Cape & Islands News

Now even the Pope is against Kennedy and Kerry

Pope's visit sparks showdown? Urge US Bishops to deny Eucharist
Ads name both Massachusetts Senators as pro-abortion Catholics
Ask Pope to "protect the body of Christ from their bloodstained hands"

by Dick Farley, cc2day Washington Bureau

(Washington, DC -- April 15, 2008) -- When Pope Benedict XVI touches down in his Alitalia jet, "Shepherd One," at Andrews Air Force Base in a couple of hours, one of the more dramatic conflicts between the American church and the Vatican will unfold more publicly than usual.

Anti-abortion activists are running ads in several major publications "naming names" of pro-choice politicians and asking the Pope to compel enforcement of church law by denying the sacrament of Holy Eucharist to big-name political leaders who identify their faiths as Roman Catholic. The ads began running yesterday in print editions of The Washington Times and in The Politico.

Patrick Kennedy, his uncle, and Schwarzenegger accused

Among those named, complete with photos, are Massachussetts senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), former Presidential candidates, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), as well as California's Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The American Life League (ALL) is hoping His Holiness will refuse to serve Communion to these and other pro-choice politicians if they present themselves for the sacrament.

ALL also hopes Benedict XVI will take senior American churchmen to the proverbial papal "woodshed" over what some anti-abortion Catholics consider blatant disregard of church canon law that says advocates of abortions -- including those who legalize and enable them -- by their actions have "excommunicated themselves," an ALL spokesman told Cape Cod Today.

They have "excommunicated themselves"

"Being pro-abortion, and this includes political figures who advocate or legalize abortions, is a violation of 'Canon 915,' which states specifically that those who 'obstinately persist in grave sin are not to be admitted to communion'," said Michael Hichborn of ALL, adding that in past statements, Pope Benedict XVI has reaffirmed that politicians who support abortion-on-demand must be denied the sacrament of Holy Eucharist.

In press reports nearly a year ago covering his trip to Brazil, Benedict XVI voiced support for Mexican bishops who had warned politicians who supported legalizing abortion in that country that they would face excommunication. The Pope was quoted by wire services as criticizing pro-abortion politicians for having "doubts about the value of life and the beauty of life and even a doubt about the future," and that the Pope said, "Selfishness and fear are at the root of (pro-abortion) legislation."

Washington Bishop is also target of anti-abortion group

With this Pope making his first trip to the US since his 2005 enthronement, ALL and other conservative and anti-abortion Roman Catholic organizations want Benedict XVI to confront more liberal American church leaders, like his host in Washington, Archbishop Donald Wuerl.

While the Washington Archdiocese communications office told CapeCodToday.com the archbishop had, to their knowledge, issued no immediate response to ALL's ad, in past situations Wuerl has refused to use his office to enforce Canon 915 as it pertains to pro-abortion politicians who are also Roman Catholics.

Most notably, in Jan. 2007, Archbishop Wuerl expressly said he would not instruct his priests and deacons to refuse House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if she presented herself for Communion, provoking critics of Wuerl to accuse him of "not doing his job," according to published reports.

Wuerl's stance against denying pro-choice political figures Communion is consistent with that of his predecessor as Archbishop of Washington, the now-retired Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, who according to wire reports cited in LifeSiteNews.com once chaired a committee looking into how pro-choice politicians who identify as Roman Catholics should be treated.

McCarrick tangled personally with Pope Benedict XVI on this issue before, when His Holiness was still Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and known to Vatican-watchers as "The Enforcer" for the late Pope John-Paul II. Ratzinger reportedly told McCarrick that once pro-choice Catholic politicians had been warned, they "must" be denied Communion.

A bit of a scandal ensued when McCarrick publicly refused to follow Ratzinger's guidance on the matter and allegedly concealed that communication from some of the other bishops on the committee before it was reportedly leaked to media in Rome and later confirmed as authentic by the Vatican.

Links:

• Life Site News story
  
• Post-Gazette story
• American Life League
  

Richard "Dick" Farley is an award winning investigative reporter and former Cousteau Society policy staffer who lives in surburban Washington DC. He writes about things which happen inside The Beltway which should be of vital interest to Cape Codders.