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