[Apologetics] About That Whole Kerry Excommunication Thing

[Art Kelly]

Jim,

Your satire makes an interesting point. 

While there is a diffeence between what someone does
privately and what somenone does openly and publicly
to dissent from official church teaching, your humor
is nevertheless very well done.

Oh, where did you get the 4% to 7%? How would anyone
know such a thing?

Art
 
--- Jim Murphy <jmurf80 at msn.com> wrote:


---------------------------------

Hello to all you Catholics

My name is the Rev. Calvin Luther of "Let's Not Pray
to Mary Baptist Church."  I have noticed that you
Catholics are mighty inconsistent when It comes to
excommunicating members of your church.  I'd like to
help you out of this little problem.  Last time I
looked only about 4-7% of your members follow the
church teaching on the issue of birth control.  Why
not excommunicate the whole bunch.  A few Sundays from
now just have them all sign what you might call a
doctrinal purity statement.  I'll have my church buses
outside all of the Parishes in my neck of the woods
and I'll pass the word along to other ministers
throughout the country.  Just remember, "Jesus came
for the righteous".  Or was that for sinners?  Oh heck
I can't remember.




>From: Dianne Dawson <rcdianne at yahoo.com> 
>To: Apologetics Group <apologetics at gathman.org>,     
  David Mullaney <MayDay1 at aol.com>, Holly Gatling
<sccl at bellsouth.net>,        Mary Ellen Jackson
<maryjackson8 at bellsouth.net> 
>Subject: [Apologetics] About That Whole Kerry
Excommunication Thing 
>Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 06:21:01 -0700 (PDT) 
> 
>by Phil Lawler 
> 
>Other Articles by Phil Lawler 
>Contact this Author About That Whole Kerry
Excommunication Thing 
>10/27/04 
> 
> 
>  Is Kerry excommunicated or not? If you have been
following this, your head may be spinning by now from
all the charges, denials and counter-charges. 
> 
>The story that caused all the excitement was reported
in an interview on the October 15, 2004 edition of
EWTN’s the World Over Live with Raymond Arroyo and was
immediately reported online by a CWN (Catholic World
News) headline claiming that John Kerry had incurred
the penalty of excommunication because of his
continued public support for abortion and euthanasia,
in defiance of Church teaching. 
> 
>At the center of the swirling controversy is Marc
Balestrieri, a California canon lawyer, who has
brought a canonical suit against Kerry (and others),
citing his flagrant dissent from Church teachings on
the dignity of life. This summer he visited Rome and
spoke to officials at the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, asking them whether public
support for abortion could be considered heresy, and
thus grounds for excommunication. On October 15th, he
announced that he had received an affirmative answer. 
> 
>Balestrieri's announcement drew a firestorm of
criticism. Vatican officials insisted that the opinion
Balestrieri was citing — a 4-page letter from Father
Basil Cole, OP, a respected American theologian — was
not an official response from the Vatican, nor an
authoritative statement of Church policy. 
> 
>That is true. But even if Father Cole's letter only
expressed his own opinion, it is an opinion worthy of
consideration. Marc Balestrieri asked a question, and
he received an answer. The answer wasn't "official,"
and it didn't come from the Vatican. But it still was
an answer. And in the absence of any official response
from Rome, it was the best answer available! 
> 
>Although several other media outlets have claimed
that the Vatican has rejected the notion that Kerry is
subject to excommunication, as I see it, those other
outlets have the story wrong. 
> 
>Let me explain: 
> 
>The Vatican has not said that Father Cole's opinion
is in error — only that it is not authoritative.
(Technically speaking, the Vatican has said nothing at
all. There have been a few public comments by
individuals working in the Roman Curia, but no
"official" statement whatsoever on this topic.) Father
Cole's judgment remains, at the least, a very
defensible position. One Catholic news agency quoted
an unnamed Vatican official as saying that Kerry is
not a heretic. But an offhand quote from an anonymous
source is surely no more "official," and no more
persuasive, than a reasoned argument by a respected
scholar. And keep in mind that Father Cole's letter to
Balestrieri was written at the request of a prominent
Vatican official, who presumably had a rough idea of
what his fellow Dominican would say. 
> 
>Maybe Marc Balestrieri misled Vatican officials about
the purpose of his questions, as one of the Vatican
officials implied. He insists that he did not, and has
issued a statement rebutting the charges against him
as well as offered documentary proof on his website.
Probably he pressed his argument too far, by applying
the logic of Father Cole's letter to the particular
case of John Kerry. Very likely he undermined his own
canonical case by generating premature publicity. 
> 
>Nevertheless, give Marc Balestrieri credit for this
much: He asked a very provocative question: Is a
Catholic politician like John Kerry subject to the
penalty of excommunication? 
> 
>The answer he received was unofficial. The answer was
unauthoritative. The answer was debatable. But the
answer was Yes. 
> 
> 
>Phil Lawler is editor of the online service Catholic
World News. This article is adapted from the CWN
Weekly News Summary, and is used with permission of
the author. 
> 
> 
> 
>Like a deer that longs for running waters so my soul
longs for you, O God. 
> 
>Ps 42:1 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>--------------------------------- 
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>Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We
finish. 

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