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Dr. Edward Peters:Nancy Pelosi deserves to be taken seriously. Very Seriously.
In The Light Of The Law ^ | February 7, 2012 | Dr. Edward Peters, J.D., J.C.D., Ref. Sig. Ap.

Posted on 02/08/2012 2:56:01 AM PST by sayuncledave

In March 2010, I expressed the view that Nancy Pelosi’s protracted and public anti-life conduct, which she repeatedly justifies with (twisted takes on) the Catholic faith, sufficed, in my view, to bring about her debarment from the reception of holy Communion under Canon 915. If Pelosi’s “prolonged public conduct does not qualify as obstinate perseverance in manifest grave sin,” I wrote two years ago, “then, in all sincerity, I must admit to not knowing what would constitute obstinate perseverance in manifest grave sin.”

It’s now February of 2012, and nothing in Pelosi’s conduct over the last 23 months suggests any emendation of her attitudes toward killing unborn babies, etc., etc., etc. Indeed her recent call for Catholics qua Catholics to unite behind, of all things!, President Obama’s plan to impose immoral policies on private medical insurance plans—which call provoked this moving cri de coeur from Fr. Zuhlsdorf—suggests that Pelosi’s views, like Pharaoh’s heart, have only hardened with time.

Canon 915, as I and others have explained many times, is not about impositions on individual conscience, it’s about public consequences for public behavior. It’s about taking people at their word and acknowledging the character of their actions. It’s about not pretending that people don’t really mean what they repeatedly say and what they repeatedly do.

Nancy Pelosi obviously means exactly what she says, and she regularly backs up her words with deeds. She deserves to be taken seriously. Very seriously.

As a canon lawyer, my view is that Nancy Pelosi deserves to be deprived of holy Communion as the just consequence of her public actions; as her fellow Catholic, my view is that Nancy Pelosi deserves to be deprived of holy Communion to bring home to her and to the wider faith community the gravity of her conduct and the need to avoid such conduct altogether or, that failing, at least to repent of it. Quickly.


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: catholic; hhsedict; nancypelosi; pelosi
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Dr. Peters is a canon lawyer of great renown, whose opinion is likewise well-respected. I would humbly submit that I think he's right, and that we should pray that the good Archbishop and Cardinal act accordingly. I would further suggest that we all pray for a serious change of heart on the part of Representative Pelosi, for the good of her immortal soul. So, pray the Archbishop and Cardinal do the right thing, and that Nancy Pelosi sees, truly, what she is risking and changes her ways.
1 posted on 02/08/2012 2:56:15 AM PST by sayuncledave
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To: sayuncledave

Don’t hold your breath awaiting either event. Has her Bishop joined the outcry against DeathCare? No, he has not! Enough said.


2 posted on 02/08/2012 3:42:30 AM PST by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners)
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To: sayuncledave
I don't see any way the Pope could intervene and go over the head of her Bishop given her political position. I well remember the anti-Catholic brochures stuffed under windshield wipers all over town when Kennedy ran for President and a good many of them were saying the Pope would intervene in US politics, Kennedy would be subject to what the Pope dictated if he didn't want to be excommunicated, and so on, and this was in a predominately Catholic town. There were even a couple of fights when steelworkers came off shift and found people putting propaganda on cars in the parking lot they shouldn't have even been permitted to enter.

Maybe a new Bishop is the answer but I don't see anything happening unless her Bishop does it on his own. Even the Archbishop and Cardinal probably don't want to insert themselves into what would immediately be a political propaganda tsunami at exactly the wrong time since the Church is already telling the Government it will not comply with Government dictates. Anything that could possibly be considered the Church dictating to an American politician or retaliating against the Government over the ObamaCare dictates would just give the fascists the very sort of thing they're so expert at manipulating.

3 posted on 02/08/2012 3:53:55 AM PST by Rashputin (Obama stark, raving, mad, and even his security people know it.)
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To: sayuncledave

Butbutbutttt.................

She’s such a LIBERALLL..........

AAAAND she’s go so much Munnieeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

(After all, what’s a few million dead babies after all—how much $$$$$$$$ do THEY have??)


4 posted on 02/08/2012 4:02:14 AM PST by Flintlock (Photo ID for ALL VOTING. Let our dead rest in peace.)
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To: sayuncledave

Butbutbutttt.................

She’s such a LIBERALLL..........

AAAAND she’s go so much Munnieeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

(After all, what’s a few million dead babies after all—how much $$$$$$$$ do THEY have??)


5 posted on 02/08/2012 4:02:29 AM PST by Flintlock (Photo ID for ALL VOTING. Let our dead rest in peace.)
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To: sayuncledave

Butbutbutttt.................

She’s such a LIBERALLL..........

AAAAND she’s go so much Munnieeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

(After all, what’s a few million dead babies after all—how much $$$$$$$$ do THEY have??)


6 posted on 02/08/2012 4:03:12 AM PST by Flintlock (Photo ID for ALL VOTING. Let our dead rest in peace.)
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To: sayuncledave

Butbutbutttt.................

She’s such a LIBERALLL..........

AAAAND she’s go so much Munnieeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

(After all, what’s a few million dead babies after all—how much $$$$$$$$ do THEY have??)


7 posted on 02/08/2012 4:03:25 AM PST by Flintlock (Photo ID for ALL VOTING. Let our dead rest in peace.)
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To: NTHockey
Don’t hold your breath awaiting either event. Has her Bishop joined the outcry against DeathCare? No, he has not! Enough said.

Archbishop Niederauer has not been as strong a voice for Catholic principals in the face of the culture of death as we'd like.

However, he has come out strongly in the last few days against the new HHS mandates for all insurance plans providing birth control and abortifacients . He didn't lead the way, but he's calling his flock to action, on this matter, at least.

You can read the Archbishop's letter to all the Catholics in his Archdiocese HERE.

8 posted on 02/08/2012 4:27:52 AM PST by Yossarian ("All the charm of Nixon. All the competency of Carter." - SF Chronicle comment post on Obama)
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To: Flintlock
I wish this would happen, but in what world do we see the US Catholic Church take a stand against the liberal hypocrisy we are confronted with every day. Granted, there have been some push backs to HHS ruling but unless, and until, it is exposed as evil from every pulpit and some major figure is excommunicated nothing will change. The Church will preach a good game and when push comes to shove they will fold-the press has them so shell shocked about the sex abuse scandals they are afraid to claim the moral high ground again.
9 posted on 02/08/2012 4:29:38 AM PST by bt-99 ("Get off my Lawn")
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To: NTHockey

You are absolutely correct.
Pelosi and ALL others who espouse abortion shoule be thrown out of the Catholic Church. Course that won’t happen as the Church is more about MONEY than ethics and what is right.


10 posted on 02/08/2012 4:53:31 AM PST by Joe Boucher ((FUBO) Hey Mitt, F-you too pal)
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To: Joe Boucher

“Course that won’t happen as the Church is more about MONEY than ethics and what is right.”

Respectfully, NO. The Church is more about Jesus and what is right. The portion of the Church here on earth is full of human beings, though, all of whom fight concupiscence every day. That includes the bishops, too. Let us hope and pray for this. The idea, after all, is not so much focused on the punishment, as it is on how she should reflect on this, repent the error of her ways, and try to begin to make amends. The idea is to give her a chance to save her soul, not damn it.

You can say that this should have happened some time ago, and I’d completely agree with you. If it happens now, it’s still not too late. Pray. And I mean that seriously. Pray for Pelosi to have a wake-up call and a change of heart. Pray for the Archbishop and Cardinal, that they and those answering to them do the right thing, to help her realize where she went wrong. Pray.


11 posted on 02/08/2012 5:12:16 AM PST by sayuncledave (et Verbum caro factum est (And the Word was made flesh))
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To: sayuncledave

The most learned and degreed lawyers in the world aren’t referred to as “Dr.”.

Such goofy emphasis of that word (such as placing it first in the headline and first in the comment) cues the reader to be skeptical of what follows. (”Peters is a professor of such and such at institution x” would be more useful”)

It’s a bit like the paulistinians referring to their man with his medical title as if it makes him less of a loon.

(oh yeah, I didn’t address your point)


12 posted on 02/08/2012 5:14:04 AM PST by Notwithstanding (1998 ACU ratings: Newt=100%, Paul=88%, Santorum=84% [the last year all were in Congress])
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To: Notwithstanding

Notwithstanding,
the reasons why he uses the degrees is the fashion reproduced here are thus, from his site:
Dr. Peters received his degree in (American common) law from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1982 and his doctoral degree in Roman Catholic canon law from the Catholic University of America in 1991. Since 2005 he has held the Edmund Cdl. Szoka Chair at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit MI. In 2010 he was named a Referendary of Apostolic Signatura by Pope Benedict XVI. For more information, see Dr. Peters’ website CanonLaw.Info.


13 posted on 02/08/2012 5:23:54 AM PST by sayuncledave (et Verbum caro factum est (And the Word was made flesh))
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To: sayuncledave

Pelosi’s religion is the Democrat party.

Obama is her current Pope.

Capitol Hill her Diocese.

Satan and Money her gods


14 posted on 02/08/2012 5:56:03 AM PST by Venturer
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To: sayuncledave

My criticism was of your use of “Dr.”

As an academic, he rightly places his degrees after his name - and such inclusion of his degrees is not at issue.

As I said, even the people I frequently interact with in academic and social settings (and others whom I know only by reading about them or their work) who have the same legal and canon laws degrees do not use “Dr.” I have a close lay friend who has those same degrees and who works for the Vatican secretary of state as a diplomat at international conferences and who is also a law and canon law professor - this person also does not use “”Dr.”

It’s not done - and doing it distracts from the point you try to make.

Sorry for the tangent, but I mention it for edification and for no other reason.

Law profs and canon law profs don’t go by “Dr.”, no matter how many or how glorious their degrees.


15 posted on 02/08/2012 5:57:01 AM PST by Notwithstanding (1998 ACU ratings: Newt=100%, Paul=88%, Santorum=84% [the last year all were in Congress])
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To: sayuncledave

#11 bump. Great post.


16 posted on 02/08/2012 6:05:57 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: sayuncledave

SUD, his own website’s third person references to himself as “Dr. Peters” is a silly self-aggrandizing vanity.

Other academics with law degrees who have wide international respect as Catholic scholars do not call themselves “Dr.” and don’t invite others to do so because its not done (think Robbie George at Princeton).


17 posted on 02/08/2012 6:09:59 AM PST by Notwithstanding (1998 ACU ratings: Newt=100%, Paul=88%, Santorum=84% [the last year all were in Congress])
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To: sayuncledave

Pray for the change of heart of the devil?
Pray for the Bishops etc to make the right call?
Dave, You gots to be kidding.
These calls should have been made decades ago and YOU know it.
And why wasn’t it? MONEY.
Can’t take a stand and chase away all those donors now can we??? So we’ll pray for them and hope they have a change of heart. Meanwhile baack on the ranch millions of babies are aborted, But hey, keep praying.


18 posted on 02/08/2012 6:15:26 AM PST by Joe Boucher ((FUBO) Hey Mitt, F-you too pal)
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To: sayuncledave

Archbishop N. had a chance to teach a few years ago, and in some ways he was very succesful...

He and Pelosi met, as they publically said they would. If they even talked about abortion as opposed to baking cookies, they agreed to disagree. Pelosi changed nothing about her outlook and public behaviour, and the Archbishop allowed her to ignore him in front of everybody in a very public manner. So the Archbishop taught the folks of SF a very strong lessson: abortion isn’t really too big of a deal when you get right down to it. The bishop might moan a little, but hey they moan all the time. It is simply a matter where you can agree to disagree. Lesson learned.

Freegards


19 posted on 02/08/2012 6:16:05 AM PST by Ransomed
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To: sayuncledave
I don't see any way the Pope could intervene and go over the head of her Bishop given her political position.

The catholic religion has always been about politics, money and domination. Not so much about a personal relationship with the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
20 posted on 02/08/2012 6:23:50 AM PST by crosshairs (Liberalism is to truth, what east is to west.)
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