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
The law of the land in 1969 provided little hope for pacifists who did not belong to religious denominations with a marked anti-war theology.
The Black Legend of Pre-Vatican II... Theology in Catholic Schools... When a Child Becomes an 'It'... I Will Take My Chances on Judgment Day... That Sandwich-Truck Owner... Suicidal Pacifism... A Proposal for the Middle East... Update on the NOR Reading Clubs... On EWTN...
Awhile back, 1794 to be exact, Maximilien Robespierre fretted about the lapse of religious sentiment…