Let’s Admit It: The Anti-Catholics Are Right!
David Carlin, a reasonable fellow, raises the question of whether our bishops should “excommunicate Catholic elected officials who consistently support pro-choice (pro-abortion) positions” (Our Sunday Visitor, Sept. 17). He sees it as a question “worthy of debate.”
Carlin is concerned that if Catholic pro-abortion politicians aren’t excommunicated, the question arises whether “the Catholic Church in America stands for Catholicism.” But! On the other hand, Carlin sees “weighty” reasons for not excommunicating them, and so he says “I’m still far from being convinced [that] excommunication…is a good idea….” His reasons:
(1) “It wouldn’t deter the politicians in question.”
(2) Those politicians would garner popularity by claiming that “they are being persecuted for ‘voting their conscience’ and for refusing to be dictated to by Rome and its episcopal minions.”
(3) Excommunication would resurrect the old anti-Catholic accusations that “Catholics are incapable of intellectual independence,” and that “a good Catholic cannot be a good American, since his or her first loyalty is to a ‘foreign prince’ [the Pope]….”
You May Also Enjoy
An example of a powerful ruler who should be like a caring elder but seems more bent on crushing dissent comes from an unexpected source.
Having banished one strange tongue — Latin — the Catholic Church witnessed an odd phenomenon in the 1960s: an outbreak of “unknown tongues” or glossolalia.
The Name that Is Above Every Name... Ecumenical Dialogue through Cricket... The Gospel According to Britney... SpongeBob GraveSite... New Tribal Rituals... Where Sex Doesn't Sell... No Room in the "Hall of Honor"... Grace Under Pressure