Catholic Obama Adviser Chides Archbishops for Not Taking a 'Catholic Approach' Toward...

CNS News ^ | 6/2/2009 | Monica Gabriel and Edwin Mora

[markomalley]

(CNSNews.com) – A prominent Catholic academic and supporter of President Barack Obama says that Roman Catholic Archbishops Raymond Burke and Charles Chaput and Bishop Joseph Naumann did not take a "Catholic approach" when they insisted that prominent pro-abortion Catholic politicians should not take communion. 

He also said bishops and priests who deny communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians are engaging in “intimidation.”

 
“Let me tell you that to be separated from the body of Christ even once is intimidation,” said Douglas Kmiec, professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.

Kmiec--a campaign advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008--was barred from communion by a priest in California last year. Kmiec wrote a book, “Can a Catholic Vote for Him?” which promoted the idea that pro-life Catholics could support Obama, who supports legalized abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, and same-sex unions.
 
“But it is not just an isolated case of a mistaken priest who thankfully, with the discipline of the local archbishop (Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles), wrote a letter of apology, which of course, is accepted," said Kmiec, speaking of his own case, on a panel at the National Press Club last week.
 
“It is instead that since 2004, it has been the teaching of at least some bishops that this is something that should be readily advertised and pursued,” said Kmiec.

Kmiec, a former dean of the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America, cited these examples:

 
“‘Mr. Kerry, don’t come to St. Louis.’ ‘Mr. Biden, if you’re in town, in Denver, and you’re attending mass, you should think twice about coming to the altar rail.’ ‘Kathleen Sebelius, because we disagree with how you have discharged your responsibilities as you’ve been advised by your legal counsel, stay away. Publicly confess.’
 
“I suggest that is not either an effective or a Catholic approach,” Kmiec added.

Kmiec was referring to the actions of three bishops:
 
-- In 2008, Archbishop Raymond Burke, who was then the archbishop of St. Louis, Mo., warned Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 that he would deny communion to Kerry if the abortion-rights Catholic showed up at mass in St. Louis.
 
In 2007, Burke indicated he would do the same to pro-abortion Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.  Burke is now the head of the Vatican's Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest judicial body in the Catholic Church.

 
-- In 2008 in Denver, Archbishop Charles Chaput said Catholics who disagree with the church on "serious, sanctity of life issues" should not present themselves for the Eucharist--and called on the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), not to partake of communion when he was in Denver for the Democratic National Convention.
 
-- Former Kansas Gov. Sebelius, the new U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, was instructed by her bishop in Kansas, Bishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., not to go to the communion rail because of her public support for abortion and her opposition to pro-life legislation.

A conservative Catholic group, meanwhile, challenges Kmiec’s assessment that requests to refrain from partaking the Eucharist amount to intimidation.
 
“When the church properly and justly instructs a Catholic to not receive Holy Communion, it is a very serious matter--but it's not intimidation,” Joshua Mercer, communications director at Catholicvote.org, told CNSNews.com.
 
Mercer said that the Church occasionally refuses to grant access to communion for many reasons, including promoting assisted suicide.
 
“The church likewise asks people to not receive communion if they publicly support intrinsically evil policies like abortion, euthanasia, or counterfeit marriages,” Mercer said.

 
In 2004, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a policy statement-“Catholics in Political Life”--which directly condemned support for abortion and attempts to make abortion legal.
 
“It is the teaching of the Catholic Church from the very beginning, founded on her understanding of her Lord’s own witness to the sacredness of human life, that the killing of an unborn child is always intrinsically evil and can never be justified,” the bishops wrote. 
 
“If those who perform an abortion and those who cooperate willingly in the action are fully aware of the objective evil of what they do, they are guilty of grave sin and thereby separate themselves from God’s grace,” they added. 
 
“To make such intrinsically evil actions legal is itself wrong,” the document says. “The legal system as such can be said to cooperate in evil when it fails to protect the lives of those who have no protection except the law.”
 
The Catholic bishops took note of the fact that, in the U.S., “abortion on demand has been made a constitutional right by a decision of the Supreme Court.”
 
“Failing to protect the lives of innocent and defenseless members of the human race is to sin against justice,” the bishops added. “Those who formulate law therefore have an obligation in conscience to work toward correcting morally defective laws, lest they be guilty of cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good.” 

 
Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, wrote:
 
“I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being,” the pope said.

“This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church's Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium," John Paul wrote.
 
Mercer, meanwhile, challenged Kmiec’s assertion that safeguarding the Eucharist is a “Catholic approach.”
 
“These Catholic officials have created confusion among Catholics by claiming it's permissible to be Catholic and support legal abortion,” he added. “The bishops are right to counter this lie.”

 
The May 28 discussion, which was sponsored by the Catholic University of America, was designed to “explore common ground” between the church’s position on the sanctity of life and the positions of the Obama administration.
 
Participants included Kmiec and Robert George, a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University. Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, was the moderator.

[markomalley]

My comment: funny thing about finding "common ground" with Ø and his minions. When good and evil compromise, it is evil that wins. Good can only lose by compromising; evil can only exist through the act of compromise. When there is an attempted compromise between honesty and dishonesty, the result is dishonesty. When there is an attempted compromise between justice and injustice, the result is an injustice. When there is an attempted compromise between rationality and irrationality, the result is irrational. When there is an attempted compromise between integrity and not acting in accordance with ones convictions, the result is an act not in accordance with one's convictions.

The bishops should keep this in mind as they "dialogue" with this one. I think they're starting to "get it," albeit very slowly.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Kmiec should start his own American Pseudo-Catholic Church of Obama.

[pnh102]

So let me see if I get this... someone who likes to call himself "Catholic," isn't an ordained priest or any other type of clergy, is trying to tell real, ordained Catholic clergy how to do their jobs?

Someone needs to excommunicate this jerk.

[livius]

This is stunning. What a jerk.

But the bishops lost big when Bambi got up on that stage, and it’s going to be hard for them to get their shepherd’s crooks back.

[wagglebee]

Kmiec is an idiot!

[alloysteel]

What is the purpose of intimidation, if NOT to corral and refocus the errant ones back into the flock? Is this rampant wrong-headedness just to be overlooked?

The Lord is patient and merciful, but at some point, righteous anger at willful misbehavior is going to come raining down.

[wombtotomb]

Lets see. I am going to follow a catholic who dissents from catholic teaching and supports others doing so, OR I am going to support the men entrusted by God through Apostolic Succession in faithfully teaching the truths that have been held since the beginning of the faith and are unchangable, even to keep up with “progressive” thinking? Hmmmmm.....Kmiec, GO POUND SAND!

[Fred]

So when did Kmiec become an Archbishop?

Only reason why Kmiec's Archbishop has not b-slapped him is because Kmiec lives in Cardinal Mahoney's Archdiocese.

[kalee]

As long as the Bishops continue to be wishy washy and appear to not speak as one united front the libs have a toe hold to push their agenda and say it is Catholic. When the Bishops all say no to communion for the pro-abortion politicians there wil be no wiggle room.

[kalee]

Someone from the Vatican needs to tell Mahoney to get with the program.

[kalee]

Someone from the Vatican needs to tell Mahoney to get with the program.

[hinckley buzzard]

Kmiec should start his own American Pseudo-Catholic Church of Obama.

Might as well just delete the "pseudo-catholic" part. Kmiec hasn't been even pseudo Catholic for years. But he sure does bow down before the great Gawd Obawma.

[Fred]

The Bishops do not answer to Kmiec, they answer to GOD.

Time for Kmiec to get over himself and show just a touch of humility. This virtue is sorely lacking among the likes of Kmiec and guys like Jenkins at Notre Dame.

[pgkdan]

Enough from Kmiec! He needs to be publicly and loudly rebuked by the bishops! He’s using his influence and reputation to lead Catholics into sin.

[topher]

Since Kmiec is a professor, he should have heard of the Didache or the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles...

Maybe he thinks he knows better than the twelve apostles.

Note: the Didache is a first Century document that may predate at least one of the Gospels...

[markomalley]

Note: the Didache is a first Century document that may predate at least one of the Gospels...

Just so those who might not be familiar with it:

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.

[dominic flandry]

The 200 Bishops who did not speak out on the Notre Dame issue will have to deal with God who does not care for hypocrites. The local Bishop not attending the ceremony-wow, what a rebuke. (Sarc).

[wolfman23601]

I wish they still burned the heretics at the stake.

[marshmallow]

He also said bishops and priests who deny communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians are engaging in “intimidation.”

It's all a political game for Doug, isn't it? It's all about power. There couldn't possibly be any spiritual motivation behind the bishops' "intimidation", could there? No, they're concerned purely and simply with wielding power, so they try to "intimidate" all who disagree with them.

It's clear from this statement, if it wasn't already, that Kmiec simply doesn't believe that his eternally destiny and the eternal destiny of Catholics who support abortion facilitators, hangs in the balance. He simply can't see that there could be a charitable motive behind a rebuke, just as a parent might chastise a child out of love.

Like a spoiled and petulant child, he interprets his spiritual parents' strictness as a sign of meanness. He's a rebellious, impudent, stiff-necked brat who has a serious problem with authority.

[Ransomed]

Compared to what went on in the 70s-90s (as in nothing) 1/3 of the bishops speaking out about ND and the bishop not attending was huge. And yeah, it is still only barely half of what should have been going on all along as concerns baby butchery.

Freegards