At The Catholic Thing my good friend Fr. Murray has an exemplary piece about the FACT of public scandal created by Joe Biden and the FACT that the bishops of these USA haven’t given him the pastoral care that their vocations demand.
Can. 915 and can. 916 exist not for kicks but for the sake of souls.
That’s my summary. Fr. Murray expresses it his way.
My emphases and comments.
President Biden and Public Scandal
Should President Joseph Biden be admitted to Holy Communion when he attends Mass? The simple answer is, “No,” owing to his public and unwavering support for legalized abortion. [NB: “public and unwavering”] Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law states: “Those. . .obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.” Abortion, the killing of innocent unborn children, is a grave sin, as is the legalization and promotion of this heinous practice. It’s a criminal violation of an unborn person’s right to life. [What it Biden were publicly promoting, say, harsh child labor or even slavery. Would there be a hew and cry?]
In the 2002 Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life, Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), stated: “John Paul II, continuing the constant teaching of the Church, has reiterated many times that those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a ‘grave and clear obligation to oppose’ any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them.” [emphasis in original]
In the 2004 Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion: General Principles Ratzinger specifically instructed the U.S. bishops that a Catholic politician engages in formal cooperation with the sin of abortion when he consistently campaigns and votes for permissive abortion laws. President Biden obviously promotes the abortion license and has directed that taxpayers’ dollars pay for abortions. He’s an unapologetic and determined promoter of this immoral attack on human life. This is an indisputable fact. Just ask his supporters at Planned Parenthood and NARAL.
Ratzinger told the U.S. bishops that, dealing with such a politician, “his Pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.” He also cited a 2002 Declaration from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts: “When ‘these precautionary measures have not had their effect or in which they were not possible,’ and the person in question, with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, ‘the minster of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it.’” (Emphasis in original)
The Declaration explains: “The decision, properly speaking, is not a sanction or a penalty. Nor is the minister of Holy Communion passing judgment on the person’s subjective guilt, but rather is reacting to the person’s public unworthiness to receive Holy Communion due to an objective situation of sin.” [And it is NOT POLITICAL. What IS political, and cynically so, is for a catholic politician who knows what the Church teaches, defies the Church, and presents herself for Communion, like Pelosi and Biden do. THAT’s political.]
An objective situation of sin is scandalous in this case because such a Catholic politician who consistently promotes abortion by that very conduct actively encourages others to fall into the same sin. [That’s the point of scandal: Your sinful action leads someone else to sin. You become a “stumbling block” someone else trips on and then falls.] In Biden’s case, his well-known campaign promises to keep abortion legal and federally funded is clear evidence of his rejection of Catholic moral teaching. He plainly intended to convince other Catholics to join him in gravely sinful behavior. Such conduct renders him publicly unworthy to receive Holy Communion. [Again, this isn’t a matter of having special insight about the state of Biden’s soul… whatever that might be in his case these days. His OUTWARD ACTIONS that we don’t have to guess about are the point. Outward actions hint at the interior, the soul, but the outward actions are what we have to go by in this matter.]
The facts, and the applicability of canon 915 to those facts, are indisputable. [And yet here were are with another article trying to explain this to the mostly willingly obtuse, such as those who don’t accept that human personhood begins at conception.]
For this reason, the recent Letter of the CDF Prefect, Cardinal Ladaria, to the American bishops is disappointing, even confounding. Remarkably, he never mentions canon 915. He calls for dialogue among the bishops “so that they could agree as a Conference that support of pro-choice legislation is not compatible with Catholic teaching.” But the matter is already beyond question. Any bishop who does not agree “that support of pro-choice legislation is not compatible with Catholic teaching” should change his mind or his job. [And there’s also the Bux Protocol.]
Ladaria then calls for dialogue with Catholic politicians “who adopt a pro-choice position. . .as a means of understanding their positions and their comprehension of Catholic teaching.” Really? After almost 50 years of legalized abortion, the “pro-choice” position needs no further study. Let alone “dialogue.” It is hard to imagine that President Biden and other Catholic advocates of legalized abortion are unaware of what the Church teaches about the sanctity of human life. They just don’t follow it. [Dear Father, what we are dealing with here, as you well know, is sheer cowardice. Plain and simple.]
Ladaria calls for further dialogue among the bishops, with other episcopal conferences, and further consultation with his office. How long would this process take? It’s a needless delay in tackling a major scandal.
The Church has a duty to teach God’s law and to sanction members who egregiously and continuously exempt themselves from obedience to that law – and encourage others to do the same. Depriving them of Holy Communion, we may hope, will jar them into reforming their conduct and their opposition to God’s binding law for all mankind. [That’s the point of censures: to jar… to awaken, and not in the sense of “woke”. Censures have the purpose of slapping a person into consciousness, to get their attention and make them address the problem they’ve gotten themselves into. The Church has the obligation to do this for the sake of that person’s soul, for the sake of protecting other who might be scandalized (lured into sinning in a similar way because of the bad example that was set), and for the sake of defending the doctrine or important discipline the Church is bound to uphold.]
Public [PUBLIC] defiance of God’s prohibition of unjust killing is an attack upon the faith and unity of the Church. The Church has a responsibility before God to lead the flock away from diabolical disobedience and into grace-filled obedience.
A Catholic who falls into immoral behavior, knowing that the Church has condemned it, should be presumed by his pastor to be imperiling his soul and the souls of those he is influencing. He needs to be told that his objectively sinful behavior constitutes a culpable offense for which he needs to seek pardon after repenting. [The pastor who does NOT tell a member of his flock that he is in peril is himself at risk of GOING TO HELL.]
The American bishops should act as a group, and individually in their dioceses, to end the scandal of the continued administration of Our Lord’s Most Holy Body and Blood to the highest public official in our land. To fail to do so amounts to a refusal to uphold the Church’s canon law, to the grave harms of souls. It would be a negligent passivity, a failure to defend the sanctity of the Christ’s greatest gift to his Church.
And it would communicate to all the message that God may be mocked without consequence when an important Catholic public figure decides to support, not God’s law, but rather the gruesome linchpin of the sexual revolution, unfettered legal abortion.
I am reminded of St. Augustine’s mighty sermon about Ezekiel on bad shepherds.
Augustine, in s. 17, spoke about the heavy responsibility of teaching a message that was hard for people to hear and accept. He invoked the stern warning in Ezekiel 3 about negligent pastors, and forged ahead. Finally, Augustine began to explain himself, tell his people why he was teaching and being so tough.
Here is some of s. 17.2.
I am saying this to you and I am saving my soul. If I will have kept silent, I won’t be in great danger, I’ll be rather in utter ruin. But when I will have spoken, and when I will have fulfilled my duty, pay attention then to your own danger. What, after all, do I want? What do I desire? What do I long for? Why am I talking? Why am I sitting here? Why am I even alive, except for this intention: in order that we may live together with Christ. That’s my desire, that’s my honor, that’s my treasured possession, this is my joy, that’s my glory. But if you will not listen to me and if I haven’t been silent, I will save my soul. But I don’t want to be saved without you (Sed nolo esse salvus sine vobis.)
Sometimes, nay rather, more and more often priests and especially bishops are called on to stand up in the public square as well as their pulpits and teach the truth as the Church and nature instruct us.
If they don’t, there are eternal consequences for those priests and bishops, because they have endangered their flocks either by lack of instruction or by false instruction.
Priests and bishops who don’t teach the truth are in danger of eternal damnation.
They have to preach the truth, whether people listen or not, for their own sake if for no other reason.
In the case of catholic politicians who manifestly and consistently promote abortion, even in the face of clear teaching, the Church’s can. 915 must be applied.
click
Loading ...
There’s also the fact that, as one of the few ‘good’ Jesuits left, back in the mid-1980s, Father Ken Baker SJ said in “Homiletic & Pastoral Review,” the Roman Catholic Church in the USA was already in de facto, but not yet, de jure schism from Rome. The cancerous rot has only metastasized.
Saint Padre Pio, pray for us.
I was thinking about the prelates who say that they “do not want to politicize the altar rail” and ignore canon 915, and wondered why they think we should obey them when they ignore clear rules , and instantly concluded, “Because they have the power and we don’t” That’s all it’s about.
Altar rails are pretty scarce on the ground in my desiccated diocese and our Bishop recently instructed that parishioners are to present a “uniform posture” at Mass so that while no one will be prohibited from receiving communion while kneeling, such people ought to think about their offense against “uniform p0sture.”
Back during the Obama years, Biden’s reception of Communion was frequently thrown in my face by non-Catholic friends. Those fun times have returned.
So yes, the inaction of the episcopate to stop Biden’s public and immoral reception of Communion does cause scandal and does cause the Church, Christ’s Mystical Body and Bride, to be “a reproach amongst the nations”.
It appears that Divine Providence, once again, may force the hand of the USCCB through the uptake by the Supreme Court of the Mississippi challenge to R v W.
The USCCB cannot be silent while the case develops. But who will the USCCB, collectively and individually, cleave to over the next year or so? God or Mammon?
One suspects it’s finals time. Prayer, penance and fasting and support true pastors.
FrZ your comments today, or I should say, the essay you present here today is so clear, so rational and so correct that I will no longer pray that you become a monsignor but rather a bishop. Ecce sacerdos magnus.
[Bishop? What did I ever to do you to deserve that?!?]
What about the Fifth Commandment?! Which of those four (4) one-syllable words do those recalcitrant politicians and bishops (and lay persons, for that matter) not understand?
It’s as if they are only aware of some “strange god” who made only “Ten Suggestions” which could be accepted or rejected. (And some of us, at least, know what the real God said in the First Commandment.)
I wonder if Mr Biden has a letter that he has written that will head to the Vatican upon his imminent death. Ted Kennedy had a letter sent and I think that it went to Pope Benedict after Teddy died of a brain tumor. The contents of which were of course not disclosed.
If there is a more clear and cogent piece on this subject than the one by Father Murray, I’d like to read it. He is spot-on and calls out the bishops who are more concerned with pulling of tax status, not “weaponizing the Eucharist”, or just being shills for Biden, Pelosi, et al, who profess to be Catholic but are in fact CINOs, Catholic in Name Only.
We, as laity, must be more vocal to our local ordinaries in this manner. It is no wonder that the Church’s teachings are ignored when they aren’t upheld by the very shepherds called to do so. Why do so many leave the church? One reason may be, and I don’t have data to back it up, that the bishops as a whole don’t stand up when the going gets tough for anything Catholic. They are more concerned with social justice initiatives, cozy dinners with the “swells” as Bill O’Reilly calls the upper crust/political class, or a comfortable lifestyle, and the perks that come with the job. They often won’t then call out a public official who’s soul is in jeopardy because they have power and don’t want to lose it (truth be told, they probably don’t have as much as they think they do). We must demand better of our bishops.
That’s not to say all bishops are like that. We do have a few good ones out there. I wonder how many who are not vocal like them actually believe the same thing they do, that abortion is evil and the politicians who support that heinous act should be sanctioned? Many don’t seem to say much on the topic, perhaps out of timidity or perhaps out of fear of retribution.
And Father Z, you may not want to be a bishop, but at least I know that you’d be a great shepherd if you were one! If only our current shepherds had your zeal for the people of God.
Didn’t the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issue a stern letter of warning to the USCCB last week or so warning the bishops to ”minimize divisions” before proceeding with a ”possible plan” to rebuke Biden and others? What a mess!
In the meantime, Biden is 78 years-old …
Fr Murray could not have been more clear on the situation.
On a positive note, we might all pray for ABC and the other bishops looking to finally enforce 915. His response to Pelosi today stating “[He is] happy to know that Speaker Pelosi said she is pleased with the letter of Cardinal Ladaria” might be his way of positioning himself to publicly enforce the law in SF after the inevitable disagreement at the next USCCB meeting.
A 25-second video clip of Biden today addressing socialists, transcript:
“In the past four years, reproductive health, including the right to choose, has been under relentless and extreme attack. We are deeply committed to making sure everyone has access to care – including reproductive health care – regardless of income, race, zip code, health insurance status, or immigration status.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to codifying Roe v. Wade and appointing judges that respect foundational precedents like Roe.”
“Those who are not vaccinated will end up paying the price!”
https://youtu.be/FJ3N_2r6R-o
Father Z, you are right, a Bishop?
You should be a Cardinal on your way to save our church which you have been doing since 2006.
God bless you and hope in my life time call you El Papa.
Pray for you daily.
We need you now more than ever!
God help us in these trying times.
God Bless you Father Z.
Another point: Cdl Ladaria uses the term”pro-choice”. Getting people to think of the deliberate destruction of a human being in its mother’s womb as a “choice” was one of the biggest and cleverest victories of the pro-abortion movement. It is sadly disheartening to see the Catholic Church capitulate this important point. The Church leadership has been practicing appeasement for so long, have they noticed we’re losing? I know, I know…we win in the end. But how many souls lost? How can young people be taught to believe there is anything wrong with abortion, adultery, promiscuity, divorce, homosexuality, inter alia, when all these are tolerated, excused, even rewarded by some in the Church and its schools?
God bless and strengthen the priests who have the courage to speak the truth without the support of their bishops.
Teomatteo
I remember Ted Kennedy’s letter to Pope Benedict being read at his burial service. You can read excerpts of his letter and Benedict’s reply to him here:
https://www.cathnews.com/cathnews/8025-ted-kennedy-letter-to-pope-read-at-funeral
“He’s an unapologetic and determined promoter of this immoral attack on human life. This is an indisputable fact.”
Unfortunately, I have been seeing it disputed regularly. Personally, he is against it, the argument goes.
As president, however, it is contended that his duty to uphold the law as interpreted by the Supreme Court, does not simply mean he can’t forcibly shut down abortion clinics, but is then construed to mean he has to sign executive orders providing funding to organizations that perform abortions, and express the opinion that it is a right.
It would have be reasonable, in my opinion, for him to concretely uphold Catholic teaching about what the law should be, while admitting what the office of president actually permits him to do. Justice Barrett’s commentaries on abortion and the death penalty have walked this line. President Biden could learn a lot from her.
To say that holding public officials accountable for their public positions and actions when the same are inconsistent with perennial Church teaching is “politicization” is to get it backwards. Abortion is not a matter of politics for Catholics. It’s objectively evil. When you allow that a public official can advocate for and enact objectively evil policies while remaining a Catholic-in-good-standing, you’re politicizing an issue that shouldn’t be political at all. You’re making subjective what should be objective. And you’re undermining the unity and coherence of the Church and its teaching.
Joe Biden and members of his administration actively claim for him the mantle of “devout Catholic,” but no sanction is given. What are the faithful to think? That enacting policies to provide U.S. government funding of abortions abroad is OK? Just one among many valid policy choices? That pledging to “enshrine Roe v. Wade in law” does not constitute participation in evil?
To say that holding public officials accountable for their public positions and actions when the same are inconsistent with perennial Church teaching is “politicization” is to get it backwards. Abortion is not a matter of politics for Catholics. It’s objectively evil. When you allow that a public official can advocate for and enact objectively evil policies while remaining a Catholic-in-good-standing, you’re politicizing an issue that shouldn’t be political at all. You’re making subjective what should be objective. And you’re undermining the unity and coherence of the Church and its teaching.
Joe Biden and members of his administration actively claim for him the mantle of “devout Catholic,” but no sanction is given. What are the faithful to think? That enacting policies to provide U.S. government funding of abortions abroad is OK? Just one among many valid policy choices? That pledging to “enshrine Roe v. Wade in law” does not constitute participation in evil?
Biden both promotes abortion and promotes that he is a Catholic. Ow many times on the campaign trail did he mention the rosary he always carries. How many times did Harris mention that he was a “practicing Catholic.” On that campaign trail Biden , Pelosi and AOC all mentioned their Catholicism. They are teaching that their political platform is “the Catholic platform.” I read in the newspaper today that John Kerry is at this moment meeting with Pope Francis to address “Climate Change.” Heretical?
jhayes says
I remember Ted Kennedy’s letter to Pope Benedict being read at his burial service. You can read excerpts of his letter and Benedict’s reply to him
The ultimate act of phony posturing–reading someone’s ghost written letter at his funeral.
Actually, the bishops and priests giving Communion to pro-abortion politicians are the ones politicizing the Eucharist.
If the bishops are to ever again have any credibility, they need to act boldly and correctly then [belatedly] apologize to the faithful for being so afraid of confrontation lo these many decades.
The Vatican wants to play out the clock.
Dialogue it to death, by then Sleepy Joe will be out of the White House.
Father Z., Father Murray and a host our good Shepherds make clear the excruciating frustration expressed by so many of their flock, that our faith’s foundations are being battered not only from without, but even worse (it seems) from within. One might therefore be forgiven for coming to the unfortunate conclusion at times that The Church has its own Palude, populated by men without chests who are adept at disseminating pithy soundbites which, eschewing proactive concerted measures in response to the true crises at hand, in the end are (if I might cite Macbeth) “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.
Imagine a politician said he or she was “personally opposed” to racial segregation, slavery, human trafficking, or cannibalism, but he said he supports the right of others to partake in such activities. Nobody would take such a ridiculous statement seriously. So why is the same logic so often condoned when it comes to abortion or euthanasia?
Pingback: Wherein the Bishop of Black Duck gives pastoral care to a pro-abortion ‘c’atholic politician | Fr. Z's Blog
Pingback: VVEDNESDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit
Johann: Indeed. It was the antebellum South that had the “pro-choice” position on slavery.
The Kennedy letter has appeared several times in slightly different form but with similar content. I am struck that a personally professed devout Catholic like Kennedy (or Biden?) can so blatantly argue that supporting the requisite numbers of civic virtues can offset support of direct murder. More so, I am appalled that those clergy that fail to correct the misperceptions of evil are not called to task. Without trying to be dramatic, I can not see how a defense of ones life at its end can rely on a protestation of “they didn’t say I couldn’t”. A reading of the visions at Fatima and of Sr. Faustina of hell should be enough to disabuse anyone of the notion that they can escape personal responsibility for their own actions or what they failed to do in their duties to others.
Pingback: PopeWatch: Bishop of Black Duck – The American Catholic