Peru Cardinal Threatens Excommunication (of Pro-abortion politicians, etc.)

EWTN ^ | 6-Sep-2001 | EWTN News Brief

[EODGUY]

Thanks for the bump. This issue has troubled me for a very long time. Although the Catholic Church works "behind the scenes" (adoption services, pregnancy assistance, medical care, psychological counseling, financial assistance, spiritual guidance, etc.), for lack of a more accurate phrase, I always prayed Pro-Life would be the focus of our church from the pulpit.

Our small parish has become only slightly more vocal during religious services (usually during the petitions) regarding Pro-Life. I have heard the argument that the tax-exempt status of the Church may be risked, but I believe it is a lame argument. Pro-abortion supporters want to categorize Pro-Life as a religious issue when it suits them and a political one when it does not.

I believe that if someone consistantly violates the tenets of our Church (voluntarily and without remorse or request for forgiveness, or willingness to cease that violation), he/she has already engaged in self-excommunication. To afford people who flagrantly violate the sanctity of life access to the Sacraments of our Church is blasphemous.

I am not without faults, but I have to admit that it actually turns my stomach when the Kennedy family is shown in their compound and they are celebrating the Holy Mass and the pro-abortion Kennedys are allowed to receive the Body and Blood of Christ. This is ideal fodder for anti-catholic bigots to cite hypocrisy. Picture a member of our military who enjoys identifying him/herself as member of the military but refuses to wear the proscribed uniform. Their tenure in the military would be curtailed immediately (or shortly after completing a vacation at a military stockade).

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Here's an update on the excommunication petition, for anyone interested:

Great News on Excommunication Petition!

Dear Faithful Catholic,

We are moving along! Some items of interest:

1) Peru : Cardinal Threatens Excommunication
2) First Actions (12 Senators, 1 Governor) Are Almost Ready
3) Mandatum Procurationis
4) Web Site Additions
5) Hard Copy of Petition Available
6) Help Needed

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PERU CARDINAL THREATENS EXCOMMUNICATION LIMA, Sep 5, 01 (CWNews.com) - Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani of Lima, the primate of Peru, has instructed pastors to deny Holy Communion to politicians and other public figures if they persist in public support for abortion.

Upon the request of Cardinal Cipriani, the archdiocesan Pastoral Commission has sent to all pastors a documenten titled, "Moral and Legal Dimensions of Abortion," which is designed to set forth "a pastoral and sacramental response to the increasing culture of death, as well as consistent criteria to deal with this grave moral problem."

The document, written in a question-and-answer format, reminds pastors that the Church describes abortion as "a horrendous crime," because "it takes away the life of an innocent creature entitled to be loved by his parents, and who has been deprived of enjoying the goods of this life,in particular Baptism and the graces of Christianity." The text also recalls that the penalty of excommunication" latae sententiae"-- automatically imposed-- is still applied to all those involved in an abortion, "including the assistant doctors, the nurse, whoever provides the money, etc."

It also says that those who assume a favorable position regarding abortion "are committing a grave fault by supporting a crime." "The pastor having a parish member in this condition can deny him Holy Communion in public, only after warning him or her in private," the text says.

Finally, the document call pastors to promote the culture of life through positive initiatives, including "praying for legislators," assisting women in crisis pregnancies, educating people about the development of life inside the womb, and encouraging the media to join in building a culture of life

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The actions for first group of defendants (twelve senators and one governor) will soon be ready to send to the bishops (about two weeks). Your support in this is crucial.

This first step is the approach to the individual candidate's bishop, formally asking the bishop to publicly order said "Catholic" to fulfill the conditions enumerated in the petition you signed. The case which will proceed to Rome will be modified to reflect the response of each specific bishop and defendant. It will be also modified by the canon lawyers to reflect the procedural and administrative requirements of the Church necessary for its successful completion. You will be advised of any significant changes so that you may always have the ultimate right to remove yourself as a plaintiff from the case before the final action proceeds to Rome.

These initial actions are called denunciations and, since the defendants have committed serious PUBLIC scandal, we intend to publicize the denunciations as best we can. When we issue the formal documents to the bishops, you will also receive the documents electronically.

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Mandatum Procurationis

* * * VERY IMPORTANT * * * * * * The canon lawyers have informed me that to most effectively represent you * * as a procurator I need a Mandatum Procurationis (a power of attorney) from * * each person wishing me to pursue the case on their behalf. It is being sent* * to you as a separate email and can be emailed back to me via a simple fill * * in the blanks and REPLY action. * * * VERY IMPORTANT * * * * *

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WEB SITE ADDITIONS

We have also updated the website to make the ancillary documentation more readily available. Included are pages documenting the pro-abortion voting records of the defendants.
http://www.yankeesamizdat.org/Excom.html

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HARD COPY OF PETITION AVAILBLE

An Adobe Reader version of the petition is now available for downloading.
ftp://ftp.yankeesamizdat.org/pub/ExcomPet.pdf

This will provide a hard copy method of collecting signatures. We would still prefer the Internet signatures because of the ease of handling the information. If you collect a large number of signatures on hard copy and then transcribe the data into a text file that you mailed with the forms, our chore of tracking things would be greatly eased.

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HELP NEEDED

On another vein, I had hoped to accomplish all that is necessary without an appeal for financial help. This has become a full time work of love. We have lived off our savings and my wife has gone back to work to enable this to continue. A few of you have made donations, for which we are profoundly grateful. But, we could use more help. You can help by sending a check to Yankee Samizdat. PO 165, Austerlitz, NY 12017 or going online via this link:

HREF="https://secure.paypal.com/xclick/business=Donations%40YankeeSamizdat.org

Please continue to promote this petition!

Sincerely in Christ,
T. Athanasius
Executive Director
Yankee Samizdat
* * * * * Good is never done except at the expense of those who do it: truth is never enforced except at the sacrifice of its proponents - for nothing would ever be done at all, if a man waited to do so well, that no one could find fault with it. --- John Cardinal Newman * * * * *

[al_c]

Wow!!! We need more Cardinals like this in the States!!