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Today in 2007: Pope Benedict XVI: Pro-Abortion Pols Excommunicated, No Communion
Life News.com ^ | May 9, 2007 | Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor

Posted on 05/09/2013 9:44:58 AM PDT by onyx

The Vatican (LifeNews.com)

The Catholic Church has made it clear in the past that it strongly opposes abortion and wants pro-abortion politicians to rethink their views or consider refraining from taking communion. Pope Benedict XVI stepped up those warnings Wednesday saying pro-abortion politicians have excommunicated themselves.

He also said he elected officials who support abortion would be prevented from receiving communion.

The pontiff was asked about the topics in reference to a threat from the Catholic bishops in Mexico to excommunicate members of the Mexico City legislative assembly who recently voted to legalize abortion in the nation’s capital.

“Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon (church) law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ,” he said.

"They (Mexican Church leaders) did nothing new, surprising or arbitrary. They simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the Church… which expresses our appreciation for life and that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment (of life)," he added.

The pope talked about church doctrine known as "automatic excommunication” where someone who does something which the church considers a grave sin inflicts on themselves.

The Pope said the legislators who voted for abortion in Mexico City have “doubts about the value of life and the beauty of life and even a doubt about the future." “Selfishness and fear are at the root of (pro-abortion) legislation,” he said.

“We in the Church have a great struggle to defend life…life is a gift not a threat," the Catholic leader said. “The Church says life is beautiful, it is not something to doubt but it is a gift even when it is lived in difficult circumstances. It is always a gift."


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: abortion; benedictxvi; politicians

1 posted on 05/09/2013 9:44:58 AM PDT by onyx
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To: onyx

If Catholics pay attention to this, things might change. Maybe not.


2 posted on 05/09/2013 9:53:06 AM PDT by chesty_puller (Viet Nam 1970-71 He who shed blood with me shall forever be my brother. Shak.)
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To: chesty_puller

They didn’t then. They’re even more defiant now.

I continue to pray Pope Francis will publicly issue the same edict to the American bishops.


3 posted on 05/09/2013 9:56:15 AM PDT by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: chesty_puller

Start with excommunicating Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Andrew Cuomo!


4 posted on 05/09/2013 10:04:45 AM PDT by rochester_veteran ( http://RochesterConservative.com/forums)
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To: All
[2007:] The Catholic Church has made it clear in the past that it strongly opposes abortion and wants pro-abortion politicians to rethink their views or consider refraining from taking communion. Pope Benedict XVI stepped up those warnings Wednesday saying pro-abortion politicians have excommunicated themselves. He also said [t]he elected officials who support abortion would be prevented from receiving communion.

Somebody didn't get the memo:

[2008:] Sadly, Archbishop Chaput has indicated that it is the responsibility of the communicant to stay away from the Communion Rail....
. -- from the thread Will Denver Catholic Archbishop finally enforce Canon 915?
[2009:] "...there's a question about whether this canon'' – the relevant church law – "was ever intended to be used'' to bring politicians to heel. He thinks not. "I stand with the great majority of American bishops and bishops around the world in saying this canon was never intended to be used this way.'' -- from the thread [Archbishop] Wuerl: Why I Won't Deny Pelosi Communion
[2010:] [Cardinal Timothy Dolan] also does not outright deny the sacrament to dissenting Catholic lawmakers, but he is seen as an outspoken defender of church orthodoxy in a style favored by many theological conservatives.
-- from the thread US bishops elect NYC archbishop as head in upset (Catholic bloggers blamed)
[2011:] Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard says it is "unfair and imprudent" to conclude that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his girlfriend, Sandra Lee, shouldn't receive Communion simply because they're living together. -- from the thread Bishop: None of your business (Hubbard rejects Catholic expert's criticism of Gov. Cuomo)
[2013:] Vice President Joseph R. Biden and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi both received communion during the Mass to celebrate the installation of Pope Francis in spite of their pro-choice position on abortion. The vice president’s office confirmed Tuesday night that both he and Mrs. Pelosi took communion during the Mass at St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
-- from the thread Despite abortion views, Biden, Pelosi receive communion in Vatican Mass

5 posted on 05/09/2013 10:04:47 AM PDT by Alex Murphy ("If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all" - Isaiah 7:9)
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To: Alex Murphy

Looks like the Almighty has given Biden, Pelosi, Kerry, et al the same free will noose that He’s given you. You’ve all willingly hung it around your necks waiting until the chair unexpectedly gets kicked out from beneath you.


6 posted on 05/09/2013 10:11:49 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro can't pass E-verify)
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To: A.A. Cunningham

As the most prominent Catholics in America, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi just received communion at the Vatican.

Since the democrat party represents American Catholics, it is natural that they would be recognized.


7 posted on 05/09/2013 11:29:40 AM PDT by ansel12 (Sodom and Gomorrah, flush with libertarians and liberals, short on social conservatives.)
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To: onyx

Needs to be rephrased as the BISHOP will be excommunicated for allowing pro-abort politicians to receive Communion in his Diocese.


8 posted on 05/09/2013 11:36:10 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: onyx

And nothing happened to change things under Pope Benedict. This makes me less and less confident that the current Pope will actually do anything to stop this from happening at all.


9 posted on 05/09/2013 5:42:30 PM PDT by piusv
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To: onyx
The one thing we can all agree on, brothers and sisters, is that the Catholic Church (in its public leaders) offends God and Man by not being Catholic enough.
10 posted on 05/09/2013 7:04:51 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (asdfgh)
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To: ansel12

The only Catholics that vote democrat are the ones that claim to be Catholic but snub their nose at Church teachings and attend Mass maybe once a year. They damn sure don’t represent the majority of WHITE mass attending American Catholics, who voted for the republican candidate. The most consistent liberal voting block in the United States are black PROTESTANTS, who voted 95% for the fake and fraud mullato muslim in the White House. And these hypocrites fill their church pews up each and every weekend. Also welfare-receiving illegals that can barely speak English, but identify themselves as “Catholic” are counted as Catholic voters so the liberal media can spout off about how Obama get the “majority” of Catholic votes.


11 posted on 05/09/2013 9:39:48 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
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To: NKP_Vet

Yep blacks of all denominations and or religions or lack of, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, atheist, Jewish, seem to vote democrat, Catholics and atheists and homosexuals in general, also vote majority democrat.

I didn’t realize that the racism against non-white Catholics was so strong among white Catholics, but as whites leave the denomination and are replaced by non-whites, racism is starting to be blurted out more frequently by the white purists.


12 posted on 05/09/2013 9:51:15 PM PDT by ansel12 (Sodom and Gomorrah, flush with libertarians and liberals, short on social conservatives.)
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To: ansel12

Your anti-Catholic bigotry is getting tiresome. Like I have said, and like you have read in survey after survey, Catholics vote EXACTLY like protestants. Excluding blacks for voting mainly on skin color (which is an absolute fact), Church attending Catholics and Church attending protestants as a majority vote for republicans. The hypocrites vote democrat and it makes no difference whatsover what faith they proclaim to be. By the way these people are not Christians, for they have thrown their faith under the bus to worship at the altar of their lord and savior Obama.


13 posted on 05/10/2013 7:08:31 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
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To: NKP_Vet

No, because it doesn’t exist, what is tiresome is white supremacy showing up among Catholics, and bizarre claims that Catholics vote exactly like Protestants, which is total nonsense.

Members of the Catholic denomination, a single church, vote majority democrat, the second largest denomination in America, the Southern Baptist, votes about 80% plus, anti-democrat.

When one just lumps everyone together who is protestant like blacks, hard left churches with gay marriage, female priests, Southern Baptists and conservative denominations, collectively, they still vote majority republican.

The Catholic denomination is a pro-abortion democrat voting church denomination.

Pro-lifers need to ask themselves, “how can we get the Catholics to vote like Evangelical Protestant Christians”? They are both roughly equal in size of the electorate, but one group votes for death, one for life and marriage.

With millions of Catholics flooding into America, pro-lifers need to find a solution or the future will be democrat forever.


14 posted on 05/10/2013 7:35:06 AM PDT by ansel12 (Sodom and Gomorrah, flush with libertarians and liberals, short on social conservatives.)
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To: ansel12

Without Catholics there would be no pro-life movement. And you can have your pro-abortion, pro-homo liberal protestant voters. So you like fake and fraud RINO voters. The Catholic Church is no more a block of voters that vote alike anymore than your protestant liberal protestants are. And Romney got more Catholic voters than he did Southern baptist voters. You can’t compare apples to oranges. Catholics are the single biggest Christian demonination in the country, not Southern Baptist. And there are no such animal in the Catholic faith as “hard left churches with gay marriage, female priests, etc”. The reason? The Catholic Church does not bend with the times and cave in to the forces of darkness. The word of God does not change. This is something protestant faiths do not seem to understand. This anything goes mentality of protestants faiths has all but killed Christianity in the United States.


15 posted on 05/10/2013 8:01:26 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
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To: NKP_Vet

There is no question about how the members of the Catholic denomination vote, pro-abortion democrat.

It is the hope of the pro-abortion left to import as many Catholic voters as they can, to overcome the Protestant pro-life voting and their natural conservatism.


16 posted on 05/10/2013 8:18:02 AM PDT by ansel12 (Sodom and Gomorrah, flush with libertarians and liberals, short on social conservatives.)
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

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