Posted on 08/26/2008 7:27:02 AM PDT by WilliamReading
You are correct. He has already made a clear public pronouncement as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura here.
no sweat.
In the end - all these people have complete freedom to march into whatever church they choose.
These cinos obviously don’t believe in church teaching regarding the eucharist.
There are other churches with different beliefs regarding communion that would suit them better.
The Church is never going to change just to appease Biden or Pelosi.
But the cinos want the “catholic vote” so they continue to refer themselves as “catholic” when they aren’t.
Cokie Roberts just came out with a ridiculously shallow book revealing the same problem “oh whoa is me! I’m a catholic but I thing the Church is archaic, paternalistic, and mean!”
The Archbishops must follow the guidelines of the church which go along with the Commandments — Thou shalt not kill, and the belief that life begins at conception.
I have posted the official Catholic teaching from the Catechism of the Catholic Church many times. Evidently you have not seen it.
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Not Romanist here either, but I find it deeply sad that all these bishops ever do to these claiming-proud-to-be-Catholic politcians—WHO ARE THE LEADING POLITICAL PROPONENTS OF ABORTION IN AMERICA—is “scold.”
Telling a fake Christian he “better not take Communion!” is like telling a philanderer that he better not kiss his wife.
The selective enforcement by the Bishops is what I find distressing.
Actually they don’t even report to the Pope, in the manner in which you probably imagine. A bishop is absolute ruler within his bishopric. The pope can’t just tell a bishop to do something, or not to do something, and then be able to enforce it. The pope is “first among equals’ among the bishops.
Now, the pope has a lot of power. If that bishop wants to ever have any hope of a more prestigious diocese, or to have influence in getting his guys appointed bishop, or any number of other things that the pope can dispense, he has to at least pretend to do as Papa requires. And the longer the Pope is in power the more of “his guys” get appointed giving him more power. Indeed, the Pope shapes the church after he is gone because so many of the men voting for the next pope are appointed by him.
“I certainly presume his good will and integrity,” said the archbishop, “and I presume that his integrity will lead him to refrain from presenting himself for Communion if he supports a false ‘right’ to abortion.”
The archbishop, who was not invited to speak at any convention events in what appeared to be a deliberate snub, told the Associated Press that he would like to speak privately with Mr. Biden.
&&&
Go get ‘im, Archbishop!
Great news! Thanks for the ping.
Canon 1398 is clear: "A person who actually procures an abortion incurs an automatic excommunication," the canon states. Abortion is intrinsically evil as an act, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church rightly teaches in paragraph 2271 that abortion "is gravely contrary to the moral law" and an "abominable crime."
With regard to those who perform, promote, fund, or are accessories to the practice of abortion, the second paragraph of Canon 1329 already provides for their automatic excommunication as accomplices who, "without their assistance, the crime would not have been committed ..."
It is clear to me that a man or woman who holds political power, who either legalizes of "enables" abortion, especially one who votes against restricting it, or votes in favor of funding it, qualifies as an accomplice and thus comes under canonical excommunication.
All that is needed, is that Catholics in large numbers start acting like Catholics. What a cause for rejoicing that would be!
(Please allow me a seven-syllable sigh.......) Not exactly.
The question would be, what kind of enforcement is necessary and possible? The Church is obviously a voluntary organization. It has no secular enforcement arm; and even where penalties are incurred, the penalties are spiritual or ecclesiastical, not such things as fines, imprisonment, being put in the stocks for public derision (though some of that strikes me as being increasingly appropriate...)
In the organizational sense, every bishop is supposed to take care of his own diocese. He can't be voted out, nor can the Pope just "fire" him.
I would love to see some full-fledged, dramatic, public, Bell, Book and Candle excommunications. (Of course, I'm one who considers the penitent Emperor Henry IV falling to his knees before Gregory VII in the snow of Canossa (1077) as one of the high points of European history.)
But I'm afaid it would just strike most of the general public as "too medieval" and garner for the offenders an undeserved glory as "Noble Rebels Against Popish Oppression."
Know what I mean?
Nevertheless, with good-guy Raymond Burke heading the canonical court in Rome, and good-guy Benedict approving, you will see more and stronger action in coming months, I'm sure. It's up to us Christifideles Laici --- Christ's Faithful People ---to keep on prayin' ...and keep on pushin'...
In the organizational sense, every bishop is supposed to take care of his own diocese. He can’t be voted out, nor can the Pope just “fire” him.
A bishop can’t be fired? And are not Priests “employees” of the Catholic Church?
There are options, though. A bishop can have his authority curtailed, as Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen's was, back in the 1980's, when the Pope appointed an auxiliary bishop for him who basically took over most of his job. Or he could be reassigned to someplace where he can't get into trouble, as when the wacky Emmanuel Milingo, Archbishop of Lusaka (Zambia) was appointed to be in charge of "Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples" (in Rome) where he would be under the watchful eye of other senior clerics.
It's not simple. But watch. More will be happening.
Some are even predicting a schism, and the emergence of an apostate American Catholic Church. Schism is never a good thing, but in some ways we have an internal, undercover schism going on right now, with "defectors in place" --- I'm speaking of laypeople, theologians, nuns, priests and bishops --- who are in quiet mutiny against the Church and who may be pushed to the point of openly splitting.
This would be awful, but even strong medicine is sometimes therapuetic.
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