Prominent Catholic canon lawyer switches sides - now agrees pro-abortion politicians should be denied Communion

Canon lawyers reaching consensus on issue

Prominent Catholic canon lawyer switches sides - now agrees pro-abortion politicians should be denied Communion...

"When a man has stepped over the threshold and allowed himself to fall into mortal sin, he must be purified by trial, but he must also, My children, be purified by the rule of penance and confession.
"What manner of evil is being set now upon mankind that compels him to lose his soul by rejecting the Sacraments, by no longer confessing to his confessor, but coming to receive My Son in sacrifice, while his soul is degraded by sin of mortal nature!" - Our Lady of the Roses, September 7, 1976

LifeSiteNews.com reported on June 2, 2008:

Father Francis G. Morrisey, who for years opposed the denial of Communion to pro-abortion politicians, has recently told the Washington Times his position on the matter has changed. This comes on the heels of numerous other canon lawyers uniting around outspoken clergymen on the issue.

The Washington Times reported that Father Francis G. Morrisey, a highly-respected canon lawyer who taught canon law at St. Paul's University in Ottawa, Canada, has admitted he now advocates refusing Communion to pro-abortion politicians, but maintains an individualistic application of canon law 915: "we have to look at the individual conscience of each politician, and just when a person has overstepped the line." He also asked, "Is the politician ready to look at things and reevaluate certain situations, or has the politician simply closed the door and said mind your own business?"

Father Morrisey additionally reflected on the fact that abortion is not the only life issue to be considered in the matter. "There's a contradiction being opposed to abortion but being totally in favor of the death penalty," said Morrisey. However, the Church's teaching on capital punishment is not anywhere as precise and condemning as that against abortion which results in the death of vastly greater numbers of always completely innocent humans.

Patricia M. Dugan, a Philadelphia lawyer who practices both canon law and civil law, also observed the need for consistency in the application of canon 915, which states that those, "who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."

"We need to be more definitive in how we spread this and how far we allow this practice to go," Miss Dugan said. "Denial of the sacraments is the equivalent of being shunned in the Amish community, or being expelled from your Jewish congregation."

"Eight or ten years ago, when people first started advocating on this, they were voices crying in the wilderness . . . What we're seeing is a consensus emerge; it's more of a discussion now than a debate," added Morrisey, commenting on the fact that numerous canon lawyers, who operate in the Church's internal legal system, are rallying behind those clergymen and laity who are upholding and supporting the proper application of canon 915.

One such advocate is canon lawyer and vicar general of the Diocese of Lincoln in Nebraska, Monsignor Timothy Thorburn, who identifies a possible lack of respect for the Church when a politician, who knowingly disagrees with a serious Church teaching, attempts to receive the Eucharist: "If a person identifies himself as a Catholic, yet holds a position that is directly contrary to the Catholic faith in a very serious matter - the killing of innocent children by means of abortion - it would seem that they should have the respect for the Church to refrain without coercion from receiving Holy Communion."

"That some do not [refrain] seems to indicate almost an intention to insult the church," added Thorburn. An example of this can been seen in April when at least five pro-abortion politicians received Holy Communion during Pope Benedicts U.S. visit.

Furthermore, after Archbishop Naumann privately told pro-abortion politician Governor Sebelius to refrain from receiving Holy Communion, she publicly received the sacrament shortly after.

A common argument that opposes the position of these canon lawyers and of the Catholic Church, suggests a separation of Church and State, saying a politician should represent their constituents in office rather than their personal beliefs. Yet Monsignor Thorburn addressed this concern, asserting, "If they are representing citizens, they should represent all citizens - including the most defenseless, who are children in the womb."

Archbishop of St. Louis Raymond Burke, who is a Member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest court in the Catholic Church, which would oversee any complaint over pro-abortion politicians being denied communion, has over the years been outspoken in favor of applying the canon.

According to lay canon lawyer R. Michael Dunnigan, as reported in the Washington Times, Archbishop Burke has gained tremendous support from other canon lawyers and Bishops surrounding the application of canon 915, especially when Archbishop Burke opposed presidential candidate John Kerry on the issue in 2004.

Father William Woestman, a retired professor of canon law, also agrees and trusts in the bishops' ability to uphold canon 915: "They have the grace of state and they have to make the judgment," Fr. Woestman said. "Each bishop knows what is more beneficial for the welfare of the faithful in his diocese."

For more on the issue see:
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/02/political-state-...;

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Archbishop Burke says ministers are "held, under pain of mortal sin, to deny the sacraments to the unworthy"

Archbishop Burke preaches tough Communion rule:
Turn away abortion-rights backers under pain of mortal sin...

The Columbus Dispatch reported on October 1, 2007:

St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, a veteran of clashes between Catholic bishops and politicians, has attempted for years to enlist fellow bishops to deny Holy Communion to wayward politicians.

Now, the conservative cleric is invoking the church's highest punishment -- mortal sin -- to persuade the lay and ordained Catholics who distribute Communion at Mass to safeguard the sacrament.

Drawing on the works of the late Italian Jesuit scholar Felice Cappello, Burke says those ministers are "held, under pain of mortal sin, to deny the sacraments to the unworthy."

That argument could place Communion ministers on the frontlines of the "wafer wars" as the 2008 presidential race heats up, and as bishops debate a document on "faithful citizenship."

"It is clear that church discipline places an obligation on the minister of Holy Communion to refuse Holy Communion to persons known, by the public, to be in mortal sin," Burke writes in a new journal article.

Burke lays out his case like a legal brief in Periodica de re Canonica, a journal widely read in seminaries and published by Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, an elite school for Catholic clergy.

"No matter how often a bishop or priest repeats the teaching of the church regarding procured abortion, if he stands by and does nothing to discipline a Catholic who publicly supports legislation permitting the gravest of injustices, and, at the same time, presents himself to receive Holy Communion, then his teachings ring hollow," Burke writes.

A former top official in the Signatura, the Vatican's high court, and a noted expert in canon law, Burke previously has kicked off public debates over policing the Communion rail. While bishop of La Crosse, Wis., he ordered clergy to refuse to offer the sacrament to certain pro-abortion-rights politicians.

In 2004, Burke and a handful of other bishops said they would refuse Communion to presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. Burke also said Catholics who voted for pro-abortion-rights politicians, such as Kerry, should refrain from taking the sacrament until they confessed their "mortal sin."

In his new article, the archbishop explicitly criticizes his fellow bishops, the majority of whom voted in 2004 to leave the Communion decision up to individual bishops.

Burke retorts: "The question regarding the objective state of Catholic politicians who knowingly and willingly hold opinions contrary to natural moral law would hardly seem to change from place to place."

The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the influential conservative Catholic journal First Things, called Burke's article "a scholarly tour de force."

"The (archbishop's) concern is not a political concern," Neuhaus said. "The article is about, how does the church preserve the sanctity of the Holy Eucharist?"

But the article is ambiguous in some areas, said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center in Washington.

If Burke is calling on Communion ministers to disobey their bishops and deny Communion to Catholic politicians, it would be "revolutionary" and "encourage anarchy," Reese said.

"Most bishops do not want ministers of Communion playing policeman at the Communion rail," he added. "This is a significant change in focus. Suddenly, you're going to have a few thousand decisionmakers in parishes across the country."

A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of St. Louis said Burke was unavailable to comment on this article.

"The discipline and rules set down by My Son and those He chose to write the Book of life and love must be adhered to. We direct, in the name of the Trinity, that you bishops and cardinals of the world must use your full powers as hierarchy to excommunicate and defrock all who seek to dethrone My Son and destroy the Faith!" - Our Lady of the Roses, August 21, 1974

"The Eternal City of Rome must now take action by those in rule, the cardinals and the bishops, to restore this city to the light. Those who seek to build a church of man must be removed by the power of excommunication given to those who rule as representatives in My houses, churches upon your earth.
     "As it was in the time of Noe, as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrha, so shall it be upon your earth. Man shall be permitted to fall fast into the abyss. Why? Because he has hardened his heart and closed his ears to the truth. He has given himself to all manners of pleasures of the flesh. Sin has become a way of life in your country and in the countries throughout your earth.
     "The children of God, the candles upon earth, My child, shall suffer much persecution from the agents of darkness.
     "Man runs amiss, My child. He scatters the sheep. He seeks peace where there is no peace. He is going farther into darkness.
     "You shall not gather your flocks, My pastors, by compromising your Faith! You shall not gather the flocks for the Eternal Father in Heaven by giving yourselves to the world, by adopting humanism and modernism as your guide.
     "It is a simple lesson of faith that you must give to the children and to all in your care. As pastor you shall stand before Me and shall you say to Me that your teaching has been pure in My sight? Amen I say unto you, I shall cast you from Me and send you into the abyss. As you sow, so shall you reap." - Jesus, December 31, 1975

Directives from Heaven... https://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm

D146 - Honor the Eucharist, Part 1 PDF
D147 - Honor the Eucharist, Part 2 PDF
D186 - Excommunication PDF

Articles...

Archbishop Burke: Bishops must discipline pro-abortion Catholic politicians
https://www.tldm.org/News11/ArchbishopBurkeDisciplineProAbortCatholicPoliticians.htm

Pope Benedict supports excommunication for pro-abortion politicians: "Incompatible with receiving Communion"
https://www.tldm.org/News10/PopeExcommunicateDenyCommunionToProAbortCatholicPoliticians.htm

Pope Benedict XVI says that refusing Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians is a "doctrine of the Church"
https://www.tldm.org/News7/Ratzinger3.htm

Honduran Cardinal: "A politician who publicly supports abortion, he excommunicates himself"
https://www.tldm.org/News10/HonduranCardinalCommunionMustBeDenied.htm

Pope Benedict warns pro-abortion politicians against receiving Communion unworthily
https://www.tldm.org/News10/PopeUnworthyCommunion.htm

Catholics must be free of grave sin to receive Holy Communion
https://www.tldm.org/News6/ReceptionofCommunion.htm

Archbishop Burke: more profoundly sorrowful would be a bishop who failed "to safeguard the worthy reception of Communion"
https://www.tldm.org/news6/Burke2.htm

Sacrilegious Communion and the U.S. bishops
https://www.tldm.org/News6/sacrilege.htm

Austrian Bishop Lugner says mall owner excommunicated for providing space for abortion clinic
https://www.tldm.org/News10/AbortionBishop%20Lugner.htm

Bishop Henry says he would refuse Prime Minister Holy Communion, would consider excommunication
https://www.tldm.org/News7/AbortionBishopHenry.htm

Links...

Bishops and bald eagles, Judie Brown, March 2, 2007
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/brown/070302

Cardinal Ratzinger said, "The minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it." He did not say 'could,' or 'may,' but that he "must," Barbara Kralis, July 6, 2004
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/kralis/040706

Prohibition is worthless without enforcement, Barbara Kralis, June 24, 2004
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/kralis/040624

Is not murder just as evil as lust in the eyes of God? Barbara Kralis, June 8, 2004
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/kralis/040607

Ten questions regarding the denial of the Eucharist, Barbara Kralis, May 24, 2004
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/kralis/040524

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