Posted on 02/12/2009 4:05:04 PM PST by wagglebee
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
Dead people can't rise from the dead either. It's a scientific impossibility. So J*sus couldn't have risen, could he? And bread and wine don't become flesh and blood. And while lizards have no trouble with it, human beings don't come from unfertilized eggs. Why don't you apply our G-d given scientific intelligence to these beliefs of primitive apostles from long before the scientific revolution told us the universe was self-existent?
Do you think that your apostles were superior to those stone age Hebrews?
If you can’t do that, then you will have been caught being dishonest yet again.
Your co-religionists don't seem to agree with you. Before you condemn me, why don't you take it up with them?
Although I’m not Catholic I would think that a bishop or higher would be the president ... not just a priest, or, is the article just being generic .....
I couldn't agree more.
Absolutely, yes! After many covenants between man and God were broken by those "stone age Hebrews" God, through Jesus Christ, and him through his disciples, replaced all prior Covenants with a New and Ever Lasting Covenant that included all of mankind, not just a self proclaimed chosen people.
Presidents of Catholic colleges and universities are nearly always priests who are also trained as educators.
You wrote:
“You have my admiration for your losing battle on the “evolution” thread.”
I didn’t lose that battle.
“How people like you pull it off I don’t know.”
I find being right means not having to “pull off” anything. I just get things right the first time.
“My point is this: if the Church is ever going to reclaim the culture it’s going to have to drop theistic evolution.”
I understand your point. I even agree to a certain extent. Still, even if you are right on that score, I see no reason for you to make false claims. Why pretend the Catholic Church teaches what it has not taught? Why not just be honest instead? Also, why deliberately hijack thread after thread with your one trick pony? Honestly, you make yourself look unstable and obsessed.
“When “theistic evolution” goes, abortion and euthenasia will go.”
No. If that were so, then cultures and time periods which knew nothing about “theistic evolution” would not have had either abortion or euthanasia. Ancient cultures, however, were rife with both practices. How do you explain that? This is exactly the problem with your one trick pony. You haven’t even thought it out, yet you have fastened your entire world view not to what it positively represents (God centered special creation) but to what you falsely have attached to it without proper knowledge or investigation.
“So long as “theistic evolution” remains, so will abortion and euthenasia.”
I got news for you: Both abortion and euthanasia will be around as long as there are people on this earth before the Second Coming. Murder has always existed - since the time of Cain and Abel and THEY KNEW GOD WAS THE CREATOR from their own parents. Hasn’t that ever occured to you?
You need to realize that theistic evolution, no matter how wrong you believe it to be, is not the root of all evil, nor will its overthrow end evils like abortion or euthanasia.
OK - thanks!
This is all really quite simple....neither Cokie Roberts, nor the good father....really ARE Catholic....
You wrote:
“Your co-religionists don’t seem to agree with you. Before you condemn me, why don’t you take it up with them?”
Now you’re just not being honest again. You wrote:
“Well, you know us rednecks ain’t smart enough to belong to a church that knows that the existence of the universe is a purely natural phenomenon!”
I have yet to see a single faithful Catholic - and there are several in this thread right now - who believes the Catholic Church teaches or believes “that the existence of the universe is a purely natural phenomenon!”
I think you know this to be the case. Why do you say this then? Has any faithful Catholic in this thread (or any FR thread) EVER said here that they believe the Church teaches or believes “that the existence of the universe is a purely natural phenomenon!”
Time to put up or put down the one trick pony, Zionist Conspirator. Show us where the Church teaches or believes “that the existence of the universe is a purely natural phenomenon” or simply be man enough to admit that you made a rash and dishonest statement.
bump
We had plans to bring Cokie Roberts to our diocese to speak at a fundraiser this Spring. Once we vetted her on abortion, it took a nanosecond to decide that the discussion was over.
no ex cathedra statement yet, but coming. No doctrine is defined until violated. It is time Papa........
These people need to be restrained!!! How can anyone profess to be a Catholic and speak directly against basic moral teachings like that, and be in a position of authority. I hope the Pope gets on his case immediatlely.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.
Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
I knew Cokie was pro-choice, but not as radically so. She was "offended" by the church's stand on partial birth abortion? I'm offended by the fact that so prominent a Catholic would voice views so despicable and in complete opposition to her faith. She should be excommunicated.
Better than that: The Didache, one of the earliest* collections of Catholic doctrine and morals, explicitly prohibits aborticide -- thus showing that the Church has always taught this from the time of the Apostles.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/didache-roberts.html
Chapter 2. The Second Commandment: Grave Sin Forbidden. And the second commandment of the Teaching; You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born. You shall not covet the things of your neighbor, you shall not swear, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not speak evil, you shall bear no grudge. You shall not be double-minded nor double-tongued, for to be double-tongued is a snare of death. Your speech shall not be false, nor empty, but fulfilled by deed. You shall not be covetous, nor rapacious, nor a hypocrite, nor evil disposed, nor haughty. You shall not take evil counsel against your neighbor. You shall not hate any man; but some you shall reprove, and concerning some you shall pray, and some you shall love more than your own life.
*There is much debate about when the Didache was written. Most scholars date it before 100 AD. 160 is about the upper limit; some think it as early as 44 AD.
Ergo, the prohibition of aborticide is and always has been part of the infallible Ordinary Magisterium.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
How do you like the idea that since Catholics as a group have varied veiws on different issues, thus it is ok to have a different view on Abortion!?? Since when? Sounds like a child coming to the parent and saying, “but everybody is doing it...”. Amazing to hear that from an adult, let alone one holding such a position.
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