Posted on 04/18/2008 7:43:03 AM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON, DC, April 17, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the papal Mass at Nationals Park this morning with 46,000 in attendance, pro-abortion Senators John Kerry and Chris Dodd presented themselves for and received Holy Communion. Of note, pro-abortion Senator Ted Kennedy purposefully did not receive Communion. Photos taken by Tom McFadden Director of Admissions at Christendom College and provided first to LifeSiteNews.com, show Kerry and Dodd receiving while Kennedy remains seated as his row leaves to receive Communion.
American Life League (ALL) President Judie Brown told LifeSiteNews.com that no pro-abortion politicians received Holy Communion directly from Pope Benedict during the Mass. ALL had taken out a full page ad warning Catholic pro-abortion politicians not to sacrilegiously receive the Eucharist.
While the highest authorities in the Vatican and indeed the Pope himself have insisted that pro-abortion Catholic politicians be denied Holy Communion, several prominent US bishops with the leading of now-retired Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick have refused to follow such direction from Rome.
It seems from his actions today, Senator Kennedy is, at least in public, refraining from Communion and thus refusing to create what the Church calls public "scandal".
Francis Cardinal Arinze, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, speaking at a Catholic family conference in Ohio last November confirmed that pro-abortion politicians must be denied communion. He referenced a 2004 letter on the subject sent by then-Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, who said that such politicians "must" be refused Communion (see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08040408.html).
Since becoming Pope, Benedict XVI has also addressed the subject. In March 2007 the Pope warned Catholic pro-abortion politicians against receiving Communion. In the document on Holy Communion, called "Sacramentum Caritatis" or the Sacrament of Love, Benedict XVI gave Catholic politicians a biblical warning against receiving Communion unworthily.
In a section on "Eucharistic consistency", the Pope said that politicians must adhere to "non negotiable" values "such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms." He added, "Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature."
"There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist," he said referencing the Biblical passage 1 Corinthians 11:27-29. That passage reads: "Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord." (see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07031303.html ; )
Oh, Avacado, how we do love to forget that passage!
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Agreed, although I doubt mine will be long-lived.
One point for Teddy, then. Of course the score is still negative one zillion. Perhaps he thought his alcohol-soaked body would burn for a week should he get the zot.
That has been one of the disappointments I've had from going from an Episcopal church to a non-demoninational church.
Slipped it into the secret compartment along with the hat?
No, just tell me.
I said I was not Catholic.
Algore put his in a lock box.
(clapping my hands here)
As much as I detest this kennedy...he DID do the right thing.
The more upsetting thing to me though is why the Pope nor the Cardinal Arinze didn’t follow through on what they said regardin pro abortion politicians and Holy Eucharist. They just let it slip by. How are other Catholics supposed to do what is right then? There’s one rule for politicians, celebrities and clergy and other rules for the average Joe, the average Catholic. This is very disturbing and the Pope should admonish them for going against his word. Otherwise, what good IS his word???
Not only that, he does not know how to take it properly. You can take it directly on to your tongue or having your right hand cupped under your left, have the Priest place it in your left hand then pick it up with your right and place it in your mouth.
It is possible His Holiness will in fact admonish them when someone sends him the pictures.
On the other hand, those who have gotten away with sacrelige all their lives may believe that nobody’s keeping score....
My sister’s little girl once remarked that “The devil tells you nobody’s watching.”
I thought that Uncle Ted refrained because he is divorced and remarried. Does he usually receive?
Having been brought up Presbyterian and having converted to the Catholic Church, I will explain the main points:
1a. Presbyterians believe the Lord’s Supper is merely a commemoration.
1b. Catholics believe that during the Mass, time is transcended and “we are there” at the foot of the Cross.
2a. Presbyterians believe that the grape juice and crackers are just a reminder of the bread and wine Christ used.
2b. Catholics believe that at the moment the priest says, “This is my body” that the bread becomes the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus (transubstantiation), even though we still see only bread and wine. This belief is taken directly from Sacred Scripture: throughout John Chapter 6, Jesus talks about His body as the bread given for the life of the world and that unless we eat His body and drink His blood we will have no life in us. In addition, St. Paul talks about eating and drinking damnation unto ourselves if we do not discern the Body of the Lord.
3a. Presbyterians celebrate the Lord’s Supper only occasionally.
3b. Mass is available for Catholics every day, the “daily bread” referenced in the Lord’s Prayer.
And from the Lutherans:
I recently learned that Lutherans view communion as landing somewhere between the “transubstantiation” (it literally changes to blood and flesh) of Catholicism and the “representationism” (represents blood and flesh) of other “low church” Protestantism.
sKerry looks as if he’s trying to hide what he is doing......like he KNOWS he is sinning, and he can hide it......
Evangelicals and Catholics DO NOT practice Holy Communion the same way. Many Evangelicals deny that there is the Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
You’re right...annulment.
ping
They believe in Real Presence. Catholics have the most complicated dogma regarding the Eucharist, but in general Catholics, Orthodox, and some Protestants believe that Christ is literally present in the Eucharist. Some other Protestants (like Baptists) deny this and say it is only a symbolic ceremony.
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