Ping
CC: Archbishop Rummel was the archbishop of New Orleans, Louisiana at the time when our country was dealing with the very serious issue of segregation. And during his service as a bishop, he desegregated the Catholic schools in Louisiana, and really was a hero in terms of civil rights issues. And some of the Catholic leaders in his community, political leaders, decided to oppose him, especially when it came to the issue of desegregating Catholic schools. And eventually, because of their public opposition to this basic teaching of our Church about the dignity of all individuals, regardless of racial differences, he eventually excommunicated three of them. And at that time, he was considered a hero in many sections of our country. Of course, he was disliked very much by others. But the New York Times, for example, ran an editorial praise of this man’s courage for dealing with this moral issue in such a public way.
HH: I mean, he actually excommunicated them.
CC: He actually did.
HH: Now explain for our audience what that means, you know, if they’re not Catholic, and they’ve never even been inside of the Church. What’s excommunicate mean? Is it a fine? What’s it mean?
CC: Well, to excommunicate somebody means that you tell them that they should no longer receive Communion. Ex means out, and communication means communion. And so if you don’t, if you aren’t in communion, in agreement in your mind and heart with what the Church teaches, the Church can, through its leaders, formally state that you’re no longer in communion with the Church. It’s not saying someone’s going to hell, that they’re damned. It’s just that they’re living a lie for their taking positions that have led them outside of the communion of the Church. And that’s what we was saying about those folks. If they favored racial segregation, if they were discriminatory in what they thought and what they did, then they couldn’t claim to be in communion with the Catholic Church, because we don’t believe that.
HH: You know, I did not know this story, and it’s really kind of shocking to me that that happened, and that I didn’t know about it. Have you ever excommunicated someone?
CC: No, I haven’t.