Posted on 01/28/2003 12:31:41 PM PST by Polycarp
Calif. Bishop To Gov. Davis:
Pick Abortion Or Communion
National Catholic Register
Feb, 2-9, 2003
by WAYNE LAUGESEN
Register Correspondent
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The message is blunt: Abortion hurts women and is the direct killing of children, and any politician who promotes such a heinous thing shouldn't receive Communion.
That's what Sacramento, Calif., Bishop William Weigand said to Gov. Gray Davis.
But Davis said he's going to continue to receive Communion anyway.
Bishop Weigand repeated his opinion twice: Once in a pro-life Mass marking the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and once in an interview with the Register on Jan. 27.
In the Mass, Bishop Weigand explained that one cannot be Catholic and pro-abortion.
"I have to say clearly that anyone - politician or otherwise - who thinks it is acceptable for a Catholic to be pro-abortion is in very great error, puts his or her soul at risk and is not in good standing with the Church," Bishop Weigand said. "Such a person should have the integrity to acknowledge this and choose of his own volition to abstain from receiving holy Communion until he has a change of heart."
Davis has taken exception to Bishop Weigand's statement and says he will neither stop taking Communion nor renounce legalized abortion.
"The governor is a faithful, practicing Catholic who attends Mass in West Hollywood," said Russ Lopez, his spokesman. "We don't like abortion, but we do like choice on the issue. I'm wondering why the bishop is making a concerted effort to exclude and push away those Catholics who favor women having choice."
On Jan. 27, Bishop Weigand told the Register that he is considering formally forbidding Davis from receiving Communion if Davis doesn't change his mind on the issue.
"We're studying that right now," the bishop said. "That time could come. That time could be very near, especially with his statements that say he doesn't have to give one inch. He has manifested publicly a hardness of heart - an in-your-face hardness of heart response."
The bishop said that because of the public controversy he does not expect Davis to attend a Red Mass, a traditional Mass celebrated for members of the legal profession, he is celebrating Feb. 12. But if the governor does attend and approach the bishop for Communion, the bishop said he will give him a blessing and ask him to see him after Mass.
Bishop Weigand said he wants to follow canon law carefully, saying it requires two official admonishments before forbidding Communion. He said he has made attempts in the past to personally counsel Davis in his faith "since he obviously doesn't understand the faith." He said it was important to do this since Davis is a public official publicly espousing Catholicism.
There were two meetings scheduled between Davis and the executive committee of the California Conference of Bishops for this purpose. Both meetings were cancelled by the governor.
Bishop Weigand said he has tried to counsel the governor in a way that wouldn't embarass him, but the issue went public when a Catholic orphanage refused to allow Davis to visit its campus. The bishop said he wanted to make it clear that it's impossible to be both pro-abortion and Catholic.
Lopez said Davis has not been swayed one bit regarding his position on legalized abortion, nor has he considered avoiding Communion.
"I, myself, thought I would live and die Catholic," Lopez said. "Now I don't know. It depends on how ugly this gets. They're obviously trying to beat us up, and we're not backing down. The Church has so many problems right now that I'm surprised the diocese is embarking on something that's this exclusionary and divisive."
In the 30 years since its legalization, abortion has become the most common surgical procedure in America. More than 1 million mothers have abortions each year. The babies who are aborted are distinguishable as boys or girls within hours of their conception and have beating hearts within 10 days.
Bishop Weigand said Davis has "gone public saying that the bishop shouldn't be guiding people in the faith."
"This is very curious to me," Bishop Weigand said. "He's obviously not very informed about the teachings of the Church."
The Church has defended the lives of the unborn since the early days of the Church, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2271). It quotes the Didache, a liturgical book from the first century after Christ's death, as saying, "You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish."
The catechism adds: "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae, 'by the very commission of the offense' and subject to the conditions provided by canon law" (No. 2272).
Abortion laws should be seen in terms of equality and human rights, the catechism says.
"The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by a civil society and the political authority. … The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law" (No. 2273).
Also, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Jan. 16 specifically addressed a Catholic's role in political life in its document, "The Participation of Catholics in Political Life," which called politicians and voters to be "morally coherent" and not lead "parallel lives" between one's personal and public life.
"Living and acting in conformity with one's own conscience on questions of politics is not slavish acceptance of positions alien to politics or some kind of confessionalism," the document said, "but rather the way in which Christians offer their concrete contribution so that, through political life, society will become more just and more consistent with the dignity of the human person" (No. 6).
Orphanage Shuns Davis
In December, Msgr. Edward Kavanagh of the Sacramento Diocese told Davis and his staff they were not welcome to deliver Christmas gifts to children at St. Patrick's Home for Children, directed by Msgr. Kavanagh, because of the governor's pro-abortion stance. As a result, the children received their gifts from Davis at the Capitol.
"Msgr. Kavanagh has also suggested that Gov. Davis should be excommunicated over this abortion issue," Lopez said. "Well, that's not up to the monsignor, and the governor plans on remaining a Catholic while at the same time defending a woman's right to an abortion."
"The majority of Californians support our pro-choice agenda," Lopez said. "I, personally, have had a lot of supportive comments."
Most Hispanics, however - the fastest-growing and largest minority group in California and the rest of the nation - don't support Davis in this fight, said Marcella Melendez, president of the national Hispanics for Life organization.
"The bishop is 100% correct to be doing this," Melendez said. "It's his job to correct us when we stray from the teachings of the Church and to call us to repentance. You cannot be a faithful Catholic and be pro-choice on abortion. It simply isn't possible. The governor is putting political expedience ahead of his faith."
"The prohibition of God and the law of nature is abundantly clear: 'Thou shalt not kill,'" Bishop Weigand said in his homily.
"We know it is not politically correct to be pro-life; but right and wrong, good and evil, are never revealed in a poll," he said. "All human life is sacred. A true leader stands up for what is right, not for what is popular."
Wayne Laugesen writes
from Boulder, Colorado
|
"We're studying that right now," the bishop said. "That time could come. That time could be very near, especially with his statements that say he doesn't have to give one inch. He has manifested publicly a hardness of heart - an in-your-face hardness of heart response."
The bishop said that because of the public controversy he does not expect Davis to attend a Red Mass, a traditional Mass celebrated for members of the legal profession, he is celebrating Feb. 12. But if the governor does attend and approach the bishop for Communion, the bishop said he will give him a blessing and ask him to see him after Mass.
Bishop Weigand said he wants to follow canon law carefully, saying it requires two official admonishments before forbidding Communion. He
Courage is a beautiful thing.
Can't be summed up any better than that. Would that all leaders of the Church had such courage.
Indeed. We need bushels more of it from our Church leaders.
And this protestant freeper says, "Amen."
We must pray for the conversion of the governor's heart.
Why? Is the "right" of mothers to kill their babies fiercely protected by "feminists" in Iran? Geeze, that country's more screwed up than I thought.
Let's see -- Davis stopped taking Communion for the 15 years prior to his marriage being formalized by the Church. Yet he thumbs his nose at the suggestion he stop taking Communion because he's o.k. with killing babies.
Curious standard of pick and choose, I'd say.
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