Posted on 06/21/2018 6:41:20 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
(Newsmax) – Last week, Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Tucson called upon his fellow bishops to issue a "prophetic statement" on immigration that would support "canonical penalties for Catholics who are involved" in implementing President Trump's immigration policy.
Why would the thought of excommunication even enter the mind of Bishop Weisenburger? Does he mean to say that any Catholic Border Patrol Agent or ICE Officers enforcing the law are "obstinately preserving in manifest grave sin"?
If so, what is the "grave sin" that meets the criterion of excommunication according to Canon 915?
The 19,500 employees of the U. S. Border Control and the 20,000 of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have the job of enforcing the law of securing our national borders. (There are approximately 20,000 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Officers. Of the 19,437 Border Agents, 16,605 are assigned to the Southwest Border.) None of these are responsible for our nation's immigration laws or for the administrative policies of implementing them.
These are the same agents and officers who, under President Obama, deported a record 2.4 million immigrants between 2009 and 2016. Janet Murguia, the president of the National Council of La Raza called Obama the "Deporter-In-Chief."
Where was the bishop's outrage then, towards President Obama or the ICE and the Border Patrol employees enforcing his policies?
Bishop Weisenburger believes that these same employees, working under President Trump, are now in spiritual danger; canonical penalties are needed "for the salvation of those people's souls." It should be noted that Bishop Weisenburger mentioned other "border bishops" who shared his pastoral concern.
Imagine being a Border Patrol officer reading the paper at breakfast and learning you are targeted for "canonical penalties" just for doing your job. He asks himself, "Do I have to confess my occupation to my priest in confession?"
So much for the "who am I to judge" spirit expressed by Pope Francis.
The Bishops have already started preparation to deny President Trump a second term in office. I'm sure I'm not the only Catholic to think it unnecessary, even cruel, to threaten all the Catholics among the 39,500 federal employees of ICE and the Border Patrol with excommunication.
Some bishops justify their high dudgeon by arguing that asylum is a life issue, "an instrument to preserve the right life." By using the term "asylum," the bishops are trying to link immigration directly with escape from torture or persecution.
That argument digs the Bishop's hole deeper. Let's assume immigration actually has the status of a life issue. If so, where are the bishop's public threats of excommunication toward all the Catholics in Congress who support abortion-on-demand and the funding of Planned Parenthood? (Only two of the 89 Catholic Democrats in Congress are pro-life.)
Let's face it, the bishops have lost all credibility when it comes to abortion. Any attempt to connect the moral seriousness of abortion to immigration is a non-starter. The laity won't buy it any more than they did in the 2016 election.
Bishop Weisenburger himself resides in a state where three of its Catholic members of Congress are rated 100 percent pro-abortion by Planned Parenthood (Tom O'Halleran, Raul Grijalva, and Ruben Gallego, all Democrats). Has he publicly stated any concern for the salvation of their souls?
What makes the situation all the more absurd is the fact that immigration is not a life issue the way abortion is a life issue. There is no single solution to the immigration problem — it's a prudential matter allowing disagreement among Catholics regarding law and policy, including disagreements with the Bishops.
Many bishops have become dismissive of this point when it is raised. Newark's Cardinal Tobin thinks those who call immigration a prudential matter are seeking to reduce its importance, concluding, "I don't have a whole lot of time for people who reduce things to prudential judgment."
What does the Cardinal think about the Catechism's teaching on just war?
"The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good" (2309). Immigration policy is precisely that kind of issue. Abortion, however, is wrong "under any circumstance" (2258).
Cardinal Tobin has no time for such distinctions.
However, the crucial distinction is alive and well in the 2015 "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship" — "Decisions about candidates and choices about public policies require clear commitment to moral principles, careful discernment and prudential judgments based on the values of our faith."
The intention of using excommunication to force Catholics into line about immigration policy is demeaning. It won't be viewed as an opportunity for spiritual healing but as punishment for being part of the Trump administration.
For decades, pro-life Catholics have begged the bishops to get tough with pro-abortion politicians. A few stepped up to the plate only to be scorned and isolated by their brother bishops (Bishop Gracida, Bishop Bruskewitz, and Cardinal Burke).
This level of hostility towards Trump, his staff, employees, and supporters is dividing even further an already divided Church. I've yet to hear a single bishop object to threats of excommunication over disagreements on immigration policy.
None of them, evidently, wants to disrupt the episcopal momentum towards the defeat of President Trump in 2020.
Bp Edward Weisenberger's views are just that: the opinions of one guy, Eddie Weisenberger, no more and no less.
But when Weisenberger threatens ecclesiastic penalties for those who disagree with him, he's crossing a line. He should be publicly admonished for his abuse of episcopal authority. Policy preferences ("prudential judgments") are the laity's sphere of competence; not his.
Moral Law should be constantly reinforced, such as the exceptionless norms like "Thou shalt not commit adultery" and "Thou shalt not kill." But clerics interposing their views --- with a threat of canonical sanctions, no less! --- as if they had any authority to impose political policy, are way, way out of their league.
It's classic clericalism. and it's maddening.
P.S. Kudos to Bishops/Cardinals Gracida, Bruskewitz, and Burke, good men who know the difference between Apostolic Authority and political hot air.
Shethink13, this one’s for you.
Seems to me the diocese of Tuscon no longer qualifies as tax exempt due to the Bishop’s interference with politics and law enforcement.
You know, there other forms of Catholicism that don’t insist you commit cultural and National suicide.
But still giving the Eucharist to supporters of abortion.
I suggest this Bishop ESAD!
“That argument digs the Bishop’s hole deeper. Let’s assume immigration actually has the status of a life issue. If so, where are the bishop’s public threats of excommunication toward all the Catholics in Congress who support abortion-on-demand and the funding of Planned Parenthood? (Only two of the 89 Catholic Democrats in Congress are pro-life.)”
Oh I needed that laugh. The good Bishop can pucker up and smack my lily white. Figuratively speaking of course.
As an Irish Catholic, I agree with you. And after we’re done, we should fill the rectory with illegals. The church can put their money where their mouths are and care for them. They sure as hell don’t do as much for the communities as they did when I was a kid.
So having control of your the US borders and following the laws established by Congress is immoral and a grave sin subject to excommunication, yet abortion and those that continue to support the killing of babies, and continue to receive the Body and Blood of Christ is not? Silence.
I hope that this Bishop will go back to the seminary and relearn Catholic doctrine. And confession.
Does he really care about the welfare of children, shouldn’t he tell them there is no open door to break the laws of the US and stay at home?
Shades of the Spanish Inquisition.
How about excommunicating Nancy Pelosi, for her support of abortion?
Plus a few others.
Catholicism itself --- the normal, ordinary, and perennial Catholicism found in the Catechism and the teachings of the Fathers of the Church and the Lives of the Saints --- does not "insist you commit cultural and National suicide."
Don't call for a new 'form' of Catholicism. The old-and-always form will do just fine, thank you, by the grace of God.
But you've got to stay and fight.
Yes. As Deal Hudson notes, that shameful fact is very, very prominent.
When's the last time you voiced your concerns as a believer, to your pastor, not to mention your bishop?
That's your right under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution -- and Canon 212.
Then what’s with Jesus saying “Render unto Caesar, etc” - obey the law of the land and obey God’s law in Heaven. It is against our law to enter our country illegally. What’s that so hard to understand; BTW, Mexico is colluding in this because they’re letting illegals cross their country to enter ours.
“Kicking the “ you know out of a bishop is not the Catholic way.”
I said “Irish Catholic”.
Many millions of Catholics should excommunicate their communist one work bishops.
The agent was found Not Guilty by a jury. Bishop Weisenberger did not serve on the jury and there is no evidence he was present in the courtroom to hear testimony, judge witness credibility and hear jury instructions. But he said he was disappointed.
This is same Bishop, who according to parishioners at a Mass on the Border r said he now considers himself Eduardo, not Edward. This was at a parish where although there are many English only speakers in that particular area the Parish serves, it holds no English Masses.
He succeeds Bishop Kicanas, who wrote in America Magazine in the early years as head of Tucson Diocese that he went to Altar, Mexico, a staging city on the border, where he blessed those getting ready to illegally cross the border.
Pray for America.Pray for Trump. This President and this Country have conferred Religious Freed om the Church and allowed it to flourish in a way few other countries have.
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