Pope Supports Excommunication for Pro-Abortion Politicians - "Incompatible with Receiving Communion" (UPDATED)

Update: USA Today is now reporting that the Vatican has issued a clarification of the Pope’s remarks: “The statement said the pope did not intend to excommunicate anyone. Politicians who vote in favor of abortion should not receive the sacrament of Holy Communion, Lombardi said. ‘Since excommunication hasn’t been declared by the Mexican bishops, the pope has no intention himself of declaring it,” said Lombardi, who was on board the plane. ‘Legislative action in favor of abortion is incompatible with participation in the Eucharist. … Politicians exclude themselves from Communion.’” Thus the point of my original post is confirmed. The Pope is reiterating what he said to McCarrick and what so many bishops have refused to believe: Pro-abortion Catholic politicians should be excluded from Communion.

Also, Canon lawyer Ed Peters offers his thoughts on the news report, giving current interpretation of the law, some caveats on relying on news reports, and some speculation on what the pope might have meant.

By John-Henry Westen LifeSiteNews.com Wednesday May 9, 2007 http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/may/07050901.html ROME, May 9, 2007

(LifeSiteNews.com) - A reporter aboard the Alitalia plane chartered to transport the Pope to Brazil Wednesday asked Pope Benedict XVI if he supported the Mexican bishops in their warning to politicians who supported legalizing abortion that they would face excommunication. The Pope responded saying, "Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ."

Referring to the Mexican bishops, Reuters reports the Pope added, "They did nothing new, surprising or arbitrary. They simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the Church . . . which expresses our appreciation for life and that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment".

Speaking of the vote on abortion in Mexico City, the Archbishop of Acapulco, Felipe Aguirre Franco, said of politicians who support the legalization of abortion: "They will get the penalty of excommunication. That is not revenge, it is just what happens in the case of serious sins."

Continuing on the subject while en route to Brazil, the Pope said such pro-abortion politicians have "doubts about the value of life and the beauty of life and even a doubt about the future". He continued, "Selfishness and fear are at the root of (pro-abortion) legislation. We in the Church have a great struggle to defend life...life is a gift, not a threat. The Church says life is beautiful, it is not something to doubt but it is a gift even when it is lived in difficult circumstances. It is always a gift."

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi later told reporters that the politicians who voted for abortion had automatically excommunicated themselves by their actions. The statements by the Pope have significance not only in Brazil but also in the United States and elsewhere where certain bishops have refused to follow the guidance of Rome in denying communion to pro-abortion politicians. The most notable opposition in that vein came from the now-retired Archbishop of Washington, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, who chaired a committee of bishops on the subject of how to deal with pro-abortion Catholic politicians. McCarrick received direct guidance on the subject from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The letter indicated that persistently pro-abortion Catholic politicians, once they had been warned, "must" be denied Communion. Not only did McCarrick publicly refuse to follow Ratzinger's directives himself, he concealed Ratzinger's communication from even some of the Bishops who were on the committee. The Ratzinger intervention was later leaked to the media in Rome and confirmed as authentic by Ratzinger's then-office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage: See the Ratzinger letter to the US Bishops on "Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion" http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/apr/050419a.html

Cardinal McCarrick and the Concealing of Rome's Position on Denying Communion http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/oct/06102310.html

IF THIS IS TRUE, HE'S LOST MY VOTE! ABORTION SHOULD NEVER BE LEGAL!

Click here for the full story:
Fred Thompson: Abortion Should Be Allowed in First Trimester

Under abortion: He checked the box for: "Abortions should be legal in all circumstances as long as the procedure is completed within the first trimester of the pregnancy." He did, however, support a number of restrictions on abortion: requiring parental notification, allowing states to impose waiting periods, and eliminating all federal funding of abortion. Lastly, he said Congress should leave legislation on abortion to the states.

Home Gender Test Will Lead to Sex-Selection Abortion, Experts Warn

New test called “very dangerous” by UK charity spokeman

By Gudrun Schultz

LONDON, United Kingdom, May 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new DNA test that parents can use at home to determine the sex of their unborn child in the early weeks of pregnancy is being condemned as a sex-selection abortion tool by concerned pro-life leaders and medical professionals.

Available for sale on the Internet by DNA Worldwide, the Pink or Blue Early Test Kit tests the blood of the mother to check for the male Y chromosome in the unborn baby’s DNA, present in the mother for the first six weeks of pregnancy. Pregnant women use the kit to prick their finger and obtain a small blood sample, which is sent to a lab and analyzed by technicians. The test is claimed to be 98 percent accurate.

Prior to the new test, parents-to-be had to wait until 20 weeks gestation before an ultrasound could pick up the gender of the baby. Abortion on demand is legal in the UK up until the 24th week, limiting the number of women who could obtain an abortion based on the gender of their child.

Michaela Aston, with the charity LIFE, told the Sun Online the new test is “very dangerous.”

“It could lead to babies being abortion simply for being the ‘wrong’ sex.”

Julia Millington, with the Pro-Life Alliance, said, “There is a real risk that some people would choose to abort babies of a certain gender.”

Sex selection abortion has become a massive problem in Asia, with China and India suffering a serious imbalance in the ratio of boys to girls--cultural preferences for boy children has led to the wide-scale abortion of girl babies. Demographic experts estimate the number of “missing” girls worldwide to be about 200 million.

The problem is not limited to the East, however. Recent reports have shown a growing discrepancy in the boy-to-girl ratio among Asian ethnic communities in Western nations. A report in Canada’s Western Standard alerted Canadian’s to the existence of sex-selection abortion in Chinese and Indian communities in British Columbia and in Ontario in the Toronto region.

The growing incidence of the practice in the UK, with its large Asian immigrant communitites, is evidenced by several hospitals’ refusal to reveal gender information from pre-born scans.

“That hospitals adopt this policy shows it is already a real problem,” Millington told the Sun. “Abortion for gender does not fall within the terms of UK abortion law.”

Dr. Carol Cooper, writing for the Sun, also said she fears the early gender test will lead to abortions “just because the baby is the ‘wrong’ sex.”

“[Y]ou have to ask yourself why parents need this test. You don’t have to decorate the nursery or buy baby-grows when six weeks pregnant. But there’s still plenty of time to consider abortion. Those with the money can have this test and have the girl or boy they want. Those without money have to leave it to nature.”

It costs parents about £4,000 to have the gender-determination test done.

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

7,000 Unborn Girls Die From Sex-Selection Abortion Daily in India
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/dec/06121401.html

Internal Hospital Memo Provides Evidence of Sex-Selective Abortion in Canada
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06052404.html

INDIA'S TOP COURT BANS SEX-SELECTION ABORTION ADVERTISING
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002/oct/02100906.html

LifeSiteNews.com

Monday May 7, 2007

Powerful Anti-Euthanasia Video Now Available

TORONTO, May 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A powerful new DVD on euthanasia and assisted suicide entitled: Turning the Tide produced by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and Salt and Light television media foundation is now available. The video is of such quality and significance that it was the subject of a lengthy interview report on the Zenit Internet news service yesterday (see http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=107110)

Turning the Tide was designed to change the way secular society perceives the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Secular society views the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide to be issues related to autonomy whereas Turning the Tide shifts the focus of the issue.

Turning the Tide uses a personal story style to focus on the vulnerability of the person when one experiences disability, depression or symptoms related to degenerative and/or end of life conditions. The video also focusses on issues related to pain and symptom management and proper end-of-life care.

Groups that have viewed Turning the Tide have been tremendously impressed by the production quality of the video and the profound comments by the people featured in the DVD.

Catherine Frazee, disability studies professor at Ryerson University comments in Turning the Tide that: "People like to frame this debate in the language of autonomy, or individual choice. They'll say to me that it's all right, you can say no, but other people will want to say yes, but I don't think individual autonomy should ever be permitted to trump the safety and well-being of the community."

Wesley Smith comments in Turning the Tide that: "You have a situation in Canada and certainly in the United States, where people are having difficulty getting access to ... good pain control, good psychiatric involvement and good social services. Are we going to say that the answer for these problems is assisted suicide?"

Senator Sharon Carstairs, former chair of the Special Senate Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide answers the question on why people want euthanasia and assisted suicide by stating: "sometimes the pian is just too horrible, but we can deal with that. The other reason is ... they want their personal dignity. Well that says something pretty awful about each and every one of us. Why have they lost their sense of dignity? It is because we have made them feel less than dignified?"

Jean Echlin, winner of the Dorothy Lea award for excellence in palliative care in 2004 comments in Turning the Tide that: "I could never advocate for someone to suicide when I can offer them pain management and symptom management right where they are."

Turning the Tide features: Bobby Schindler (Terri Schiavo's brother), Wesley Smith (Attorney, International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide), Catherine Frazee (former chair of the Ontario Human Rights Committee), Adrian Dieleman (counselor, rehabilitation clinic for spinal cord injuries in Hamilton), Jean Echlin (palliative care nursing consultant), Senator Sharon Carstairs (Senator from Manitoba), Alex Schadenberg (executive director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition), Reg Hancock (spinal cord injury survivor) and more.

A Discussion Guide for small group or classroom presentations has been designed for use and included with the DVD package. The discussion guide enables groups and individuals who share our concerns about vulnerable people to organize effective presentations on the issues. It is our hope that Turning the Tide will be used to facilitate many discussion forums throughout North America.

The Turning the Tide DVD package includes all the DVD, the Discussion Guide, a recording sheet and all the resources that are necessary for making a presentation on euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The Turning the Tide DVD package can be ordered from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition for $50.00 for 1 package, $70.00 for 2 packages, or $100.00 for 4 packages by contacting the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition at: Box 25033, London ON, N6C 6A8, email: info@epcc.ca , or calling: 1-877-439-3348. Further bulk rates exist upon request.

"PASTOR'S PAGE" FROM ST. JOHN'S CHURCH IN ST. PAUL (MN)

Pastor’s Page
By Fr. George Welzbacher May 6, 2007

In a recent ruling (April 17) the U. S. Supreme Court found (5 to 4) that the federal law that was passed in 2003 with bipartisan support to criminalize partial-birth abortion is in no way at odds with the Constitution. The ruling has evoked a storm of rage and derision from the media’s grand high panjandrums and from politicians waxing wroth at even the slightest limitation of a woman’s right to kill. Senator Barack Obama lost no time at all in voicing his disapproval: "I strongly disagree with today’s Supreme Court ruling, which dramatically departs from previous precedents safeguarding the health of pregnant women." Safeguarding the health of the child, however, seems to be of precious little concern. Following much the same script, Hillary Rodham Clinton scored the ruling as "a dramatic departure from four decades of Supreme Court rulings that upheld a woman’s right to choose and recognized the importance of women’s health." Same pronouncement, same comment. Pro-abortion cartoonists had a field day. To cite a local example, on the editorial page of the Star Tribune a cartoon from the hand of syndicated satirist Tony Auth mocked the Catholic faith of the five distinguished jurists who formed the majority for this ruling. The cartoon’s appearance in the Star Tribune prompted me to send the Star Tribune a letter of my own, which, to its credit, the paper printed the following day. May I reprint the letter here as germane to the issue at hand.

* * * * *

Partial-Birth Abortion – A Hideous Procedure
April 25, 2007
Anyone who gives even a moment’s thought to what takes place during the "procedure" described quite accurately as partial-birth abortion-namely the extraction of almost the entire body of the infant from the birth canal, leaving only the baby’s head still inside, at which point the baby’s head is stabbed with a sharp instrument to allow the insertion of a tube through which the baby’s brain can then be sucked out-and can applaud it as a victory for human rights is as monstrous as the procedure itself.
In Tony Auth’s viciously anti-Catholic editorial page cartoon (Star Tribune, April 21), the five U.S. Supreme Court justices who declared the federal ban on this procedure to be consonant with the Constitution are depicted as stupidly grinning, mitre-capped minions of the Roman Catholic faith.
In fact it is those five justices who are the authentic humanists-the defenders of a helpless baby’s human rights.
The Rev. George Welzbacher

Thank You Father Welzbacher, for your Pro-Life courage against those who want to destroy the unborn! You have given us a good example of what we must do, write and call to voice our Pro-Life opinion!

President Bush Tells Pelosi: "I will veto any" pro-abortion legislation

Thank You President Bush! This is why I voted for you! Please continue to protect the unborn from the anti-life forces in our government.

Deacon John

By John-Henry Westen

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "I believe it is the most basic duty of Government to guard the innocent. With that in mind, I will veto any legislation that weakens current Federal policies and laws on abortion, or that encourages the destruction of human life at any stage." So said President Bush yesterday in identical letters sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv.).

In his letters, the President wrote, "I am concerned that this year the Congress may consider legislation that could substantially change Federal policies and laws on abortion, and allow taxpayer dollars to be used for the destruction of human life. I am writing to make sure that there is no misunderstanding of my views on these important issues." (See a copy of the President's letter to Nancy Pelosi here: http://lifesite.net/ldn/2007_docs/BushToPelosionProLifeVetoes.pdf )

With the veto promise, pro-life Congressman are assured that no anti-life legislation will pass while the President is in office. 155 members of the House of Representatives and 34 members of the U.S. Senate, more than enough to sustain a Presidential veto, have already sent the President letters (dated March 30 and February 1, respectively), urging the President to veto bills that weaken existing pro-life policies, and indicating that they will vote to sustain such vetoes.

Pro-life groups are praising the President's move. Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life, commented, "We appreciate that the President is drawing a bright line -- he will veto any appropriations bill, or any other bill, that would weaken the existing laws against federal funding of abortion or weaken other pro-life policies."

The President's letter comes as congressional appropriations committees are about to begin moving forward with funding bills for the fiscal year that begins October 1. Many important pro-life policies are kept in place by provisions of such appropriations bills, sometimes called "riders," including the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortion (except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest).

Pro-abortion advocacy groups have been pressuring the new Democratic congressional leadership to attack these pro-life riders.

"Our Nation was founded on the belief that every human being has rights, dignity, and matchless value," wrote Bush. "Every child should be welcomed into life and protected in law."

The letter from 155 members of the U.S. House of Representatives to President Bush, pledging to vote to sustain vetoes on pro-life issues, can be viewed here: http://lifesite.net/ldn/2007_docs/155HouseMembersToBushVetoPledge.pdf

The letter from 34 senators can be viewed here: http://lifesite.net/ldn/2007_docs/34SenatorsToBushVetoPledge.pdf

--
"In Cordibus Jesu et Mariae"

SPIRIT & LIFE NEWSLETTER

Spirit & Life
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63)
Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 01, Number 66 | Friday, May 04, 2007
.................................................................................. www.hli.org
Was Cho Seung-Hui Possessed?

There were howls of laughter when Fox News published an article raising the question of whether the devil may have influenced Cho Seung-Hui to commit the Virginia Tech massacre. Fox just reported the comments of various Christian leaders on the subject and did not intend to settle the question, but the cynicism of the godless media and society was predictable and to be expected. Since the devil doesn't exist - they say - how could anyone be so irresponsible as to try to explain away Cho's deed by recourse to the spiritual?

Well, first let me say that, as a Catholic priest, I have seen and worked with my share of possessed and obsessed individuals. It's entirely possible for someone to be at once responsible for his own acts and totally under the influence of the devil in committing them. In this case, Cho pulled the trigger, but the devil was the author of the deed. Does not Jesus call him "a murderer from the beginning"? The devil is the prime mover of all evil in the world, but human beings freely cooperate with him in their evil decisions. No one gets off the hook of responsibility by blaming the devil, but we can't say that the devil is a detached observer to crimes like this.

The evil work that Cho perpetrated bears the classic marks of a possession that he cooperated in. Four clear signs of serious demonic influence were evident in his life and virtually assured that he would commit some kind of heinous crime against humanity in time. These are the devil's tactics for the destruction of body and soul: isolate, distort, excite, plot - and then kill.

First, it is not always clear how a demon enters someone, but it is sure that once a demon enters a person, that demon bends all his efforts of mind and will to overtake his host's life and make it his own. Isolation is the best technique. By all accounts, Cho was an isolated loner whose belonging to his demon was very far advanced. He had no friends to speak of, no significant associates or relationships and certainly no religious practice.

Second, with time and permission, the demon totally perverts all the person's mental processes in order to translate them into demon-think. Cho's writings leading up to the crime, and Cho's now-famous video manifesto, all exhibited signs that the process of demonic perversion of mind and values was complete. He was verbally fantasizing in front of his classmates and teachers about killing people in the most horrible ways. In the end he even blasphemously claimed to be dying like Jesus Christ for the sins of others: this is perverse thinking in the extreme.

Third, a crime of this immensity cannot be accomplished without a person's total emotional commitment. After reprogramming a person's thought patterns, the demon excites his passions to do what he wants. Others have very credibly explained how Cho's pathetic video images imitating the Korean flick, Old Boy, were evidence of his heightened emotions influenced by violent images. He even ranted in imitation of the Columbine killers Harris and Klebold in solidarity for the deed he was about to commit.
In other words, it's very difficult to sustain such an emotional intensity about the evil he planned and carried out without some direct force multiplier. Graphic images provided it.

Finally, he plotted - like all demons from Satan to the perpetrators of the World Trade Center attacks. He bought guns and ammo, he planned the date and times and places of the murder, and he even went regularly at night to work out at the campus gym in order to look the part of a mass murderer. The devil must have been very happy to witness his prey blast his brains out after perpetrating the bloody murders of 32 innocents. That is the ultimate victory for the devil.

As sad as the physical deaths of innocent people are, perhaps the saddest element of the story is the likely loss of Cho Seung-Hui's immortal soul by this demonic action. The rabbis used to say that the angels weep at the loss of a soul that God created to share in His eternal blessedness; I am sure the angels are weeping now. Let us all commend the innocent victims of this crime, their families and the possessed perpetrator to the Mercy of God and then re-commit ourselves to proclaiming Christ and His victory over so that none of God's children will ever be lost.

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In Christ,


Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer
President, Human Life International