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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
The Catechism, in paragraphs 279 through 299, says over and over again that God created all things ... "freely" ... "out of nothing" ... "in and by the eternal Word" ... "through his wisdom".
I'm not even sure what a "purely natural phenomenon" is, to a Catholic, since God upholds and sustains all things, even the "purely natural" ones, at all times.
In either case, it is known with infallible certitude. This priest is simply flat wrong.
The Church teaches, INFALLIBLY, that intentional killing of any innocent person is grave matter.
That is: Murder is always a mortal sin and a crime, and abortion is murder.
This priest is an idiot and/or a liar. What he is saying is that “Thou shalt not murder” may or may not be one of the Ten Commandments.
If the Church doesn’t teach that infallibly, it doesn’t teach ANYTHING infallibly.
Pope JPII did teach on this topic, ex cathedra.
> While I suppose that it is true that no pope has ever made an ex cathedra proclamation against abortion, it is also true that the Church has NEVER indicated that abortion was not a sin.
I recall decades ago Pope John Paul II describing abortion as “a violence”...
I guess this provides Pope Benedict the perfect opportunity to make an “ex cathedra” pronouncement and remove all doubt. There is something about this pope that tells me he would not shy away from doing that — or anything else necessary, for that matter.
I really like this Pope.
> You can’t have evolution and and anti-abortion or anti-euthenasia position.
What arrant nonsense! Of course you can. None of these concepts are mutually exclusive.
Well said.
Thank you!
No church ever has been nor ever will be the Body of Christ...The Body of Christ is 'people', proven time and again by Scripture...
You don't figure it was her God-given gift of logic and reason that all Catholics receive that formed her position???
Said Citation was delivered - in the presence of the Cardinal-Archbishop Sean O'Malley, OFM Cap - by Rep. Tom Sannicandro (D-Ashland), a "Catholic" politician whose pro-abortion rating is 100% from NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) and whose pro-gay marriage support was considered crucial enough that MassEquality was one of the prime supporters of his candidacy.
No wonder - another story being run on FR today - some people are upset with the Jesuits placing crucfixes in the classrooms at BC after a 40 year absence!
Since the Catholic Faith has meant nothing around here for so long, what's the big deal now?
Doubly so in Canada, I guess!
Does a pope decide for himself what is to be 'ex cathedra', or is it something God instructs him to do???
> Does a pope decide for himself what is to be ‘ex cathedra’, or is it something God instructs him to do???
An excellent question — I don’t know. I’m not a Catholic yet, I’m in the process of studying.
Peter has spoken. The discussion is over.
Now, this priest is either a fool who has not read Evangelium Vitae or an outright liar who has read it. He really needs our prayers.
My comment was in response to Cokie's comment above.
The answer to your question: If Cokie were using her God-given gift of logic and reason, Catholic or not, she would find the idea of partial birth abortion profoundly abhorrent and barbaric, as well as deeply offensive.
Who says such logic and reasoning ability is received only by Catholics? There are plenty examples of Catholics with little reasoning ability: Nancy Pelosi, our current vice president, and Cokie Roberts on moral and feminist issues, as well as plenty examples of non-Catholics with stellor logic and reasoning abilites like Dennis Praeger, George Will, and Bill Krystol (sp?).
I just jumped into the discussion at this point, and have not read the rest of the thread. I'm assuming other FReeper Catholics have explained the relevant parts of Holy Scripture and the Church's unbroken and UNANIMOUS testimony for the past 20 centuries.
In fact, the teaching against abortion is probably the (!) single (!) clearest (!) example (!) of the authority of the "universal ordinary magisterium" , which means the teaching of all the bishops dispersed throughout the world (including the pope) which, ultimately, comes to us from the Apostles, who also wrote the books of the New Testament and through whose teachings we know the words and deeds of our Savior Jesus Christ.
The teachings of the 'ordinary magisterium' are considered infallible if they are indeed universal, that is, taught as being applicable to everybody at all times.
The teaching against the directly intended and deliberate destruction of an innocent life is a moral absolute. It applies under any circumstances: in law and in custom, war and in medicine, whether by abortion, infanticide, or euthanasia, a bullet, a bomb, or a baseball bat.
It is indeed mind-blowing that a prominent soi-disant Catholic University President pretends not to know this. Such people often fancy themselves "Vatican II Catholics," ignoring what Vatican II actually said: "Life must be protected with utmost care from the first moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes" (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, "Constitution on the Church in the Modern World"), citing sources going back to the first century AD.
(BIG GRIN!) Thanks for that clarity!
Wow. What a bloodbath.
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