Priest/Catholic U President: "Abortion is Not an Infallible Teaching"

WINDSOR, Ontario, February 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The President of the Catholic Assumption University of Windsor told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) in an interview today that the Catholic Church's position on abortion "is not an infallible teaching."

Fr. Paul Rennick, who is also Vice Chancellor of the school, gave the remarks when LSN sought comment regarding the school's decision to invite Cokie Roberts, a pro-abortion Catholic news analyst who has criticized the Church for preaching against homosexuality and contraception, to address the school as part of the "Christian Culture" lecture series.

Fr. Rennick told LSN that he had "personally vetted" the selection of Roberts and chose her because she was "a woman of faith," a "well known Catholic" and "successful as an individual Christian."

LSN asked Fr. Rennick, "Do you think there is a possibility of scandal from the fact that she has professed very pro-abortion views and has criticized Catholic bishops for teaching Church doctrine on homosexuality and contraception?" The President of the Catholic University replied, "No, I don't."

Asked to elaborate, Fr. Rennick said: "If you look at the catholic population, you'll find a whole variety of positions on all of those topics. It seems to me that disagreement on a particular position doesn't disqualify one from being a Catholic. Unless, of course, that position is whether Jesus is the Christ."

"Abortion is not an infallible teaching. It never has been proclaimed infallibly," he said. "This attempt to put everything that the Church teaches in this one set of categories, it seems to me, is not a proper Catholic position, not according to the history of our church," he added.

LSN sought comment about Fr. Rennick's remarks from London Bishop Ronald Fabbro who is Chancellor of Assumption University. Mark Adkinson, Director of Communications for the diocese, told LifeSiteNews.com he would not be able to have the bishop comment. Asked if there would be a better time to contact the bishop, Adkinson replied, "No, because I don't view LifeSite as a legitimate news source."

LSN then sought clarification from the Canadian Catholic Conference of Bishops (CCCB), who referred to the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF). COLF Assistant Director Lea Singh noted that the Catechism reads: "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every produced abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable." (CCC 2271).

"As an 'unchangeable' teaching, it does indeed seem to be an infallible teaching," said Singh. "Over the years the CCCB has repeatedly spoken out strongly against abortion." She quoted a 1990 CCCB document which stated: "Catholic teaching on abortion is clear and unequivocal. Abortion is a moral evil because it involves the destruction of human life. Direct killing of an unborn child is never justified."

Cokie Roberts, a political commentator for ABC News and a senior news analyst for National Public Radio, has characterized the federal ban on partial-birth abortion as "off the track" and "cynical game-playing" by pro-life activists, and found the Supreme Court decision to uphold the ban "offensive as a woman."

Roberts also publicly attacked Pope Benedict XVI as "really lacking in the theological virtue of charity," and accused bishops who refuse to open adoption agencies to homosexual couples of "using the remnants of their clout to go after the weak."

The Christian Culture Series has previously invited other public dissidents, including pro-abortion Catholic Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin Jr., and radical feminist nun Sr. Sandra Schneiders, all of whom were given a Christian Culture medal for being "outstanding exponents of Christian ideals."

Schneiders, who was awarded in 1994, wrote that "every aspect" of the Catholic faith "is not just tainted but perverted by the evil of patriarchy. It is not that the tradition has some problems; the tradition is the problem."

Ms. Roberts' address will be delivered tonight at 8 p.m.

To contact Bishop Fabbro:
Diocese of London Chancery Office
1070 Waterloo Street
London, Ontario N6A 3Y2
Phone: 519-433-0658 ext. 224
Fax: 519-433-0011

To contact Assumption University:
Rev. Paul J. Rennick, C.S.B.
2629 Riverside Drive West
Windsor, Ontario, N9B 1B4
Phone: 519-973-7033
Fax: 519-973-7089
general email: cbertrand@assumptionu.ca

See related LifeSiteNews.com articles:

U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference Says Pro-Abortion Politicians Should be Shunned
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04062102.html

Cabrini College to Honor Pro-Abortion Catholic, Critic of Pope Benedict XVI
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09020305.html

>> For example I don’t think any Pope and the Magesterium have every made the official pronouncement that believing in the Divinity of Christ is binding on all faithful. <<

Why, of course they have, lastchance. The Ecumenical Council of Nicea required all Christians to state their faith in this:

“I believe in ... one Lord, Jesus Christ, begotten of the Father before all worlds, the only begotten Son of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, one in substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”

and added:

“But those who say: ‘There was a time when he was not;’ and ‘He was not before he was made;’ and ‘He was made out of nothing,’ or ‘He is of another substance’ or ‘essence,’ or ‘The Son of God is created,’ or ‘changeable,’ or ‘alterable’ — they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.”

But you knew that...

>> You don’t figure it was her God-given gift of logic and reason that all Catholics receive that formed her position??? <<

Absolutely not. Her sinfulness has blinded her, making it impossible for her to intellectually confront the evil of abortion. Catholics believe in original sin, too. It’s the definition of “freedom” and the intent of creation that we disagree with Calvinists over.

Catholics define freedom as the ability to achieve the purpose for which one was intended; Calvinists define freedom as the ability to do whatsoever one desires.

Both Catholics and Calvinists agree that a person is incapable of virtue except through grace. Calvinists view such a person as obeying his own desires, so call him “free.” Catholics see his as unable to do what he intended for, and therefore call him a “slave to sin.”

Once under grace, a person’s behavior is no longer capricious; he certainly does what God intends, whether it is what he would have desired when he was not under grace. Therefore, Calvinists see such a person as being a “servant of Christ.” Catholics see that any desire he has stemming from that grace is the will of God, and that such a person is intended to do the will of God, so see such a person as “liberated.”

Which is the biblical position?

St. Paul uses both notions of freedom, depending on context: the saved person is free from the world in the eternal sense, and bound to Christ in the worldly sense; the sinful person is free to his desires in the worldly sense, but bound to sin in the eternal sense.

>> Does a pope decide for himself what is to be ‘ex cathedra’, or is it something God instructs him to do??? <<

Niether is entirely wrong, neither explains it well.

The pope is vested with the authority to proclaim ex cathedra. The term, in fact, is a reference to the authority of St. Peter, whom Christ grants the authority that what he declares loosed on Earth is loosed in Heaven, and what is loosed in Heaven is loosed on Earth. But, separately, Christ also gives similar authority to all of the disciples.

Granting such an authority to the disciples presents a challenge? How can two people both authoritatively declare two contradicting things? Thus, the Catholic Church understands that such an authority is granted to the disciples when they speak in unison.

So, a pope can either proclaim something ex cathedra (from his authority as a successor to St. Peter), or he can discern that the successors to the disciples speak in unison. He can do this on his own, in the sense of the earthly authority is granted to him to do so, but he doesn’t do so whenever he wants, he must discern that it is God’s will to do so.

When unity among the disciples’ successors is apparent, the pope can speak as Pope John Paul II did. When it is not apparent, the pope can summon the bishops of the world to discuss such matters so as to achieve unity. An “ecumenical council” is a council in which the bishops of the whole world gather to achieve such unity.

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