Posted on 05/30/2004 2:38:16 PM PDT by Polycarp IV
"If the person should not receive it, then it should not be given"
Dr. Brian Kopp
Vice President, Catholic Family Association of America
5/30/04
Much has been said and written now about pro-abortion Catholic politicians and their reception of the Holy Eucharist. Approximately four US bishops have stated that they will refuse Communion to manifest grave sinners causing scandal by their voting records for abortion. An additional 17 bishops have stated that these Catholic politicians should personally refrain from the Eucharist, but would not be refused by the priests of their dioceses.
The rest of the US hierarchy is either silent, cowardly, or in collusion with these politicians. We should give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the former.
However, many are failing to realize that the final word has already been spoken by the Vatican:
ENCYCLICAL LETTER, ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA, POPE JOHN PAUL II:
"...in cases of outward conduct which is seriously, clearly and steadfastly contrary to the moral norm, the Church, in her pastoral concern for the good order of the community and out of respect for the sacrament, cannot fail to feel directly involved. The Code of Canon Law refers to this situation of a manifest lack of proper moral disposition when it states that those who “obstinately persist in manifest grave sin” are not to be admitted to Eucharistic communion.76
Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, the Vatican's leading prelate on the Sacraments, declared unequivocally that unambiguously pro-abortion politicians should be denied Holy Communion. Arinze said, "If the person should not receive it, then it should not be given. Objectively, the answer is there."
When bishops refuse to obey these obvious guidelines from Rome, it falls to the laity to act, decisively. In Joseph Sobran’s recent Washington Watch column, he quips,
When a notoriously pro-abortion Catholic politician enters a Catholic church, what is to stop the faithful Catholics present from making him feel unwelcome? What if a modest number of Catholics, finding Kerry among them at Mass, shouted, “Out, murderer!”? It would make a disturbing scene, no doubt, but that would be better than concealing the deeper disturbance of his presence and participation in the sacraments.
There is certainly merit to his off-handed remark, but most Catholics are rightfully reluctant to cause more scandal by rebelling against the lawful celebrant of the Eucharist and breaking the peace of the Mass.
Yet many faithful are unwilling to accept the notion that it is not the place of the laity to intervene in stopping such public scandal and sacrilege.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 907
"In accord with the knowledge, competence, and preeminence which they possess, [lay people] have the right and even at times a duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church, and they have a right to make their opinion known to the other Christian faithful, with due regard to the integrity of faith and morals and reverence toward their pastors, and with consideration for the common good and the dignity of persons."
With this in mind, it is time for Catholics to fulfill those roles outlined in the Catechism excerpt above.
One way of doing this is through simple billboard communication in those dioceses in which bishops are disobedient to Rome's express desire on this issue, as well as the neighborhoods near Catholic Churches that pro-abortion politicians are known to frequent.
An idea for a billboard could be as simple as this:
_____________________________________________________________________
Dear Bishops,
"If the person should not receive it,
*Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments
_____________________________________________________________________
We would welcome submissions of other short, pithy phrases for similar billboards.
Obviously, a small, grass roots organization like ours, the Catholic Family Association of America, cannot possibly afford to undertake this national effort. We will create and post sample billboard graphics on our website. (And I will personally have the first billboard produced for the Pittsburgh market and displayed there near St. Scholastica Catholic Church in suburban Pittsburgh or the Chancery offices.)
But we need grassroots groups nationwide to do their part. Many billboard poster advertising companies will donate empty billboard space to non-profit groups simply for the cost of printing the billboard poster. With the advent of new billboard poster printing technologies, these costs are quite reasonable.
Please let us know what you can do, and send us any suggestions.
If not, please make suggestions.
Ping. (As usual, if you would like to be added to or removed from my "conservative Catholics" ping list, please send me a FReepmail. Please note that this is occasionally a high volume ping list and some of my ping posts are long.)"
Our pastor's sermon at church this morning was partially about partaking of Communion (Eucharist, Lord's Supper) without giving it serious thought. It's merciful to deny Communion to someone who is no state to receive it.
1 Corinthians 11:27
Very good idea Polycarp IV.
There are other venues as well, all very effective, some less expensive than others.
Ad space on the outside panel of a transit bus is very visible moving billboard.
Another noisy billboard would be flying a cessna with a big banner.
Just so you can find it, the mods exiled this thread to the Religion Forum Ghetto. I think they think they're being funny.
Interesting idea. It could have some impact. One thing is for sure, it will at least make the evening news.
Polycarp IV is spending a week in my FR Purgatory time share. He wishes all God's best.
I figured as much.
Personally, the tornadoes have left the area, I'm a happy camper. The poor people east of us are in for it if they get what we had all day. Well, the whole metro area. RIght where I live we got two five minute showers.
I keep thinking about these scriptures as I read about the militant radical homosexuals who are invading the Catholic Churches and forcing the Priests to give them communion! They obviously don't really care about partaking in a thoughtful manner, it is strictly for pushing their Godless agenda and throwing their weight around as usual.
Say Hi for me, I hope he took his asbestos underwear on. Just tell him God is there..He is everywhere
Unfortunately, Cardinal Arinze followed "If the person should not receive it, then it should not be given" with
"The U.S. has bishops - let them interpret that".
It's called collegiality.
Of course, the pope's example of giving Holy Communion to the pro-abortion protestant Tony Blair hasn't helped our cause either.
He didn't. This incident was covered long ago, most notably by that Allen fellow of National anti-Catholic Reporter, who spoke with seminarians who attended the Mass. The Pope did not give Blair Holy Communion.
> He didn’t <
I’m still trying to pin that one down. It seems that the Holy Father did not give Blair Holy Communion. But did he receive from another Minister at the same Papal Mass? I’ve heard conflicting versions and wonder if anyone can verify.
However we do know that, up until a couple of years ago, he regularly received whilst accompanying his wife to Sunday Mass at Brompton Oratory and elsewhere. Eventually the late Cardinal Hume was constrained to put a stop to that but, who knows, under the new regime of Cardinal “Comic”, Blair may be at it again.
Cherie, it should be stressed is a regular Sunday Mass-goer. She apparently needs a kind of spiritual top-up to her daily pagan devotions under the tutelage of her personal lifestyle guru, Carole Kaplan.
Well, I guess after a hard week of crystal rubbing, tree hugging, mantra chanting and clairvoyance sessions, a gal needs a break.
Contrary to your claims, here's the report from John Allen at the National anti-Catholic Reporter
http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word010204.htm
If you scroll to the middle of this report you will find:
"On Feb. 23, Prime Minister Tony Blair of England, along with his wife Cherie, attended Mass in John Paul’s private apartment. Reports afterwards were muddled, but it now seems clear that Blair did indeed receive communion from John Paul. While this was a sign of respect for Blair, it also suggests an ecumenical sensitivity from John Paul towards Anglicanism."
The story was covered by every major paper in Britain, including making the headlines of several - such as the London Evening Standard, March 14th 2003.
For yet another commentary on this sacrilege please see:
http://www.fatimaperspectives.com/sv/perspective332.asp
This one is excellent, I think. I found it on Dom Bettinelli's blogspot.
I think it would send a powerful message.
If I can find some graphics for it, and it will be awhile before I can do that, I would like to make up a poster on that theme.
If somebody wants to borrow my idea, be my guest.
Then we need a poster of Kerry smashing all those beautiful eggs :-). That would send a powerful message, too.
Catholics who still believe the current pope provides an entirely orthodox example to the other bishops should consider the following:
On May 4, 1980, his holiness presided from a straw hut over an ordination ceremony and native Mass of people undulating to the rhythm of tomtoms, accompanied by accordions and guitars.
In February 1982, his holiness was the main celebrant at a "dance" Mass in Libreville.
On December 11, 1983, his holiness preached in a Lutheran church at Rome.
On May 8, 1984, his holiness offered a Mass in Papua-New Guinea at which male and female dancers, nude from the waist up, danced; an aboriginal woman, also nude from the waist up, read the Epistle.
In September 1984, his holiness offered the Mass at Yellow Knife, Canada, at which a pagan Indian chief invoked the Great Spirit and presented the pope at the Offertory with an eagle feather dipped in blood. The pope put aside his religious garb and dressed in an Indian costume.
In 1985, his holiness told 50,000 Moslems in Morocco: "We and you believe in the same God, the one God and the only God."
In August 1985, his holiness presided over "dance" Masses in Cameroon and Garoua.
On August 8, 1985, his holiness visited Togo and prayed in a "Sacred Forest" consecrated to the worship of pagan gods and participated in a pagan initiation ritual in a grove sacred to the pagan animists.
In 1986, his holiness presided over a Mass in Fiji at which the thurifer was an aboriginal dressed only in a loin-cloth; his holiness is said to have witnessed there a pagan animal sacrifice.
In February 2, 1986, his holiness was marked with cow dung, the "Tilac," the sign of the adorers of the pagan goddess Shiva, by a Hindu priestess at Bombay.
On June 24, 1986, his holiness sat with Grand Rabbi Elio Toaff in the sanctuary of the Jewish synagogue at Rome and prayed for the coming of the Messias.
On October 27, 1986, his holiness participated in an "oecumenical prayer meeting" at Assisi, Italy. At this meeting the Church of St. Peter was given to the Buddhists, who placed a golden statue of Buddha on top of the tabernacle on the main altar together with a banner displaying the words "I go in for Buddha's law." The Dalai Lama sat with his back to the Blessed Sacrament removed to the side, and a statue of Our Lady of Fatima was denied entrance to the church (Il Giorno of October 28, 1986). At this meeting the Church of San Giorgio was given to the American Indians, who proceeded to introduce witch-doctors "shaking their enormous feathered headcloth and invoking Manito, blessed men and women, by rubbing their heads and backs with a white-feathered fan," while Catholic religious and priests participated. (Il Messaggero of October 2, 1986)
In 1989, the Pope visited Norway and the Scandinavian nations and held an oecumenical service in the cathedral of Nidaros. (Vatican News Service VIS, of November 18, 2002)
On January 9-10, 1993, Pope John Paul 2 brought together Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders for another "oecumenical prayer meeting" to pray for an end to the war with the Mohammedan Bosnians.
On February 4, 1993, his holiness engaged in dialogues with the high priests and witch doctors of Voodoo.
In 1994, our holy father smeared the pitch from a native tree on his face instead of incensing the altar during a beatification ceremony in Australia.
In 1995, he approved the building of the first Mohammedan minaret in Rome.
In December 1996, when the Archbishop of Canterbury, then George Carey, and several of his brother Anglican bishops came to Rome, Pope John Paul II gave Carey a gold pectoral cross, the same gift he offers to Catholic archbishops on their ad limina visits. Our holy father offered silver pectoral crosses to the other Anglicans. According to Catholic theology, Anglican bishops aren't really bishops at all, and hence have no business sporting the symbols of the bishop's office.
In 1997, on the occasion of the Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, he gave implied support of the depraved junk culture by publicly attending a public performance of rock star Bob Dylan.
On April 6, 1997, he omitted the Filioque from the Credo on the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the Constantinople I Council and on oecumenical occasions. (Eastern Catholic Life)
In 1998, he gave communion, at a private Mass in the Vatican, to the late Rev. Sheila Brown, who had only shortly before been ordained an Anglican priestess and who, at that Mass, wore her "Roman" collar.
On November 23, 1998, he shared the altar of St. Peter's with bare-chested, bare-footed tribesmen from Oceania holding spears, "searching for new impulses." (Associated Press)
In 1999, he gave communion to several Lutheran bishops who were his guests during a mass in the pope's private chapel in the Vatican. (London Tablet)
On June 1, 1999, at the end of an audience, he bowed to the Mohammedan holy book, the Koran, presented to him by the delegation, and he kissed it as a sign of respect. The photo of that gesture has been shown repeatedly on Iraqi television. (June 4, 1999, Fides - Vatican News Service of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples)
On January 18, 2000, he allowed Rev. George Carey, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury and Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan Athanasius to participate in their official capacities at the opening of the Holy Door during the 2000 Holy Year.
On January 24, 2002, he hosted yet another "oecumenical prayer meeting" at Assisi. This time the leaders included not just the usual Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, and Jews, but also leaders of "Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Jianism, Confucianism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, and followers of Tenrikyo and African tribal religions." (Associated Press)
In August 2002, during the "inculturated" liturgy at the beatification of Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Angeles, the pope allowed an Indian woman to approach him in the sanctuary and rub him down with smoked herbs that are supposed to purify the subject and exorcise "evil spirits."
On October 6, 2002, schismatic Patriarch Teoctist of the Romanian Orthodox church arrived in Rome for the start of a weeklong visit. At a Mass on that day, Pope John Paul II embraced Teoctist in brotherly fashion before a crowd of 200,000 and ensured that Teoctist was seated in an exact duplicate of the papal throne. All the week's choreography seemed designed to make the two prelates seem like equally eminent heads of churches.
On February 23, 2003, he gave communion, at a private Mass in the Vatican, to the Protestant Anglican prime minister of Britain, Tony Blair.
In contrast to the above, the holy father didn't bother to show up at Santa Maria Maggiore when Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos offered the traditional Latin Mass in his honor.
Does anyone still doubt the ecumaniac agenda?
Cow dung? That is stretching it a bit? It is claimed on an apologist website that the alleged woman was a Catholic and not a priestess, if they even have Shiva priestesses, and the mark is a cultural custom or sign of welcome or greeting on special occasions by people in that part of the world.
Some of those other things bother me, too, BUT consider this:
The first Christians would be aghast in walking into a church in the west and seeing the array of statues as well as the lineup above St. Peter's. They would be aghast at the icons in the eastern churches which, to them, would represent idolatry . . . unless they were brought up to speed by councils, etc.
The early Christians would be shocked to see the way our women dress, even those we would consider modest with hemlines below the knee, high heels and nylon stockings, heads not covered (that was the last to go), breast outlines showing beneath clothes, painted faces, etc., etc. What they would think of men in blue jeans and suits, cowboy boots, etc., I wouldn't know, but surely they would think they had walked into some kind of pagan place of worship and not a Christian church unless an angel clued them in.
I don't think it is a good thing to misrepresent some of the things the pope has done, even though I still find some of it personally disturbing and am not fully satisfied with some of the counter arguments. If he prayed Christian prayers in pagan surroundings, I would imagine the early missionaries were exposed to a lot of that sort of thing, too.
I'm not sure where lines should be drawn, but spreading falsehoods about the pope isn't a good thing whether you like him or not, and I believe a lot of the things in that checklist are malicious. Most of those acts were done in a spirit of charity or graciousness soas not to offend the host cultures.
"Your list comes from here"
Please don't jump to conclusions. I've never before even seen that website. The list I presented was compiled by contributors to www.traditio.com, none of whom have never made the ridiculous claim that our pope has been "excommunicated". Of course, in presenting this list, I'm definitely not endorsing everything on the traditio website.
I'm sorry. I thought you may have copied and pasted the list from that website which I didn't read all the way through, but it gets a little further into conspiracy accusations than I care to deal with. Although the whole mess could be a satanic conspiracy, that's for sure.
What exactly happened? I went to try reading his profile and, obviously he is in Freeper Limbo. What did he do?
***What did the good doc do this time?***
To the best of my ability to reconstruct the scenario, Dr. Polycarp posted a current news account in the News Activism section regarding a Catholic bishop denying communion to pro-gay Catholics. This thread was moved to the Religion forum by a moderator. In response, Dr. Polycarp expressed frustration at the relocation of a current news article out of the news forum and included a few disparaging remarks [and those of us who know Dr. P know that he can be sledge hammer blunt when he wants to be.] to both the moderators and to JR himself. He was given a week in FR Purgatory and the thread was vaporized.
***You know, maybe you should both just get a full time condo in the FR Purgatory for all of us in the ghetto. You could charge rent, and the need is definitely there..***
I'm way ahead of you there. Dr. Polycarp emailed me about his "time out" and I immediately offered him the use of my FR Purgatory time-share condiminium which I purchased during my third stay (three days for posting an "LSU wins" gif on four threads after the LSU Sugar Bowl win).
No doubt Dr. P will enjoy the extensive library of Calvin and Reformation writers I have there. Knowing him, he'll probably leave a rosary under the pillow as he leaves. And I expect the kitchen pantry to be full of boxes of YOPIOS cereal, left just to make a statement.
Any others desiring to book the time share can contact by personal secretary, Helen Hunt at:
gotohelenhuntnow@yahoo.com
See post #27
Tony Blair, while still a member of the Church of England, regularly attends mass with his family, who are all practising Catholics.In 1996, however, he was warned off receiving communion in a letter by the late Cardinal Basil Hume.
Saying that he had not realised his behaviour might cause offence, Mr Blair promised not to do so again, nevertheless adding: "I wonder what Jesus would have made of it?"
The prime minister and his family met the Pope at the Vatican during an official visit to Rome last month, and although he received a blessing - the first British prime minister to do so - he did not receive communion. (Guardian, "Pope warns against unholy communion", April 18 2003)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.