Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
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.
Because a lot of states would move to outlaw the RCC in particular, and orthodox Christianity in general. I think the showdown is going to happen sooner or later in any case.
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.”
Catholics for a Free Choice = Heretics for a Free Choice
Better sooner rather than later. With each passing generation, committed Catholics (and Christians in general) in the West are getting fewer and fewer in number. The time to strike at this sort of iniquity is now, while we still have at least some chance to prevail in the hearts and minds of the people at large, and while we are still of sufficient numbers to defend ourselves against genocidal backlashes against the proclamation of the Truth.
While he is still taking furtive steps, Benedict *is* starting the process of reining-in chaotic dissent against the teachings of the Church within her own ranks, both on life issues and other matters. With the prayers and encouragement of the faithful, he will become ever more committed to righting the Barque and returning it to its proper heading. So will his successor. You can *feel* that the Restoration is underway!
I agree. To many church leaders, Catholic and otherwise, have been playing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” game with abortion. So many people who say they are good Christians also say that there is nothing wrong with abortion.
Might be the savage in me, but I have always believed you should set lines that you will not cross, and then don’t cross them. If abortion is murder, then it is a major sin. Don’t dance around the issue.
But that isn’t what peoples iching ears want to hear. Same with sex before marriage. I admit, that caught me also in my younger and much dumber days, but I also knew it was wrong. Today it seems most don’t think that.
UNBELIEVABLE!
Part of the hesitation is based on the current understanding of “collegiality,” developed largely after Vatican II and particularly by JP II. The concept here is that bishops have God-given authority to be rulers in their own dioceses, and should not be micro-managed by the pope or even directed in what to do unless there are overriding doctrinal or pastoral considerations that force Rome’s intervention. The concept is cerainly a valid one, and has existed all along, but the problem is that, over the last 40 years or so, Rome has been reluctant to intervene in all but the most egregious cases of episcopal malfeasance or irresponsibility. The bar has been set way too high, but this is beginning to change. Benedict is sending a clear signal here that he expects bishops to take a tougher stance with regard to “Catholic” politicians such as these. Indeed, my take on all of this is that he is sending them the message that he is not above “embarrassing” them publicly into doing their jobs, and that there are limits on how much latitude bishops can be given in the name of collegiality.
Western bishops in general, and American bishops in particular, have often acted more like spoiled children than successors to the Apostles. Fortunately, the generation most prone to this behavior is coming up on retirement age now, and they’ll soon be gone. The next generation, for the most part, shows marked improvement in “quality.” When they demonstrate that they can teach, preach and rule like Catholic bishops, Rome will afford them the respect and free-hand that collegiality was meant to convey. But, until they’re finally gone, the Jadot crop of 60’s revolutionaries will increasingly be dealt with like the overgrown children they too often are. One hopes this goes double for the likes of Cardinal Mahony!
*************
That's so good to hear. Yes, we must all stand together.
Proud as devils, aren’t they.
I've never heard a Catholic peep out of any of them. They do all speak Liberalese, all the time. This is not just apostasy but heresy. I want to state very carefully that I would not fully approve of the four of them being burnt at the stake, no matter how deserving. However, this certainly merits something more severe than sending them to their room without supper and taking away their car keys for a month. Tar and feathers should be about right, if plenty of us turn out to hoot and jeer and point fingers at them as they trudge out of town with curs nipping at their heels.
/Satire. Was it really satire, Mom? Was he just fooling? I don't want them in MY room :-)
You know, that’s a great point you’re making. What would make those physicians in any age after Christ think that way, that a soul enters the body somewhere along in the process? God’s soul went where? Nowhere? The BABY that the angel Gabriel announced was soulless, until when? WOW. People just can’t get it. Unbelievable.
The Church is made up of sinners like you and me. Don't give up on it.
Has any reporter even PUT the question to them, made them respond to the pope’s remarks?
Excommunicate ‘em all, Benny.
In other words. “ We are our own pope, dang it and don’t you forget it.”
Nice synopsis! Good show!
...jumping off the cliff down to hell, like the rest of the lemmings.
Once more, the Democrats show their true allegiance: DEATH. The sooner we can throw these bums out, the better.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.