Heads up Pelosi, Dodd, Kennedy, Kerry, Kucinich, et al.
At a press conference at the fall meeting of the USCCB held in Baltimore last week, CNSNews.com asked Cardinal George if the language in the Catholic Catechism that says “formal cooperation” in abortion incurs the penalty of excommunication would apply to a Catholic member of Congress voting for FOCA.
“The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense and the church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life,” CNSNews.com asked.
“If openly Catholic politicians vote for this Freedom of Choice Act, which would pretty much allow unfettered access to abortion in the United States, would it be an automatic grounds for excommunication? But even if it’s not automatic … could you just explain the process of the excommunication?” CNSNews.com added.
“The excommunication is automatic if that act is in fact formal cooperation, and that is precisely what would have to be discussed once you would see the terms of the act itself,” responded George.
Of course the Catholic Church is always exceedingly careful in all its deliberations:
“The categories in moral theology about cooperating in evil, which make you complicit in the evil even though you don’t do it yourself, are material cooperation, which is usually remote and therefore doesn’t involve you in the moral action except in a very auxiliary and minor way, and formal cooperation, which would involve you even though you are not doing it, in the way that makes you culpable,” said George.
“So we would have to take a look at each case, and at each law, to determine whether or not the cooperation is material or formal. We’ve never done that,” he added.
I think it’s time to start.
Fr. Frank Pavone of the Priests for Life told CNSNews.com: “Any legislator who would vote for such an extreme piece of pro-abortion legislation [FOCA], and any executive who would sign it or judge who would uphold it, or even a citizen who would lobby in any way in favor of it, would be committing a serious sin, objectively speaking. It is cooperation with evil in a totally unjustified way.”
See Deal Hudson for more arguments in favor of excommunication.
H/T: American Papist
Nice Deb 
If they vote for FOCA they should indeed be excommunicated. This is about the most fundamental right we have and the most precious gift we all have been given by God: life. Everything else we can bicker about or agree to disagree, but not on life.
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About time the Church grew a pair and enforced the basic tenets of its doctrine.
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Sorry for the lack of faith, but, I don’t expect the church to stand up for it’s position by enforcing it’s laws. They’re far too comfortable allowing their members to do what ever the hell they want out of fear of losing one. It all sounds good, but if history holds true, it is all talk.
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If this had been carried out by order of the Bishops and the Diocesan priests, a year or two ago when it was first promulgated, we might not be talking about this now.
It’s well past time to excommunicate the CINO* devils!
* Catholic In Name Only
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Sent this last week to the Diocese of Fort Worth.
______________________________________________
You are undoubtedly familiar with the statements of Cardinal Stafford at Catholic University on Obama and the Cardinal’s dour forecast for our country resulting from BO’s election. http://www.cuatower.com/2008/11/14/cardinal-at-cua-obama-is-‘aggressive-disruptive-and-apocalyptic’/ Frankly, I agree with everything the Cardinal said – and I’m still reeling from the outcome of November 4.
Bishop Vann wrote an explicit, no-holds-barred letter on the ramifications of supporting any candidate who espouses abortion. The problem was it failed to reach its intended audience. Sure, it was disseminated, but not discussed, and certainly not emphasized with an understandable explanation of the grave consequences that choosing Obama would entail.
T hanks to the mainstream media’s “blackout” coverage of all things negative vis a vis Obama, the typical, uninformed voter went to the polls hyped up on the kool-aid of electing a young, black man who vacuously bandied words like “change” and “hope,” and these voters wanted to play a role in making an indelible imprint on U.S. history. Forget what serious students of history like my husband and I know, these people gle efully shouted, “Give us Barabbas!”
Now, set aside all the other reasons thinking Americans did NOT vote for Obama, and focus on the subject of Bishop Van’s letter. Abortion. Do you believe for a minute that the millions of Catholics who voted for Obama realized that he has promised to immediately sign the Freedom of Choice Act, resurrecting the partial-birth abortion procedure? Since you undoubtedly know what comprises that procedure, I will spare you any further graphics. Do you think they know that Obama wants tax dollars to not only underwrite U.S. abortions for anyone in need, regardless of age, but to fund the UN programs for abortions throughout the world, including the coercive procedures done on Chinese women in order to protect their “one child rule”? I don’t. I think these same people are woefully ignorant,=2 0and I have to place much of the blame for Obama’s election at the feet of the Church hierarchy, because they didn’t follow through. As far as separation of church and state is concerned, I don’t buy that old saw. The ;Church would not have mandated voting for a particular candidate; she would, instead, have clarified the banned platforms of disallowed candidates.
But now we’re in it and what are we going to do about it?
Recently, I likened the gays and lesbians in California to the Sodomites; their attacks on the churches to the Sodomites knocking on Lot’s door; and the Sodomites desire to defile the two angel messen gers from God as the gays and lesbians desiring to defile the holy union of marriage between one man and one woman. We know from the Bible there was little time between the knock on Lot’s door and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. So, how quickly are we here bound for glory – or for hell, as the Church of Laodicea was warned.
Thank you for your attention.
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Sent this message this week to the Respect for Life department of the Diocese of Fort Worth.
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I recently sent the email below to a Rev. ____ in hopes of it getting to the Bishop. Since then, I found your name and am hopeful that you can help. Please note that my biggest concern is that we Catholics don’t follow through on “the message” in such a way that the typical parishioner can “connect the dots,” and realize that there can be a direct connection between abortion and our elected leaders.
Here’s another confirmation. You’ll note that I reference Cardinal Stafford’s recent remarks at a CUA presentation below. Subsequent to the Cardinal’s address on November 14, Doug Kmiec, the former dean of the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University who endorsed Obama, said, “When Stafford gets to know Obama better, he will readily see that Obama has far more in common with our great faith tradition than any political administration in recent memory.” What???!!! This is a learned Catholic who’s held a prestigious position at a prestigious Catholic university and yet he’s pandering to the popularism of of the leftist cult. Could he not have heard Obama promise to sign FOCA into law on his first day in office? If a person such as this can make such a naive claim, how can we expect the average Catholic (Remember, the average citizen doesn’t know the branches of the federal government, how many senators and representati ves there are, and what the charges of the respective branches are.) to understand integral connections between cause and effect of elections and our American way of life? I’m telling you they don’t get it. While most believe abortion to be bad, they do not see that voting for an abortion proponent, particularly if that proponent promises to “spread the wealth,” is a betrayal of their Catholic beliefs.
Also in November, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko said, “Our true problem is not being a minority, but rather having voluntarily become marginal, irrelevant, because of our lack of courage, so that we will be left alone, because of our mediocrity.” “For Christians,” Cardinal Rylko added, “the moment has arrived to free themselves from a false inferiority complex … to be valiant witnesses of Christ.”
This is, he said, the “hour of the laity,” to take on their “responsibility in the diverse fields of public life, from politics to the promotion of life and family, from work to the economy, from education to the formation of youth.”
He warned, however, that such faithfulness would come at a personal cost. “Whoever wants to live and act according to the Gospel of Christ has to pay a price, even in the highly liberal societies of the West,” he said.
I would suggest that Cardinal Rylko’s last sentence might aptly be amended to read “…especially in the highly liberral societies of the West.”
So how do we address this, and how can I help?
Thank you.
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Nicely done, Mamabear.
I was disappointed in my own church’s (non) treatment of the issue. Even throughout October (respect life month) we were treated each weekend to some newly defined *respect life* issue, like poverty. What more these issues carried the taint of political influence. The abortion issue was given short shrift.
The weekend before the election, our Pastor gave a really insufficient, and unhelpful talk about the importance of voting, and how “there are no perfect candidates”.
I’m still peeved.
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1) FOCA has not been passed.
2) The issue is done with a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president elect
3) Obama will appoint 110 federal judges in his first term
4) Obama will appoint 2 to SCOTUS in his first term.
5) You’d all be better served eliminating the reasons women find themselves in need of abortion services than fighting a pointless culture war battle.
6) Enough of the abstinence only nonsense
7) There are no perfect candidates; only ones with cloaks over their flaws.
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1) Duh.
2) We’re fighting this to prevent that from happening.
3) You don’t know how many judges he’ll confirm, but it’s a safe bet that they’ll all be liberal judicial activists.
4) You don’t know that, either.
5) I really don’t think we-all need your advice, but convincing young women to behave responsibly and respect themselves wouldn’t be so difficult if liberals didn’t constantly fight that, and try to convince everybody that it’s not possible.
6) That is the most responsible position to offer children.
7) That is pretty vapid. There’s “not perfect”, and then there’s “nightmarish abomination”.
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Hi- I think you should know that your google ads are popping saying “Is Your Husband Gay” click here to take the test. Probably not what you want on your website.
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I don’t have any ads on my site, WordPress doesn’t allow it, but I’ll look into it, thanks.
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I’ve linked to your post with a quotation from BlogWatch Life
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Any elected official in the United States of America who has their vote dictated by a fascist pope from Vatican City, should have their American citizenship revoked. They certainly should face a recall election; to be removed from office for failing to represent the people who elected them in favor of the inflated opinions of a foreigner who presumes to speak for God.
I would consider excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church to be an honor, as I consider membership in it to be a disgrace.
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fascist pope?
This word fascist…..it does not mean what you think it means…
Fascist would be, say….oh, just for the sake of argument…forcing Catholic hospitals to perform abortions even though it has profound religious, moral, and ethical objections to it.
Forcing people to do something they find morally repugnant…that would be fascistic.
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Referring to this:
I’m Catholic, but not the type who would literaly follow every dot.
but my stand is:
Drop religion and face the fact.
This is a human life we’re all talking about here.
Being responsible (for the young ladies who feel like having sex right now please stop and consider) means that if you don’t want to add up to the problem then better prevent it.
ABORTION is not an answer to this
AND I HOPE THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA READS THIS TOO.
We all abhor killing innocents – and we’re all talking about children.
A child – be it the one you gave alms to this morning, the one who stole your purse along the street, or the one in your womb right now, is still a child.
Who in his right mind would be willing to kill a child just because it’s an inconvenience to the parent? Or to anyone who will be supporting it for that matter?
Religion has nothing to do with handling the lives of a child.. for in EVERY RELIGION there is nothnig there advocating abortion as an option to a child’s life.
Protestants. Moslems, Christians, Born Agains, Iglesia ni Cristo (Philippines), Buddhism, etc….
NOTHING TELLS US TO KILL AN CHILD WHILE STILL IN THE MOTHER’S WOMB for the sake of choice.
If it’s a choice… did anyone consult the FETUS while they were making up this junk of a law?
If they did, then screw them!
A child cannot defend it self in court, much less hold up an argument about their choices.. all they know is thatthey’re here because they wre created out of love.
and PEOPLE: SEX is a way of showing your love.. not having fun or employment.
Being responsible means that IF you love one another, and don’t want to add up insult to injury, then make sure that you do not involve an innocent child in play by doing an abortion.
Pray that you be able to see your children someday as well, for many women can’t have children of their own… due to sickness, and abortion.
Yes: Did anyone mention that After abortion the chances of a woman having childrd lessens to zero because the linings of the womb get scraped with each abortion?
And it’s not only the child that dies… the mothers also dies in the process as well. If not on the operating table, then inside… like murder.
I recall seeing a video back in teh ’90s about a sonogram dome during abortion.. and you can actually see the baby scream as the child gets torn from limb to limb inside the womb. The mother died shortly thereafter due to massive bleeding.
They say that it vcan’t feel.. yet pregnant woment would attest that teh child they carry will get hungry if they’re hungry, would be trembling if they’re angry or upset.. and would ‘skip’ in every situation possible.
No.. abortion is not a choice….
It is a means of justifying WHY you’re killing a human being.
A LOUSY EXCUSE to say that you just murdered someone.
To whoever will be supporting FOCA: You’re not a MAN.. you’re less than a MAN, lower than an animal.. for animals take care of their young.. would die to protect their young.
To those in the senate and congress makin the laws: YOU ARE PASSING A LAW THAT WILL MAKE VIRTUALLY EVERY MOTHER and WOMAN a MURDERER. DO NOT MAKE US KILLERS OF OUR OWN CHILDREN.
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