Are US Catholic Leaders Moving Towards Orthodoxy on Abortion?

NB: The somewhat misleading headline (abortion is one area where the American bishops have been particularly "orthodox" over the years) belongs to CNS, not to me.


Cybercast News Service asks: "Are US Catholic Leaders Moving Towards Orthodoxy on Abortion?":

(CNSNews.com) - Despite indications that the retired archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, has shifted position on the issue of denying communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, the diocesan spokesperson says this is not the case.

"[McCarrick's stance has] been consistent, and it will remain consistent," Susan Gibbs told Cybercast News Service.

The emphasis should be placed on the individual who goes to receive communion rather than on the priest who is administering communion, according to Gibbs.

"[Catholic pro-abortion] politicians should not approach for communion, period. And he would explain that to a politician," she said.

"It's not a change, it's still consistent. The responsibility is on the individual to inform their conscience based on Catholic teaching, to not present themselves for communion if they are not in the proper state - and that applies to all Catholics."

In 2004, McCarrick said he was not "comfortable in denying the Eucharist," a statement that sparked an uproar during the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a Catholic who supports abortion rights.

But the churchman's position appeared to have changed when the Catholic News Service reported last week that "Cardinal McCarrick said that if, after dialogue, he had reached an impasse with a Catholic politician who continues to publicly defy church teaching, then that politician should not receive communion."

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[William Donahue of the Catholic League] said "the consensus is growing" among bishops on the issue of denying communion to Catholic candidates supportive of abortion rights...

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My Comments:
Interesting development, if true.

Of course, the Cardinal's conversion on the issue comes a little late now that he in no longer Archbishop of Washington, D.C. And his successor - who has the same negative view toward withholding Communion as McCarrick had when he was archbishop - is firmly ensconced in D.C. for what is likely to be many years to come.