Benedict backs excommunication for pro-abortion pollies

Catholic News ^ | May 10, 2007 | Pope Benedict XVI

[malibu2008]

Speaking to reporters on his way to Brazil, Pope Benedict has backed Mexican bishops who have threatened excommunication for parliamentarians who voted to legalise abortion in Mexico City.

The Age reports that the Pope was responding to a reporter's question whether he supported Mexican Church leaders threatening to excommunicate leftist parliamentarians who last month voted to legalise abortion in Mexico City.

"Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon (church) law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ," he said.

"They (Mexican Church leaders) did nothing new, surprising or arbitrary. They simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the Church... which expresses our appreciation for life and that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment (of life)".

Under Church law, someone who knowingly does or backs something which the Church considers a grave sin, such as abortion, inflicts what is known as "automatic excommunication" on themselves.

The Pope said parliamentarians who vote in favour of abortion have "doubts about the value of life and the beauty of life and even a doubt about the future".

[calex59]

Another “play by my rules or I’ll take my ball and go home” post. Man, it’s going to be a long time until next November.

Voters are supposed to demand that candidates play by their rules. That is what parties are about. Parties have platforms and the candidates are supposed to stick to them because the voters believe in the platforms and want them carried out. I know this is a hard concept for Rudybots to grasp but that is the way it works.

If you are a republican you are supposed to be conservative. You are not supposed to condone murder, you are not supposed to try to trash the 2nd amendment, you are supposed to uphold the laws of the country, I.E.: deporting illegals and securing the border.

Yep, if Rudy won't play by those rules I will definitely be voting for an independent if he gets the nomination, because it will mean the republican party has fallen to the liberals.

[HaveHadEnough]

Catholics who advocate that the death penalty can be a just punishment are not really Catholic?

[SamuraiScot]

he tacks along being a (2) death penalty advocate

This one's not inconsistent with Catholic teaching. The Vatican City itself had the death penalty on the books until 1969, so it's unlikely that all the popes and cardinals up to that point weren't Catholic . . .

I agree that Rudy is trying to square the circle with his absurd position on abortion. If killing children is wrong, then it's goofy to assert someone has a right to "choose" it. If I choose bank-robbery, is Rudy going to back me up?

The brilliant thing about Catholic theology is that it doesn't let you play Three-Card Monte with morality. If you're doing wrong, it just crushes you with the leverage of logic. (See Thomas Aquinas.) Everything has been thought through, and human nature doesn't change.

[ElkGroveDan]

abortion certainly distinguishes the former mayor from the rest of the GOP candidates - for sure.

Wait a minute. Did the Pope say that? Because the way your post is formatted you have attributed these comments to Pope Benedict.

[Antoninus]

Another “play by my rules or I’ll take my ball and go home” post.

Wow. You've actually got a problem with someone calling out a phony-baloney politician who is pretending to be something he clearly is not? Are you sure you're on the right website?

[Ramius]

he is pro-abortion, including partial-birth infanticide.

Now people are just makin' stuff up.

We've had a pro-life President for seven years now. Abortion must be illegal now, huh? What? You mean it isn't?

Why is this an issue that matters then?

[Stingray51]

Excerpt from 2004 letter to Cardinal McCarrick:

Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion

General Principles

by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

3. Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.

[Antoninus]

Unless you are his bishop or the pope you can’t say that.

Uh, the Pope did say it, just not in so many words.

Look up the phrase latae sententiae and get back to us, will you?

[Antoninus]

Rudy will probably come out and say it is the Pope that is NOT Catholic enough, He'd make a better Pope. And Hannity would agree with him.

LOL! Post of the day!

[HaveHadEnough]

If killing children is wrong, then it's goofy to assert someone has a right to "choose" it. If I choose bank-robbery, is Rudy going to back me up?

Yes and no. It's more subtle than that. I believe that gambling is wrong, but I understand that others disagree and that it should be up to the individual to decide if he wants to gamble.

[Condor51]

You NOT supposed to alter the Headline. You're new so maybe you don't know that. It's a copyright thing and can bring legal trouble.

You should hit the abuse button on yourself and and the Mods to correct the Headline.

[nmh]

Rudy is irrelevant to me.

I don’t keep up with his marriages or whether they are annulled or not. I put him in the category of the Clinton's.

[Ben Mugged]

Very misleading title. Excommunication is the most serious ecclesiastical penalty levied against a member of the Roman Catholic Church. It is a seldom used punishment to discipline unrelenting defiance or other serious violations of church rules, especially by those who are accused of "spreading division and confusion among the faithful" -- meaning, in practice, that the option of excommunication is more likely to be enforced when the disobedient Catholic is a visible and presumably influential public figure (such as a politician), but only rarely in the cases of non-public figures. Excommunication is never a merely "vindictive penalty" (designed solely to punish), but is always a "medicinal penalty" intended to pressure the person into changing their behavior or statements, repent and return to full communion.

Last I knew, the Pope had not excommunicated Giuliani (or any other politician I am aware of) therefore Giuliani is still a Catholic.

[xsmommy]

The Catholic Catechism provides for the death penalty in certain circumstances, so, yes, Catholics who are pro-death penalty are really Catholic. That same Catechism proscribes abortion.

[TexasCajun]

-thank you-

[pgyanke]

...Giuliani is still a Catholic.

Read the reference in Antoninus's #28.

[xsmommy]

the excommunication is latae sententiae which means it is automatic, and hence there is no need for an official decree

[PeteB570]

Lets see. Agenda driven posters who have to have their candidate at the top and trash everybody else or people who will work for their candidate and then support the party at election time.

Let me think on that a while.

[jedward]

I understand your intent, but the title is not credible. The content of the post does not support the premise.

[Caipirabob]

He plays one on TV.

Keyboard cleanup aile 3!!!

LOL!!!