Will the silence of most Bishops help elect a Pres. candidate who promotes procured abortion...

RenewAmerica.us ^ | October 15, 2004 | Barbara Kralis

[cpforlife.org]

Will the silence of most U.S. Catholic Bishops help elect a Presidential candidate... who promotes procured abortion and supports same-sex marriage?

Barbara Kralis

Barbara Kralis
October 15, 2004


Sixty million U.S. Catholic laity is scandalized and confused by the refusal of most Bishops to dutifully govern and correct pro-abortion candidates.

The Democrat Presidential candidate, John Kerry, proclaimed recently to all Americans that he is a 'faithful Catholic' in good standing, yet promised that if elected:

"I will not overturn Roe v Wade; I will not appoint judges hostile to 'choice;' I will allow poor women to have free abortions; I will never outlaw abortion; I will increase American taxpayer's dollars on population control efforts around the world." [1]

In other words, this pro-abortion legislator has set himself outside of the Catholic faith and has incurred, according to canon law 1398, a common excommunication, 'latæ sententiæ,' a censure incurred by the very fact of committing a crime.

Yet, ironically, a majority of U.S. Catholic Bishops is unwilling to discipline legislators who support procured abortion from the sacrilegious reception of the Eucharist in most of the nation's Catholic dioceses. Sixty million U.S. Catholic laity is scandalized and confused by the refusal of most Bishops to dutifully govern and correct.

World media are reporting with amusement individual Bishop's reaction. Currently, 2 Archbishops and 10 Bishops have stated publicly they would obey the Church's Divine Law and deny the Sacrament of the Eucharist to legislators who support procured abortion. [2]

The rest of the total 365 U.S. Bishops, 46 U.S. Archbishops, and 12 U.S. Cardinals, including the remaining 184 of the 196 diocesan Bishop heads, have made no such statement. [3] In fact, many Bishops have spoken wrongly against the denial of Holy Communion to anyone, at anytime, for any reason.

Is the silence of this majority of Bishops sending a loud, clear message to all Americans that being pro-abortion is not a grave offense against God?

The Code of Canon Law n. 1369 instructs all Bishops: "A person is to be punished with a just penalty who gravely harms public morals." Who could refute the fact that for years Senator Kerry, Senator Kennedy and over 500 pro-abortion 'Catholic' U.S. politicians have participated in abortion by writing, endorsing, encouraging, and passing pro abortion and pro sodomite legislation? Canon 915 specifically prohibits persons from receiving the Eucharist who obstinately persist in their grave manifest sins. This is a no-brainer.

In fact, Senator Kerry's pro-abortion record is so strong; he is the first presidential candidate (including Clinton and Gore) to be endorsed by the evil Planned Parenthood abortion group.

Senator Kerry supports human cloning, favors the creation and destruction of human embryos for 'research,' and has voted repeatedly against a federal ban on 'partial birth abortion.'

This is from an interview 'Catholic' candidate John Kerry gave the Telegraph Herald of Dubuque, Iowa, picked up in a secondary report by the Washington Post:

"I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist . . . who doesn't share it. We have separation of church and state in the United States of America."

Does not the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's note "Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life" carry any authority with American Bishop's and clergy? It said that 'lawmaking bodies have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life' (emphasis in the original). [4]

Why, as it has been recently revealed by CWNews, have three of the twelve prominent members of the USCCB 'Review Board' flagrantly and traitorously disobeyed Church teachings and supported pro-abortion Kerry's presidential campaign financially?'' [5]

As Senator John Kerry travels throughout the U.S. in his bid for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, this pro-abortion, heretical 'Catholic' legislator receives sacrilegious Holy Communions wherever and whenever he attends the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Why?

Each Sunday, pro-abortion Senator Kerry enters a different U.S. parish, approaches the altar, receiving the Eucharist while obstinately refusing to obey the Church's clearly defined laws against his unlawful reception of Communion. Every parish receives advance notice of Kerry's clamorous arrival, yet, in parish after parish, both 'Ministers of Holy Communion' (pastors, priests, deacons) and 'Extra-ordinary ministers of Holy Community' (laymen) willfully give Kerry sacrilegious Communions.

The Catechism teaches that all clergy who administer the Sacrament of the Eucharist to manifest, obstinate, persistent sinners also participate in this grave cardinal sin of sacrilege (CCC, n.1755). Is it not clear they must deny these pro-abortion politicians the Eucharist?

In fact, canon 915 places the responsibility on the minister — 'ne admittantur' — who, in some canonists' opinion, could be punished themselves according to canon 1389 §2, should he unlawfully administer the sacrament with the consequent danger of scandal for the rest of the faithful. Canon 1339 prescribes the possibility of punishing any person who causes grave scandal by any violation of a divine or ecclesiastical law.

Some have suggested that the silence of most of the Bishops is because U.S. clergy overwhelmingly vote as Democrats and do not want to offend their leaders. A recent poll suggested this was the case, at least, in the diocese of Chicago.

According to an exclusive Illinois Leader analysis [6] of the voting habits of the Chicago Archdiocese's voting Catholic priests, more than 75% of them sided with Democrats in the March 2002 primary election. Consequently, many U.S. Catholics are receiving a message from many priests and Bishops, however subtle, that the Church wishes them to vote for the Democrat Party, the official abortion party in America. Is this why many of our pulpits are silent on the infallible Church teachings regarding morals and faith, teachings that definitely offend Democrats?

Could another reason be U.S. Bishops fear losing more money donated in weekly offertory collections? Do some U.S. Bishops fear offending powerful Democrat parishioners?

Dear Bishops, you are the leaders and shepherds of our church; we stand beside you in deepest prayer and respect. Please stop the scandal and sacrilege of the Eucharist, we pray.

NOTES:

1. 2004 Transcript of John Kerry's address at the January 21, 2003 NARAL Dinner: http://www.bankofknowledge.net/2004/archives/000135.html
   Cf. "Kerry Sets Pro-abortion Litmus Test for Judges," by NewsMax.com Wires, 6/26/04; also, "A Few Questions for the Presidential Candidates," by Radley Balko, 8/1/04, FoxNews.com; Cf. l994 Congressional Record. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,127374,00.html
   http://www.newsmax.com/.../180901.shtml
   
   

2. The distinguished list of Bishops to date (10/7/04) is: Archbishop Raymond L Burke of St. Louis, MO; Archbishop John F. Donoghue Archbishop of Atlanta, GA; Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz of Lincoln NE; Bishop Henry Rene Gracida, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi, TX; Bishop Robert F. Vasa, Baker, OR; Bishop Joseph Galante of Camden, NJ; Bishop John M. Smith of Trenton, NJ; Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, CO; Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger of Evansville, IN; Bishop Robert J. Baker Bishop of Charleston, SC; Bishop Peter J. Jugis Bishop of Charlotte, NC;; Bishop John Y. Yanta, Bishop of Amarillo, TX.
   
   

3. Cf. 2004 General Summary, 'The Official Catholic Directory, 2004,' pg. 2051, published annually by P.J. Kenedy and Sons. This number includes current governing Bishops and living Bishops Emeritus.
   
   

4. Cf. § 2, n.4: http://www.vatican.va/...20021124_politica_en.html
   
   

5. "The Forum: 3 members of Review Board support Kerry," special to Catholic World News, 10/6/04: http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=32578
   
   

6. "Illinois Leader Study: Chicagoland Catholic Priests vote 4 to 1 Democrat," by 'The Leader-Chicago Bureau,' 11/01/02: http://www.illinoisleader.com/news/newsview.asp?c=2776
   
   

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Barbara Kralis, the article's author, writes for various Christian and conservative publications. She is a regular columnist at RenewAmerica.us, Catholic Online.com, The Wanderer newspaper, New Oxford Review Magazine, Washington Dispatch, MichNews, Catholic Citizens of Illinois, Phil Brennan's WOW, ChronWatch, etc. Her first journalism position was with Boston Herald Traveler, 1964. Barbara published/edited 'Semper Fidelis' Catholic print newsletter. She and her husband, Mitch, live in the great State of Texas, and co-direct the Jesus Through Mary Catholic Foundation. She can be reached at: Avemaria@earthlink.net.

© Copyright 2004 by Barbara Kralis
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/kralis/041015

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The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.

[cpforlife.org]

“The floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of bad bishops.”
--St. John Chrysostom
Bishop, Doctor of the Church, born at Antioch, c. 347

[Kurt_D]

Don't know... if the "Catholics" should sticked to their ideology, then they wouldn't vote for the Abortionist.

[cpforlife.org]

Please let me know if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.

[Prime Choice]

[cpforlife.org]

Excellent!

Those Cow Burger Boys are great!

[TOUGH STOUGH]

Just yesterday, my sibling and I were discussing this issue. We came to the obvious conclusion that Kerry has excommunicated himself. It only confuses the laity when bishops don't call him on this and brings further scandal to the church.

[Bonaparte]

Kerry's own priest is profaning the sacrament by giving him communion. That is even worse than what kerry is doing. But the fact is that no American bishop is going to do anything about either of them, not without considerable pressure from ordinary Catholics. That's what it took to force the church to even look at the problem of homosexual priests raping children. If it hadn't been for that outcry from the laiety, the priests and their bishops would have been content to look the other way forever. I would bet that this excommunication talk is the least of john kerry's worries.

[TOUGH STOUGH]

Agreed.

Furthermore, good Catholics are not supposed to receive communion if they are not in the state of grace. For instance, if one does not go to confession and knows there is sin that must be confessed, one should not receive communion. We are called upon to monitor ourselves in this regard. This is supposed to be a common practice. Yet we do not hear anyone in authority, calling upon Kerry to utilize it even for the reason that he is a divorced Catholic (also a reason for excommunication). disgraceful.

[TOUGH STOUGH]

LOL!!!!! Very cute.

[Bonaparte]

One approach might be to "boycott" both confession and communion until kerry publicly demonstrates repentence by denouncing those abominations that he has previously supported with his vote and his endorsements.

Ask yourself this: If you knew that your own parish priest was engaging in the profanation of the eucharist, would you want him to give you communion?

[TOUGH STOUGH]

Interesting proposal to address the problem.

[SouthCarolinaKit]

Saw an article here yesterday that Kerry had effectively
'excommunicated himself' by his support of the 'heresy': abortion. Noone would contradict his pro-abortion stances so I can NOT understand why the hierarchy can not state it.

[Bonaparte]

You have to admit it's direct. If a priest is not taking confession and giving communion, then the church must ask, "Why is he there?" It must also ask, "Why are the parishioners there?" That quickly leads to other questions of the sort that bishops dread.

[tomnbeverly]

It will get worse before better... The church has an obligation to support good values.

John Kerry will create laws that support abortion at any stage, embryonic creation and destrution for science, creation of life from cloning, Homosexual marriage... What exactly does the bible say about these things:

"You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being."

When the church has failed to uphold the laws of God, who then, will?

[TOUGH STOUGH]

It truly is up to us.

[Theodore R.]

Is the problem here that the Catholics are afraid of angering their long-term traditional Democrat base even when the Democrat ticket takes issue positions far at odds with Catholic teachings? Or is it that the Catholics do not like to see political issues divide their congregation and want to steer clear of "divisive" politics?

[Saundra Duffy]

Sad to say, I think some Mormons are voting for Kerry, too - but not many. (One's too many.) It defies all logic.

[Salvation]

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