Let’s Admit It: The Anti-Catholics Are Right!
David Carlin, a reasonable fellow, raises the question of whether our bishops should “excommunicate Catholic elected officials who consistently support pro-choice (pro-abortion) positions” (Our Sunday Visitor, Sept. 17). He sees it as a question “worthy of debate.”
Carlin is concerned that if Catholic pro-abortion politicians aren’t excommunicated, the question arises whether “the Catholic Church in America stands for Catholicism.” But! On the other hand, Carlin sees “weighty” reasons for not excommunicating them, and so he says “I’m still far from being convinced [that] excommunication…is a good idea….” His reasons:
(1) “It wouldn’t deter the politicians in question.”
(2) Those politicians would garner popularity by claiming that “they are being persecuted for ‘voting their conscience’ and for refusing to be dictated to by Rome and its episcopal minions.”
(3) Excommunication would resurrect the old anti-Catholic accusations that “Catholics are incapable of intellectual independence,” and that “a good Catholic cannot be a good American, since his or her first loyalty is to a ‘foreign prince’ [the Pope]….”
You May Also Enjoy
Pedophile Party... Stand By Me... Same-Sex, Same-Person 'Marriage'... Immaculate Insurance... Risky Business... 'Til Debt Do Us Part... Batwoman's Secret Identity... A Very Low Moment
Vatican II's vaunted reforms couldn't keep Catholics from being swept away from the Church. There wasn't much Pope Benedict XVI could do to stop this, and surely he can't be blamed for it.
In the 2,000 years of Christianity, its internal dangers have been twofold (it is in…