Posted on 03/14/2011 1:56:03 PM PDT by topher
<
Catholic priest who finances abortions remains unpunished by bishop
by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
Fri Mar 11 8:47 PM EST
BARCELONA, March 11, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - For three years, the Cardinal Archbishop of Barcelona has refused to act against a priest in his diocese who boasts openly of having financed abortions.
Now, the priest is a subject of a new book in Catalonian, “Fr. Manel: Closer to earth than to heaven”, which describes the ever-growing popularity of his charitable work with Spanish celebrities. In addition to repeating his claim of having paid for abortions, Fr. Manel Pousa says he has performed “blessings” of homosexual unions, and endorses the creation of female “priests”, according to reports in the Spanish media.
He also states that he regards clerical celibacy as optional, and says he has a girlfriend—but claims that their relationship is celibate.
Although Pousa has never retracted any of his statements, his prelate, Cardinal Lluís Martínez Sistach, has only given Manel a verbal “warning”, leaving him in his place to continue his leadership of his parish and his other activities.
The controversy about Pousa began in 2008, when the Spanish website Religion en Libertad (Religion in Liberty) first published in Spanish a quote from an interview given by the priest, in which he said: “What interests me is the person. It is true that there are ethical principles, but there are reasons, that, for example, lead certain women to have an abortion. I have paid for abortions. And the Spanish Episcopal Conference doesn’t realize that the Gospel doesn’t condemn, but rather offers liberating measures.”
In the new book on Pousa, the priest admits to paying for at least one abortion, and appears to defy the Church authorities, claiming that “I am as much the Church as the pope or the bishop.”
“It may be that what I say sounds bad to the extreme right,” continues Pousa, “but those people are not going to distance me from the Church, an institution where I have been received by extraordinary people. We may have frictions, like all families do, and the Church is my family.”
The Catholic Church condemns homosexual unions and teaches that abortion, which takes the life of an unborn child, is the equivalent of murder. Those who assist in an abortion are automatically excommunicated under Church law.
“The excommunication applies to all of those who commit this crime knowing the penalty, including those accomplices without whose cooperation the crime would not have been produced,” wrote Pope John Paul II in his encyclical letter “The Gospel of Life,” in 1995.
Pousa is a celebrity in ultra-liberal Catalonia, where he has won the Solidarity Prize from the Catalonian Institute of Human Rights.
Cardinal Martínez Sistach has reportedly scheduled another meeting with the priest, although the outcome has not been reported.
The Pousa scandal follows on the heels of revelations in September of last year that Catholic hospitals under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Barcelona were performing abortions and distributing the deadly abortion drug, RU-486.
Contact information:
His Eminence Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re
Prefect, Congregation for Bishops
Piazza Pio XII 10
00193 Rome, Italy
Europe
phone: 011-3906-6988-4217
fax: 011-3906-6988-5303
His Eminence Cláudio Cardinal Hummes, O.F.M.
Prefect
The Congregation for the Clergy
Piazza Pio XII 3
00l93 Rome, Italy
Europe
phone: 011.3906.69.88.4l.5l
Fax: 011.3906.69.88.48.45
www.clerus.org
Cardinal William J. Levada.
Prefect for The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”
Piazza del S. Uffizio ll
00l93 Rome Italy
Europe
phone: 011.3906.69.88.33.57
phone: 011.3906.69.88.34.13
fax: 011.3906.69.88.34.09
email: cdf@cfaith.va
His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI
benedictxvi@vatican.va
Copyright © 2010 LifeSiteNews.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
That's actually the rhetoric that will be used when the gloves come off and the persecution of the Church becomes open, organized and officially sanctioned by governments and courts. The other pieces of the jig-saw puzzle will be hate crimes against homosexuals for persistently spreading the teaching that homosexuality is abnormal, denial of human rights to women for its stand against abortion and complicity in the spread of deadly diseases for its refusal to sanction condom use in the fight against AIDS. However, the clerical abuse issue will be the clincher.
I presume that not only the hierarchy but also those Catholics who steadfastly defend the Church will also be rounded up.
Want to arrest me?
I'd consider it an absolute honor!!
'Course, you'll have have your own Twilight Zone moment when you find yourself allied with militant gays, atheistic secularists and various other miscreants and liars but I guess that's of no real concern when you're a member of the "elect", your ticket's already punched and you're fighting against the primary source of evil in the universe.
This priest sounds like he could be a pastor in the liberal mainline PCUSA, (Presbyterian Church USA), where they get abortion coverage for their families in their medical plan.
What you seem to fail to understand about the “rhetoric”, marshmallow, is that those who defend an organization in the first place, are merely trying to replace one tyranny with another. It’s when people stand up to the corruption and tyranny of any organization for the sanctity of every image of God that man can live in relative peace.
So while the Multiculturalism tyranny is a threat don’t expect us to submit to some other form of tyranny even in the name resisting the multicultural tyranny.
Until then, keep smoking that Calvinist weed and dreaming of the day when Presbyterianism defeats Catholicism, Islam and secularism all at the same time.
What an astounding defense of the indefensible.
I respect any Roman Catholic who is truly working to rid his church of pederast/homosexual priests.
And when we find one on Free Republic, I’ll tell him that.
But you still don't get it. I don't want Presbyterianism to defeat anything. The ecclesiastical structure of Presbyterianism is the best form to check human depravity and still maintain order. But I have no illusions that the spread of true Biblical Christianity has anything to do with a human will to power. The Bible tells us that it's actually counter intuitive to that (1 Cor 1:21).
And if we fight together it will be based on natural rights; that as beings created in the image of God we have liberties to pursue our own interests.
ping to 26.
Like Obama respects gun owners.
If only Gomez would shut up about the benefits of his illegal brown brothers to our nation.
Okay, I just read this and it sounds like you are saying each of these has equal weight:
1. Stands against the validity of homosexual rights.
2. Stands against abortion.
3. Stands against artificial birth control.
4. No stand against clerical sexual abuse.
Ironical that they are all linked as "pieces of a jigsaw puzzle" that will begin official "persecution" of the Catholic Church.
The Pope needs to send them back and put others in their position who will follow their religion
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
