What Religious Liberty?
The Incredible Ever-Expanding Dead End
Anti-Cure, Anti-Life
Whose Values in
Education?
Toppling
Dominos
Anti-Christians
don't have to be Hypocrites but Many Volunteer
Intolerant Tolerance
The Emperor's
Clothes or a Cheap Tuxedo
The Myth of
Hitler's Pope, Part I
The Myth of
Hitler's Pope, Part II
Embryonic
Stem Cell Research Again
The Madness of
Secularism
"Don't Impose Your
Religion on Me"
Dictatorship of Relativism
Two Babies at Christmas
Living Will or Death
Warrant?
Court Ordered
Slow Motion Torture-Death Sentence
Men in Black
A Lot of Hot Air
The Culture War
Battles
"Stay with us, Lord"
Secular-to-English Dictionary
Moral Guidance for
Catholics in this Election
Christians
Losing America
Stem Cell Wars
Catholic
Pro-Abortion Politicians and Communion
Useful Idiots
Who Killed Jesus?
A Primer on Gay
Marriage
Whose Side are You
on?
Vouchers Revisited
Real and Fake
Cloning Bans
Broken Compasses
No Room in the Inn
Killing Fields
Revisited
Gay but not Merry
Adam and Steve?
The Battle for the Court
Victimless Crimes
More Salt, Please
The Next Big Fight
When Religion
Becomes Evil
Virginity Making a Comeback?
You've Come a Long Way,
Baby
The Incarnational
Approach
The Many Meanings of ACLU
Things Your Media Never Told
You
A Nasty Little Secret
Two Points of View on the Birth of Jesus
You Gotta Kill Them. How Else
Are They Going To Learn?
Perplexing Christmas Questions
How Do You See Christ Today?
Now that there is Another Ewe, will there be
Another You?
What is Conscience Anyhow?
Divorce of Love and Life
What Counts as a Mass?
What is a Covenant?
I Wish I had Your Faith
Are there Too Many Decrees of
Nullity?
Dutch Treats
Ecumenism
Going from Baby Doe to Granny Doe
Comments of Evangelium Vitae
The Exception Corrupts the Rule
Good Morality or
Good Medicine
Generation-X'ers Smart in Every Way But
One
A Matter of Good Breeding
Herod and Pontius Pilate at the
Polls
Hitler's Pope or Righteous Gentile?
The Unknown God
What exactly is wrong with
homosexuality?
Ideology Trumps Science, Reality,
and Common Sense
What Exactly is an Indulgence?
Infallibility and Error in the Church
Pilate Asked, "What is Truth?"
The Truth about Families
New Killing Fields
Choice of Language and Language of
Choice
A Lexicon for Our Day
Why are there so many bodies?
Marijuana, Medicine or Menace?
Medical Research and Ethics
Meditation
"You Taught me well,
Mommie dearest"
Moral Fallout
Neutral on the Wrong
Side
"These are the
Nineties After All"
Many are Wed but Few
are Married
"...Prepare him for
additional obligations"
A Useful Lie
A Partridge in a
Pear Tree
Religious Persecution in
the U.S.?
What Makes a Person a
Person?
The Point of a Point of
View
Politically Correct,
Morally Depraved
Population
Controllers out of Control
Practical Dreamers
Social Progress
through Immorality
Shall we Do Evil for
Goodness Sake?
Reason and Faith
Resurrection Glory
Same Sex Marriages?
Pearl of Great Price
"I used to be
schizophrenic, but we're all right now"
Sexual Morality
Irrelevant in Judging Public Officials?
Undesirable Side Effects
Some News is Good News
SOSSLQ's, not POSSLQ's
Spoils of Splits
Why Attend Mass
Every Sunday?
Is it All Right to Pull
the Plug?
An Appeal for Intolerance
Topics Catechetical
A Voting Catechism
A Moral Guide to
Voting
Vouchers: Has Their Time Come?
What Child is This?
What did they die of?
You are the Man
You may be a liberal
if...
Get Rid of that Worthless
Relative
Planned Un-Parenthood
Weighing Pro-Life Issues
Prior to Voting
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by Monsignor James C. Brunner |
Faith Points |
Catholic Pro-Abortion Politicians and Communion
The candidacy of John Kerry, a Catholic who has consistently voted in favor of abortion, is creating a problem within the Church: how to deal with Catholic politicians who flaunt the teachings of the Church by their votes. There is no unanimity among the bishops of the US in this matter.
Certain bishops would deny such politicians Communion. Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis says that a Catholic politician who votes pro-abortion should not be permitted to pretend to share in the faith he publicly defies. Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colorado stated: “Anyone who professes the Catholic faith with his lips while at the same time supporting legislation or candidates that defy God’s law make a mockery of that faith and belies his identity as a Catholic.” He continues, “It is for this reason that these Catholics, whether candidates for office or those who would vote for them, may not receive Holy Communion until they have recanted their positions and been reconciled with God and the Church in the Sacrament of Penance.” Archbishop Sean O’Malley of Boston holds that pro-abortion politicians may not receive the Eucharist, but John Kerry does so anyhow in Boston’s Paulist Center. Bishop John Smith of Trenton, New Jersey has forbidden pro-abortion politicians to receive Communion as did Archbishop John J. Myers of Trenton. The Archbishop did not order his clergy to bar abortion rights supporters from Communion but asked the politicians to refrain voluntarily. Bishop James C. Timlin of Scranton, Pennsylvania disagrees with bishops who say there are other positions more basic than abortion in assessing politicians. Bishop Joseph Galante of Camden, New Jersey said he would refuse Governor James E. McGreevey Communion over McGreevey’s abortion rights stance. Another bishop who has banned communion for abortion supporters is Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska.
There are other bishops who would not deny Communion to pro-abortion politicians.
Theodore Cardinal McCarrick of Washington, DC said that he is “uncomfortable” with denying Communion. Cardinal McCarrick said that in a recent visit to the Vatican “it was clear that so many of the highest authorities in the Church are in agreement with my position.” Archbishop Vlazny of Portland, Oregon would allow Communion to be given to Catholics who vote for pro-abortion candidates for other grave (unspecified) reasons. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, Colorado thinks that Communion should be withheld only in extraordinary cases of public scandal, but he says that pro-abortion Catholic politicians offer “dishonest public witness.” Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix prefers to use persuasion to educate politicians rather than deny them Communion. Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles is opposed to denying Communion to abortion supporters.
At the basis of the debate is Canon Law 915: “Those…who persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to communion.” Father James Buckley gives his opinion on this canon in these words: “Law deals with what is objective. To vote for abortion legislation is mortally sinful because it is formal cooperation in a grave sin. To do so repeatedly despite the clear teaching of the Catholic Church to the contrary is obstinacy. Moreover, these actions are public. Consequently pro-abortion legislators obstinately persevere in manifest grave sin and, according to Canon 915, are not to be given Holy Communion.”
The controversy expanded when 48 Democratic members of Congress wrote a letter to Cardinal McCarrick about denial of Communion on the basis of their pro-abortion votes. These Democrats raised many objections. “We do not believe it is our role to legislate the teachings of the Catholic Church.” Opposition to abortion is not a peculiarly Catholic dogma. It is based on the human rights position that innocent human life must be protected. It is a biological fact that a fetus is a living human being at a very early stage of development and this is not a matter of somebody’s dogma. The “personally opposed” politicians are saying in effect: “My personal position is that abortion is the murder of innocent human beings, but I am not going to do anything about that if it costs me votes.”
Other politicians protest that they have to represent all their constituents. Indeed they should, especially the helpless unborn. Laws are supposed to protect the innocent in spite of the personal views of those who would kill them. Where the faith of part-time Catholics who vote in favor of abortion collides with their ambition it is their alleged faith that gives way. Some of them want to be Catholics on election day but once in office vote as secularists.
Part-time Catholics in public office say that government should not be involved in personal decisions. Deciding to kill someone is a personal decision and government is heavily involved in homicide. When an innocent person’s life is at stake it is no longer a private matter.
The deadly four dozen Democrats told Cardinal McCarrick that denying them Communion would raise latent ant-Catholic bigotry. Where do these people live? What is so latent about publicly funded art that vilifies the Virgin Mary and Jesus? What is so hidden about motion pictures that depict Jesus alternately as a homosexual or as mooning over Mary Magdalen? Criticisms are directed against Catholics that would never be tolerated by Jews, Blacks, or Muslims. It is insulting to suggest that we should overlook the slaughter of more than 44 million unborn human beings under Roe vs. Wade for the sake of popularity.
The letter states that abortion is the law of the land and they are sworn to uphold the nation’s Constitutions and its laws. If abortion is the law of the land, then change it. Slavery and racism were once the law of the land but courageous moral leaders worked to change these unjust laws. It would be refreshing to have Catholic politicians display some guts instead of aiding and abetting injustice.
The pro-abortion politicians say that the Church does not deny Communion to those who favor the death penalty, or voted for the Iraq war. The death penalty is not absolutely prohibited if it is necessary to protect the state although in our time threats to the state can normally be contained by lifetime incarceration. There can be prudential judgments made about when the conditions for a just war have been fulfilled. There are absolutely no grounds or exceptional circumstances that justify abortion, which is intrinsically evil. There are other human rights issues besides abortion just as there are other parts of a house besides the foundation. But as the foundation is essential for the rest of the house respect for life is essential for other rights to have any meaning. Entitlements do not mean much to those who are dead.
Cardinal McCarrick is scheduled to launch a task force to recommend guidelines for bishops in dealing with erring Catholic politicians. I have no idea what the eventual guidelines will be, but Catholic politicians could eliminate the need for this by promoting justice for the unborn. Paul warned that picking priests should be done carefully so as not to participate in the sins of others. Catholic voters should vote against Catholic politicians who favor abortion so as not to participate in their sins.
St. Mary's Church Pastor & Vicar
