Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl: Asked if he planned to refuse communion to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he responded: "You're talking about a whole different style of pastoral ministry. No."
Posted on 01/22/2007 8:02:24 AM PST by NYer
In the political hot seat of Washington, D.C., Archbishop Donald Wuerl has stuck to the stand he took as bishop of Pittsburgh, refusing to withhold communion from Catholic legislators who support legal abortion.
A response he made recently to questions about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have infuriated the far-right edge of the Catholic blogosphere, and drawn ire from some of the most conservative Catholic leaders of the anti-abortion movement.
Today, his approach to that cause will be on display as he hosts a youth rally in the capital's Verizon Center, in conjunction with the annual March for Life.
A week ago in San Diego he took questions from a conservative Catholic journalist about Ms. Pelosi.
"Do you intend to discipline her at all for being persistent and obstinate about her support for abortion and same-sex marriage?" asked Allyson Smith of the Web site California Catholic Daily.
"I will not be using the faculty in the manner you have described," he replied, referring to his authority.
"Will you make a statement to your priests and deacons to warn them not to allow her to receive if she presents herself for Communion?" Ms. Smith continued.
The archbishop responded: "You're talking about a whole different style of pastoral ministry. No."
LifeSiteNews.com ran outraged responses from Catholic leaders on the conservative wing of the anti-abortion movement.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
This was one priest who knows how to 'walk the walk', albeit it with double canes. Abouna would have been proud :-)
Coward.
What a thorn in his side.
Someone should introduce this man to the concept of humility.
Does this clown really want to go there? I know plenty of Catholics who've housed pregnant women, paid their rent, bought them clothes and paid their electric bill.
He's the shepherd, he's the teacher, what the heck is he going to do about the pro-abort pols in his flock?
Does this clown really want to go there? I know plenty of Catholics who've housed pregnant women, paid their rent, bought them clothes and paid their electric bill.
He's the shepherd, he's the teacher, what the heck is he going to do about the pro-abort pols in his flock?
Weasels like him make me sick. We (laypeople) are all working very hard, but there are some things we cannot do: excommunicate somebody, for example. Furthermore, Nancy Pelosi gives not a whit what we, the folks in the pews, think. But she'd sure care if Abp Wuerl publicly denied her Communion for her promotion of abortion.
Wuerl is not only being cowardly on this issue, but his wussiness is setting himself up to be defied on just about any issue the DC "Catholic" crowd wishes to push.
The Archbishop is being consistent with his stance in the past. If it's not wrong to elect a pro-abort why would it be wrong to be one?
(from 2004)
"Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Wuerl has written on why the church considers abortion and related issues to be of paramount concern, but has stopped short of saying it is the only issue on which Catholics should base their vote.
"If you're voting for a candidate because they support abortion, that is in fact problematic," Rauscher said. "However, if you vote for a candidate who happens to support abortion, but your conscience moves you to vote for that candidate for other reasons, that falls into another category."
( Susan Rauscher, secretary for pastoral and social concerns for the Diocese of Pittsburgh)
I could draw an analogy (I hope it makes sense). If you bite of the fruit of Knowledge of good and evil in order to know evil. it is wrong. However if you partake of it because it's good for food, pleasing to the eye and desirable for gaining wisdom, well then that's OK.
Yet Archbishop Chaput gets a free pass. Go figure.
Chaput has taken Ritter on as far as the abortion issue is concerned.
I want to know if Wuerl is ready to explain to Ms. Pelosi, at the general judgment, why he didn't love her enough to help her along the path of truth?
He didn't do anything about a mass said in his diocese specifically arranged for Gov. Ritter for his inauguration.
Even though,
"In Thursday's State of the State message, Ritter, a lifelong Catholic and former missionary, pledged to restore funding for family planning and pregnancy prevention[birth control]. He also said during the campaign that he wouldn't seek to overturn abortion laws and voiced support for same- sex unions. All are policies that run against church teachings."
Is that the same as publicly condemning sin and putting a halt to scandal? In fact, that is what Bishops are charged with doing...
The implied answer, of course, being "nothing". Thanks bishop. That's a tad too defensive there on the come back for my liking. Usually indicative of a nerve having been hit. What he's saying in effect is "don't tell me how to do my job........ take care of your own."
I'm not a bishop so I can't claim any pastoral charism but it seems to me there needs to be a graded and progressive approach to this issue as far as Catholic public figures are concerned. First there should be private discussions on this topic between pastor and politician. If this fails, then a public denunciation is warranted. Finally, if this in turn draws a blank, all other avenues being exhausted, it seems that withdrawal of Holy Communion would be the last resort. But to flatly rule it out seems to me to indicate to the public figure that this is not a truly serious issue and that the individual is not placing his or her eternal salvation in jeopardy.
The USCCB is fond of putting out missives about how things should be done. How about a coordinated plan of action for dealing with recalcitrant, pro-abortion CINOs in public office. That is, after they have finished their ramblings about immigration, the budget, the environment and all the other hot button issues.
This is one of the reasons I've kept my tagline for a while now ... so as to proclaim there must be no hedging, obfuscation, or doublespeak when it comes to God and His teachings. St. Matthew said as much, and we must expect the direct and full truth from local bishops. Nothing more, nothing less.
This canon treats two instances where members of the faithful are not to be admitted to Communion. The first deals with excommunication and interdicts -- ecclesiastical censures forbidding participation in the sacraments -- and the second refers to obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin.
In the Name of God, I ask you: Is abortion a "grave sin"? Is speaking for it, voting for it, and being an accomplice and accessory "manifest" participation in it? Is voting for it over and over again "obstinately persisting"?
Cardinal Francis Arinze, who, as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, is the highest authority in the Catholic Church on the correct administration of the Blessed Sacrament, has REPEATEDLY stated that it is obvious that pro-abortion legislators must not be admitted to Holy Communion. And in 2004, a letter by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, (CDF) said that such legislators "must be refused" communion.
**************
Yes to all.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
And, to go further, politicians and other public figures who are obstinate in persisting should be publicly condemned by leaders of the Church for the scandal they cause AND should be refused communion AND, if they continue to persist, they should be excommunicated.
You won't see pics of him led away from abortion mill protests in chains, but you will see him at prayer breakfasts with Pelosi, Durbin, Kennedy, et al.
It's all part of the cafeteria Catholicism practiced even by self described conservative Catholics.
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