Posted on 02/12/2009 4:05:04 PM PST by wagglebee
WINDSOR, Ontario, February 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The President of the Catholic Assumption University of Windsor told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) in an interview today that the Catholic Church's position on abortion "is not an infallible teaching."
Fr. Paul Rennick, who is also Vice Chancellor of the school, gave the remarks when LSN sought comment regarding the school's decision to invite Cokie Roberts, a pro-abortion Catholic news analyst who has criticized the Church for preaching against homosexuality and contraception, to address the school as part of the "Christian Culture" lecture series.
Fr. Rennick told LSN that he had "personally vetted" the selection of Roberts and chose her because she was "a woman of faith," a "well known Catholic" and "successful as an individual Christian."
LSN asked Fr. Rennick, "Do you think there is a possibility of scandal from the fact that she has professed very pro-abortion views and has criticized Catholic bishops for teaching Church doctrine on homosexuality and contraception?" The President of the Catholic University replied, "No, I don't."
Asked to elaborate, Fr. Rennick said: "If you look at the catholic population, you'll find a whole variety of positions on all of those topics. It seems to me that disagreement on a particular position doesn't disqualify one from being a Catholic. Unless, of course, that position is whether Jesus is the Christ."
"Abortion is not an infallible teaching. It never has been proclaimed infallibly," he said. "This attempt to put everything that the Church teaches in this one set of categories, it seems to me, is not a proper Catholic position, not according to the history of our church," he added.
LSN sought comment about Fr. Rennick's remarks from London Bishop Ronald Fabbro who is Chancellor of Assumption University. Mark Adkinson, Director of Communications for the diocese, told LifeSiteNews.com he would not be able to have the bishop comment. Asked if there would be a better time to contact the bishop, Adkinson replied, "No, because I don't view LifeSite as a legitimate news source."
LSN then sought clarification from the Canadian Catholic Conference of Bishops (CCCB), who referred to the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF). COLF Assistant Director Lea Singh noted that the Catechism reads: "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every produced abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable." (CCC 2271).
"As an 'unchangeable' teaching, it does indeed seem to be an infallible teaching," said Singh. "Over the years the CCCB has repeatedly spoken out strongly against abortion." She quoted a 1990 CCCB document which stated: "Catholic teaching on abortion is clear and unequivocal. Abortion is a moral evil because it involves the destruction of human life. Direct killing of an unborn child is never justified."
Cokie Roberts, a political commentator for ABC News and a senior news analyst for National Public Radio, has characterized the federal ban on partial-birth abortion as "off the track" and "cynical game-playing" by pro-life activists, and found the Supreme Court decision to uphold the ban "offensive as a woman."
Roberts also publicly attacked Pope Benedict XVI as "really lacking in the theological virtue of charity," and accused bishops who refuse to open adoption agencies to homosexual couples of "using the remnants of their clout to go after the weak."
The Christian Culture Series has previously invited other public dissidents, including pro-abortion Catholic Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin Jr., and radical feminist nun Sr. Sandra Schneiders, all of whom were given a Christian Culture medal for being "outstanding exponents of Christian ideals."
Schneiders, who was awarded in 1994, wrote that "every aspect" of the Catholic faith "is not just tainted but perverted by the evil of patriarchy. It is not that the tradition has some problems; the tradition is the problem."
Ms. Roberts' address will be delivered tonight at 8 p.m.
To contact Bishop Fabbro:
Diocese of London Chancery Office
1070 Waterloo Street
London, Ontario N6A 3Y2
Phone: 519-433-0658 ext. 224
Fax: 519-433-0011
To contact Assumption University:
Rev. Paul J. Rennick, C.S.B.
2629 Riverside Drive West
Windsor, Ontario, N9B 1B4
Phone: 519-973-7033
Fax: 519-973-7089
general email: cbertrand@assumptionu.ca
See related LifeSiteNews.com articles:
U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference Says Pro-Abortion Politicians Should be Shunned
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04062102.html
Cabrini College to Honor Pro-Abortion Catholic, Critic of Pope Benedict XVI
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09020305.html
Canada Ping
What doesn’t this priest understand about
“Thou shalt not kill.”?
A single priest DOES NOT speak for the Church, they never have and they never will.
You're missing the point. Pope Pius X didn't believe in evolution. You can't have evolution and and anti-abortion or anti-euthenasia position.
When the Catholic Church accepted evolution it turned a fateful corner. It will never be the same again.
And yes, abortion is certainly considered murder by the Church.
OK - so you understand my confusion regarding the article ... Thanks for your reply .....
Catholic opposition to abortion and contraception is rooted in the ordinary magisterium. And THAT is infallible.
Basically, the "priest" in question is a moronic heretic who is grasping at straws to support his pro-death position.
Thanks for clarifying that, I thought it was, but I wasn’t positive.
You wrote:
“The present day pathetic, liberal Catholic Church was created by theistic evolution.”
Ideas do not create churches. God and people do. God created the Catholic Church. Liberals have been trying to change its teachings, and they will fail.
“And so long as the Church remains evolutionist it will never be what it once was.”
The Church will ALWAYS be what she once was because she cannot be anything else. People are changed, but the Church, as the body of Christ changes not.
“I’m sorry. This is a fact.”
You presented no facts. And that is a fact.
You wrote:
“Basically, the “priest” in question is a moronic heretic who is grasping at straws to support his pro-death position.”
NAILED IT!!!!
Yes, you are. Not too bright, either.
This is a fact.
Indeed it is.
My point is this: if the Church is ever going to reclaim the culture it's going to have to drop theistic evolution. When "theistic evolution" goes, abortion and euthenasia will go. So long as "theistic evolution" remains, so will abortion and euthenasia.
I'm sorry.
Yes, you are. Not too bright, either.
This is a fact.
Indeed it is.
Well, you know us rednecks ain't smart enough to belong to a church that knows that the existence of the universe is a purely natural phenomenon!
Theologically, as they say in Texas, you are all hat and no cattle. Most science can be found to directly contradict the primitive superstitions of the neolithic Hebrew nomads you choose to quote. I prefer to apply God given intellect and reason and appreciate with greater depth and granularity Gods creation. But that has absolutely nothing to do with the one string banjo you bring to every discussion of the Catholic Church.
I stole this from wikipedia:
The first passage, in Evangelium Vitae § 57, concerns murder:
Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, and in communion with the Bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral. This doctrine, based upon that unwritten law which man, in the light of reason, finds in his own heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15), is reaffirmed by Sacred Scripture, transmitted by the Tradition of the Church and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.
The second, in Evangelium Vitae § 62, concerns abortion:
Given such unanimity in the doctrinal and disciplinary tradition of the Church, Paul VI was able to declare that this tradition [regarding abortion] is unchanged and unchangeable. Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, in communion with the Bishops — who on various occasions have condemned abortion and who in the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed throughout the world, have shown unanimous agreement concerning this doctrine — 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. 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. (Evangelium Vitae, § 62)
Sounds pretty much like infallible teaching through the moral component of the ordinary magisterium to me.
You wrote:
“Well, you know us rednecks ain’t smart enough to belong to a church that knows that the existence of the universe is a purely natural phenomenon!”
Okay, I’ll bite. Show me from the Catechism where the Church teaches that the universe is only a natural phenomenon.
If you can’t do that, then you will have been caught being dishonest yet again.
Is this priest like an activist in the church?
Not every infallible teaching is pronounced Ex Cathedera. For example I don’t think any Pope and the Magesterium have every made the official pronouncement that believing in the Divinity of Christ is binding on all faithful. Not because it is not but because it is part of the universal deposit of faith. The same is true of the Church’s teachings on abortion. The Church has over and over again affirmed that abortion is a sin and forbidden to Catholic faithful. Even more it is so grave a sin that indirect involvement by supporting abortion is also a sin.
This priest is a donkey’s patoot and needs a boot up his backside. What a maroon.
He is the president of a Catholic university in Canada.
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.