Posted on 06/10/2007 8:45:53 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
CATHOLIC MPs, including the Deputy Premier, John Watkins, and the Nationals' Adrian Piccoli, ignored warnings from the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, and received Communion at Mass yesterday.
Mr Watkins and Mr Piccoli last week voted to support embryonic stem cell research despite Cardinal Pell warning they faced "consequences" in their religious lives for supporting the research.
The MPs received Communion as Cardinal Pell stepped up his warning to MPs who backed the stem-cell bill, telling them they should seriously consider receiving the sacrament.
"Certainly, every Catholic politician who voted for this bill should think twice and examine his or her conscience before next receiving Communion," Cardinal Pell wrote yesterday in a newspaper column. He said Catholics who rejected the church's teachings should not be "comforted" for their views.
Mr Watkins said he went to Mass with his family and received Communion as he does every weekend.
The Transport Minister said he had a discussion with his parish priest, who was happy for him to receive Communion despite Mr Watkins supporting an expansion of stem cell research.
"I wrote to all parishes in my electorate with an outline of the legislation, and explaining why I voted for it. I offered for this to be made public to any parishioners who asked about this issue," he said.
"Within half an hour of sending it I heard back from one of my parishes, saying I was welcome there any time. My office has so far received about half a dozen emails about this issue from people in my electorate, and I expect to receive more. Half were urging me to vote for the legislation, the other half were opposed."
The Premier, Morris Iemma, also backed the stem-cell bill but missed church yesterday because he had bronchitis and was in Newcastle until late Saturday inspecting storm damage.
Mr Iemma has said he did not believe Cardinal Pell had overstepped the mark despite calls for the cardinal's comments to be referred to a parliamentary committee to determine whether they were in contempt of Parliament.
The bill will go to the upper house this month and, if passed, mirror federal legislation. But the vote could be a closer than in the lower house because of opposition by the Christian Democrats, the right-wing Liberals Charlie Lynn and David Clarke, and some Catholic Labor MPs, including the Minister for Education, John Della Bosca.
Whoever, therefore, eats the Bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the Body and Blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself (1 Cor. 11:27–29).
I think there are some priests there who are due for a chat with the Cardinal...
Visions of Kerry not long ago.
Whoever, therefore, eats the Bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the Body and Blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself (1 Cor. 11:27–29).
Amen!
.
And there-in lies the problem.
Because what's "communion" anyway? Just a piece of cardboard bread and a sip of wine. Something to do with the kids before the stores open. So said Mr. Watkins on the Feast of Corpus Christi.
Would we expect anything else?
I think McGreevey in NJ was the only politician of recent note that took the question of his personal faith seriously and he ended up apparently discovering that he wasn’t a Catholic, regardless of how he had been raised.
A continuing reflection of the society we live in. Press the church to do as society does, to justify my doing it. Half of the constituents press him to vote FOR the bill, but that doesn’t say they too were Catholic, does it? No.
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