LifeSite posts verbatim interview with Bp. Sorondo of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. It isn’t pretty.

Diane Montagna posted something at LifeSite that serves a good purpose.

She sat down with the controversial head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (you know, the crowd that has Jeffrey Sachs on speed-dial) who are musing about “transhumanism”, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo. You’ll remember him as the guy who said that Catholic social teaching is being best implemented in China.

While I probably would have gotten into it with about China and transhumanism, Montagna asked Sorondo about the scandalous reception of Holy Communion to the openly pro-abortion President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández and his much younger concubine Fabiola Yáñez. Sorondo called Montagna a “fanatic” for pressing him on it.

Perfect.

She posted a transcript of their conversation.

Here’s part of it.

DM: How can you give them Communion? It’s Jesus. It’s Jesus. They’re living openly in adultery and he supports abortion.

BS: Sorry, sorry, do you know the canon law? Do you know the canon law? We need to follow canon law, not the opinion of some bishops. And the canon law says that you cannot not give – you are obliged to give Communion if somebody asks you for Communion. Only in the case that he is excommunicated. The President is not excommunicated, so I can give Communion if he asks me for Communion.

[…]

BS: And I didn’t know if he wanted to go to Communion. He asked me for Communion, and I didn’t have reason to say no.

DM: Not even if he’s pro-abortion and wants to pass pro-abortion legislation.

BS: No, it’s not a reason to say no for Communion according to canon law.

DM: Do you know which canon it is?

BS: Yes, I can give the canons. There are three canons. The first canon says we are obliged to give Communion to persons who ask for Communion. There is only one exception and the exception is when he is excommunicated. Of course, there are some cardinals like Cardinal Burke, but it is the opinion of the Cardinal.  [Who is it, exactly, who doesn’t know canon law?]

[…]

DM: But it would be an opportunity. This was a public scandal. The fact that a pro-abortion president who’s sleeping with his mistress…

BS: So you say…

DM: He’s living with his mistress!

BS: I don’t know. I don’t know.

DM: Everybody knows. She lives with him. She acts like the first lady.

BS: I don’t know.

DM: How can you not know? You’re Argentinian.

[…]

DM: Well, you don’t have to agree with everything President Trump does. But he’s saving babies. He’s saving babies.

BS: Please, lady, understand the Catholic ideas and do not be fanatic, do not be fanatic.

DM: Okay…

BS: If you continue to speak with me, do not be fanatic. Try to use reason.

I love that last part. Condescending much?

The whole thing, his snarky comments about Americans and Pres. Trump, reminds me of the attitude that Card. Kasper manifested about African bishops.    Remember how Kasper tried to wiggle out of it?  And that’s when Ed Pentin was able to report on his actual words.

Anyway, that’s how it’s done.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in ¡Hagan lío!, "How To..." - Practical Notes, 1983 CIC can. 915, Canon Law and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

31 Comments

  1. Mark says:

    i actually found this exchange the most telling. These guys have no clue, I’m not a trained theologian, but then neither is my 10 year old and even he could see what’s wrong with their reasoning.

    “ Yes,” Bishop Sorondo retorted, “but St. Paul is also very clear and said ‘my only judge is my conscience.’”

    “No, he didn’t. He said that the Lord is my judge,” (cf. 1 Cor. 4:4), I responded. To this, Sorondo replied: “The Lord is my judge, but the Lord is in my conscience.”

    “But if you don’t have a well formed conscience, where divine grace is actually active, then your conscience is probably lying to you,” I said. “It’s the darkness of the intellect.”

    Bishop Sorondo stood up, claimed this was only my “interpretation,” and said he no longer wished to speak.”

  2. LT Brass Bancroft says:

    Bishop Sorondo ought to go to China himself and offer a public Mass. I would love to see what happens.

  3. Mark says:

    2 Timothy 4:3-4

    3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings,
    4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.

  4. SebastianHvD says:

    Quaeritur: Is there a suspensio a divinis for being dumb?

  5. Hidden One says:

    “We need to follow canon law, not the opinion of some bishops.” – Bp. Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo

    Ah, we agree!

    Now if only Ed Peters had been there.

  6. Traductora says:

    What a complete jerk. Between that (with his shot at Burke) and his beloved Jeffrey Sachs’ anti-American rant, apparently to the delight of Bergoglio, I don’t see why the US should be giving a dime to the Vatican.

  7. Spinmamma says:

    When I read this interview at LifeSite I was stunned. It is one of the most scandalous and shocking (and I dare say open) revelations of the arrogance, ignorance, and condescending attitudes of the higher ups in the Vatican I have ever seen. No wonder Pope Francis is so big on clericalism as a big cause of problems in the church. It is part of the fabric of the environment with which he surrounds himself Yet this one is one of his most trusted and powerful allies.

  8. Gaetano says:

    Diane Montagna’s statement on conscience is not be if the clearest I’ve seen:

    “[I]f you don’t have a well formed conscience, where divine grace is actually active, then your conscience is probably lying to you. It’s the darkness of the intellect.”

  9. Fallibilissimo says:

    @Hidden One, Imma gonna get me a big bag of popcorn and enjoy reading Dr Ed Peters -canonist extraordinaire- for his erudite take on this one;)

  10. Semper Gumby says:

    Well done to Diane Montagna. LT Brass Bancroft: Good point. Mark: Bullseye with 2 Timothy 4.

    BS said: “Please, lady, understand the Catholic ideas and do not be fanatic, do not be fanatic.”

    So, that’s a “No” by BS for Walking Together and Accompaniment.

    Quite a few bishops these days are entranced by the Kabuki dance of the Left’s Nomenklatura. To keep them seated and behaved throughout an interview it seems a reporter must allow these folks to: bash the U.S. and Pres. Trump, equate “global warming” with abortion (nice try recently by “Purge” McElroy), equate the Catholic faith with Socialism, and take swipes at faithful clergy and laity.

    BS said: “If you continue to speak with me, do not be fanatic. Try to use reason.”

    We’re Catholic. Faith and Reason. Christus Vincit.

  11. The Astronomer says:

    Sorondo’s attitude is typical of this pontificate:

    WE are in charge….how dare you challenge me with inconvenient TRUTH in public?!?!?!

    Away with you…fanatic.”

  12. Kathleen10 says:

    So he was the one in that picture recently with Jeffrey Sachs, grinning like a chimp. Can I just say these men with their constant grinning and laughing are totally freaky? I mean, I love humor and really believe we as Catholics need to laugh a lot more because, well, life, but to see these men who are at the helm of this Titanic that is just charging toward the rocks…and they’re yukking it up all the time, it’s weird, it’s beyond weird. Are they doing this because Bergoglio insists on everybody being “joy faced”? They don’t look joyful they look wildly insincere and it’s become annoying as heck.
    These men can’t stomach Catholicism or faithful Catholics. They really hate us. It is not fanaticism to be merely Catholic. This is an outrage, and not the fake kind when people just say something is an outrage, this really is. How God will ever correct this situation, I can’t imagine, but He can.

  13. majuscule says:

    “DM: How can you not know? You’re Argentinian.”

    Way to go Diane!

  14. GypsyMom says:

    It surely was no coincidence that Bishop Sorondo was designated “BS.”

  15. Amerikaner says:

    To these people the saints were fanatics too.

  16. BS alright! When I saw those two letters I thought, “How fitting!” And these are who we are supposed to look to? Sorry, but not me. I’ll stick with Strickland, Burke, Vigano, Wall, and Olmsted to list a few good men. Like my friend’s husband said, “If I were God I would have flushed this toilet a long time ago.” Can we call in the Tidy Bowl Man?

  17. Hidden One says:

    I really hope it was. We must respect the episcopal office.

  18. TRW says:

    To this, Sorondo replied: “The Lord is my judge, but the Lord is in my conscience.”

    That statement really gets to the heart of the problem. Someone could offer a whole course expounding upon all of the erroneous suppositions that need to be in place in order for that statement to be deemed credible.

  19. TRW says:

    To this, Sorondo replied: “The Lord is my judge, but the Lord is in my conscience.”

    That statement really gets to the heart of the problem. Someone could offer a whole course expounding upon all of the erroneous suppositions that need to be in place in order for that statement to be deemed credible.

  20. TRW says:

    To this, Sorondo replied: “The Lord is my judge, but the Lord is in my conscience.”

    That statement really gets to the heart of the problem. Someone could offer a whole course expounding upon all of the erroneous suppositions that need to be in place in order for that statement to be deemed credible.

  21. TRW says:

    I guess I’ve officially turned into that old guy who sends 3 copies of the same comment! Sheesh.

  22. HvonBlumenthal says:

    And then there is this double standard, where he is unable to say if an Argentinian President is in a state of mortal sin but can confidently attribute self-interested motives to the US President’s support for life:
    BS: I believe in the conscience of the people. If the people ask me for Communion; I don’t know if he is really in sin, or not. I don’t have the possibility to say.
    ……
    DM (Trump) was the first U.S. president ever to go to the March for Life with thousands and thousands of young people.
    BS: Yeah, to have the votes of the Catholics. To have the votes of the Catholics.

  23. OrangeBlossom says:

    Diane asked BS about reception if the Holy Eucharist. Diane mentions Jesus and Eucharist whereas BS only says Communion. ?

  24. JustaSinner says:

    Another of Lucifer’s Bishops in Waiting? Murdering babies isn’t bad, it’s just not not good?

  25. Benedict Joseph says:

    Quintessential post-conciliar Katholicism.
    Have any of us not endured this duplicitous condescension innumerable times from the tongue of a sanctimonious imperial superiority complex in a collar? It all began for me as a sophomore in high school in 1966 when the crystal clear catechesis of my past was termed “pious nonsense” by a wet behind the ears newly ordained “scholar.”
    The conversation here reads like an interrogation scene out of mob film.
    “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
    I know. We all know.
    And he knows.

  26. KateD says:

    Kudos to Diane for keeping it to a giggle! No way I could have game faced that one!
    Gypsy Mom: Yes! Total BS!
    TRW: I thought you were just in complete agreement with yourself.
    Fallibilisimo: Put a paper sack on the bishop and, sit back to watch him try to think his way out of it. I’ll bring the popcorn!

    Bishop Sánchez Sorondo, the Science Guy.

    What are you a fan of, bishop, if not the Faith and Our Lord Jesus Christ?

    “And if you be unwilling to serve the Lord, chose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell;

    But as for me and my house, we shall [FANATICALLY!] serve the Lord! So as not to be spit out for being luke warm.

  27. sggreener says:

    Patriotism (Canon Law) is the last refuge of scoundrels???

    Look, what exactly are the three pieces of Canon Law that he quoted. I’ve read everything here and I am non the wiser.

  28. sggreener says:

    I haven’t read all of the interview, but it seems to me that, from what I’ve read here, the interviewer was illprepared

    [So you are defending Sorondo. Absurd. Either that or you read the wrong interview. Speaking of ill-prepared, perhaps you ought to read the whole thing? And then comment?]

  29. Johann says:

    Correct me if I am wrong, but Cardinal Burke IS a Canon Lawyer so he will know what he is talking about when applying Canon 915. Sorondo clearly does not.

    The only time Sorondo would refuse communion is for a politician who denies Global Warming is man made, or who has destroyed a Pachamama.

  30. sggreener says:

    Fr, I’m shocked, truly shocked that you think my comments defend Sorondo. That I thought she was I’ll prepared does not mean I support Sorondo.

    My view, from your summary, was that when Sorondo made a point, or attacked her, she seemed to have no answer.

    For example we are still no wiser what Canons Sorondo referred to. She didn’t hold his feet to the fire.

    And this exchange is one example of why I felt she was underprepared:

    BS: Please, lady, understand the Catholic ideas and do not be fanatic, do not be fanatic.

    DM: Okay…

  31. roma247 says:

    @sggreener: keep in mind that in this transcript, we are missing things like facial expressions, tone of voice, etc. I know Diane and I’m certain that her response of “Okay…” at that point was not an instance of being unprepared, or of accepting the preposterous things Sorondo was saying.

    I’ve had to face down folks like Sorondo very, very little, and let’s just say I don’t cherish those moments, nor can I hold up my head and say that I fought them like a tiger. So…having faced this sort of withering disdain myself and instinctively shrunk from it, I am very, very impressed that Diane held her own against him as well as she did…

    I also think she could have pushed the point about the canons, but really, in reading the transcript, this omission in his assertions speaks just as loudly as it would have, had she pressed him.

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