Pro-Abortion Politicians Subject to Excommunication, Pope Says
From Catholic World News:
May. 9, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Catholic politicians who vote for legal abortion are subject to excommunication, Pope Benedict XVI told reporters during a May 9 flight from Rome to Brazil.
Fielding questions from reporters during the trip, the Holy Father was asked whether he supported the Mexican bishops who have announced the excommunication of politicians who voted to approve legalization of abortion in Mexico City. The Pontiff replied that he did.
"They did nothing new, nothing arbitrary or surprising," the Pope said of the Mexican bishops. "They simply announced to the public what is stipulated by the law of the Church."
Later the Vatican press director, Father Federico Lombardi, enlarged on the Pope's remarks during his own conversation with reporters. Father Lombardi pointed out to reporters that the Code of Canon Law provides the penalty of excommunication for anyone directly involved in abortion. That penalty would apply to politicians who support the legalization of abortion, he said.
The Vatican spokesman added that the excommunication in these cases is applied latae sententiae-- that is, automatically-- and does not require any public announcement. In making the penalty public, then, the Mexican bishops were only underlining the provisions of canon law.
Labels: Bishops, Catholic Social Teaching, Culture of Death, Pope, Pro-Life
posted by Pro Ecclesia 11:16 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
But the Pope is not going to say that specific pols by name are therefore excommunicated. And it is this drawing back away from specificity that signals many that we are confused. If all US pols who so vote are excommunicated, this auto-excommunication is probably unknown to them in their specific case and one could bet that most of their dioceses are not forbidding them communion. So what is the point of the Pope's comments on the plane?
From what I gather, The reporter had posed the question as if the bishops had already excommunicated the offenders. The Pope naturally backed his bishops' theoretical use of excommunication.
Note the speed at which many bishops backpedal and reassure their pro-abort pols that they would NEVER do anything like that. Imagine if there were a Fabian Bruskewitz heading each diocese...
Now the Pope and others have backed out of the "excommunication" part of this affair since it seems that the majority of canonists do not see the abortion canon as extending to politicians.
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