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Posted on 09/30/2008 7:07:26 AM PDT by NYer
ROME (CNS) -- The Democratic Party in the United States "risks transforming itself definitively into a 'party of death,'" said U.S. Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Vatican's highest court.
An interview with the former archbishop of St. Louis was published in the Sept. 27 edition of Avvenire, a daily Catholic newspaper sponsored by the Italian bishops' conference.
The newspaper asked the archbishop, the new head of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, for his reaction to reports that his Vatican job was designed to get him away from St. Louis.
"I have too much respect for the pope to believe that in order to move someone away from a diocese he would nominate him to a very sensitive dicastery like this one," said the archbishop, whose office is in charge of ensuring that lower church courts correctly administer justice in accordance with canon law.
Archbishop Burke was asked if he knew that the August Democratic National Convention in Denver featured a guest appearance by Sheryl Crow, a musician whose performance at a 2007 benefit for a Catholic children's hospital the archbishop had opposed because of her support for abortion and embryonic stem-cell research.
"That does not surprise me much," the archbishop said. "At this point the Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitely into a 'party of death' because of its choices on bioethical questions as Ramesh Ponnuru wrote in his book, 'The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts and the Disregard for Human Life.'"
Archbishop Burke said the Democratic Party once was "the party that helped our immigrant parents and grandparents better integrate and prosper in American society. But it is not the same anymore."
Pro-life Democrats are "rare, unfortunately," he said.
Archbishop Burke also was asked about being one of a few U.S. bishops to publicly ban Catholic politicians who hold positions contrary to church teaching from receiving Communion.
"Mine was not an isolated position," the archbishop said. "It was shared by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver, by Bishop Peter J. Jugis of Charlotte (N.C.) and by others."
"But it is true that the bishops' conference has not taken this position, leaving each bishop free to act as he believes best. For my part, I always have maintained that there must be a united position in order to demonstrate the unity of the church in facing this serious question," he said.
"Recently, I have noticed that other bishops are coming to this position," he said, especially after Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., "while presenting themselves as good Catholics, have represented church teaching on abortion in a false and tendentious manner."
Archbishop Burke said he is convinced that a 2004 letter from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the U.S. bishops and canon law say "it is not licit to give holy Communion to one who is publicly and obstinately a sinner. And it is logical that one who publicly and obstinately acts in favor of procured abortion enters into this category."
The newspaper asked Archbishop Burke if he ever wondered why the issue of Communion for Catholic politicians was almost unheard of in Europe, where abortion is legal in most countries.
"I don't know if Catholic politicians in Europe are more coherent, although I would have some doubts," he said.
However, he said, "I am convinced that the church must always be very clear on this point."
The good, plain-speaking Bishop Burke. May God bless him richly.
euthanasia, abortion, etc.. this is news to anyone?
He makes it sound like this is a new revelation.
I wish we could find more bishops like him in the U.S. We’d love one just like him in Detroit!
In Europe, no one cares if a politician ever sets foot inside a church. The ruling elites are assumed to be godless.
In America, being an open unbeliever is considered to be strange and makes a candidate much less relatable.
Therefore, godless politicians feel the need to show up in churches - where the fundamental tension between their actual beliefs and their professed beliefs becomes unconcealable.
Start a prayer group for that purpose. It works! ;-)
It may take some time and persistence, but the group should commit to pray until it happens.
And here I always thought it was the party of the mentally ill.
The Church in Europe is moribund and is already under threat from the European Community and secular socialist governments. Most prelates erroneously believe that it's best to take a "softly softly" approach at this time and avoid confrontation so as not to inflame an already delicate situation.
LOL, the Dims do cover the waterfront
You know, that’s not a bad idea. I can’t believe I missed something so obvious! Maybe I’ll get the members of my class to commit to praying for our new bishop - that’d be a good start, anyways.
Our bishop has filed his mandatory retirement letter, but we’re still waiting for a replacement. He’s not the worst (in fact, he linked to the documents written by various bishops about the Pelosi controversy), but he’s not particularly vocal.
They already have.
I don’t know if God is a Republican. But I do believe that Satan is a Democrat.
Go for it! From personal experience I can tell you that it’s a real boost to your faith to see God answer such specific prayers. We already KNOW that good bishops ARE according to His will.
;-)
Satan is a community organizer.
“Becoming?”...They’ve *been* a suicide/death cult, for several decades now.
God Bless you Bishop Burke, but the Democratic party IS the party of death and has been for quite some time.
Humans are things.
That the essence of it. Humans are fungible and ultimately disposable "assets". We are meat animals to be harvested by the slice.
This is why you've got the likes of Margaret Sanger and Dr. Peter Singer doing their damnedest to move the goalposts when it comes to defining life and humanity. Singer, for example, has argued that infants up to 28 months old don't really have any cognitive ability that defines them as human. So it's OK to 'terminate' them if the parent (or really, the State) so chooses.
Who lives, who dies. That's the power they seek. They are all monsters, monsters from the deepest dark heart of of our existence and history is replete with the outcomes and the evidence of their sick Utopian ideas: slaughter, mass murder and atrocity on a scale that beggars the imagination.
History also tells us what we must do to deal with them.
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