Canon 915's Moment Has Arrived

 

Canon 915's Moment Has Arrived For years, American Life League has been defending the Real Presence of the Eucharist as the key to ending abortion in America.  After all, if you can deny the reality of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, it is no small step to deny the humanity of the tiniest of human beings. With NY Governor Andrew Cuomo's "celebration" as he expanded abortion laws on the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade demonstrates the absolute necessity of enforcing Canon 915. Dr. Edward Peters is a renown canon lawyer and a holds the Edmund Cardinal Szoka Chair at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.  His remarks on Cuomo's betrayal of Christ and his Church are too good not to share: Applying Canon 915, moreover, is not constrained by narrowly-drawn definitions of crimes and/or cooperation therein, it does not rely on loophole-ridden latae sententiae procedures (a canonical relic that today is mostly useful for letting bishops avoid making hard decisions), and it does not continue the rampant disregard for the rule of law in the Church seen over the last 50 years (mostly by figures, I grant, themselves none too concerned about human conduct and the rightful role of the Church in shaping it, and so, in that respect, distinguishable from those lately calling for Cuomo's excommunication). Instead, Canon 915 enables, indeed requires, prompt (not precipitous, but prompt) action by ministers to protect the Most August Sacrament from abuse, to alert an individual about his or her morally gravely dangerous public conduct, to protect the faith community from scandal, and to give serious witness to the world about the importance of Church teaching to Church members. Are these not the key goals sought by those calling for Cuomo’s (and some others’) excommunication? If so, why try to purse those goals with a cumbersome penal institute such as excommunication when Canon 915 is sitting right in front of us? In short, has not Canon 915’s moment, at last, arrived? Please take a moment and read the entire column over at In The Light Of The Law by clicking here.  You don't have to be St. Thomas Becket to know what the right thing to do here is.  For a Catholic hierarchy struggling to regain its moral authority, there could be no better way of doing so than by defending the Eucharist and enforcing Canon 915. Yours in Christ, the Author of LIFE! Judie Brown President American Life League