Priests Demand Pelosi Renounce Catholicism After Abortion Is €œsacred

[Chestertonian]

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s comments that defending late-term abortions is “sacred ground” to her was apparently the last straw for a national organization of Catholic priests active in pro-life work.

“As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this. I don’t think it should have anything to do with politics,” she continued saying about the bill to ban late-term abortions after 20 weeks.

 

In an open letter to Pelosi, Priests for Life says her comments make a “mockery of the Catholic faith.”

“With this statement, you make a mockery of the Catholic faith and of the tens of millions of Americans who consider themselves “practicing and respectful Catholics” and who find the killing of children — whether inside or outside the womb — reprehensible,” the letter says.

 

“You speak here of Catholic faith as if it is supposed to hide us from reality instead of lead us to face reality, as if it is supposed to confuse basic moral truths instead of clarify them, and as if it is supposed to help us escape the hard moral questions of life rather than help us confront them,” Father Frank Pavone continues in the letter. “Whatever Catholic faith you claim to respect and practice, it is not the faith that the Catholic Church teaches. And I speak for countless Catholics when I say that it’s time for you to stop speaking as if it were.”

 

“Abortion is not sacred ground; it is sacrilegious ground. To imagine God giving the slightest approval to an act that dismembers a child he created is offensive to both faith and reason,” the letter adds. “And to say that a question about the difference between a legal medical procedure and murder should not “have anything to do with politics” reveals a profound failure to understand your own political responsibilities, which start with the duty to secure the God-given right to life of every citizen.”

 

The letter from Pavone concludes: “Mrs. Pelosi, for decades you have gotten away with betraying and misrepresenting the Catholic faith as well as the responsibilities of public office. We have had enough of it. Either exercise your duties as a public servant and a Catholic, or have the honesty to formally renounce them.”

During the press conference, in response to a reporter’s question, Pelosi was upset to be asked about the gruesome abortions and infanticides done by Kermit Gosnell and indicated she opposes the bill the House approved to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Pelosi falsely called the bill a ban on all abortions.

 

“They would make it a federal law that there would be no abortion in our country,” Pelosi said.

Maureen Ferguson, Senior Policy Advisor for The Catholic Association, blasted Pelosi’s comments in an email to LifeNews:

 

“After witnessing firsthand the atrocious human rights abuses taking place inside America’s late-term abortion clinics it is amazing that this did not touch Nancy Pelosi’s heart. What we learned from the Gosnell trial and what we understand is going on inside other clinics is not only human rights abuse but it also puts women in harm’s way. The only difference between the Gosnell ‘after-birth’ abortions and legal late-term abortions is the location of the baby at the time of death. And contrary to Pelosi’s extreme claim that the Franks bill is ‘disrespectful’ to women, the majority of women are opposed to late-term abortions according to a recent Gallup poll.”

 

 

http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/topic/129913-deaf-boy-shocked-after-brain-implant-helps-him-hear-dad-for-the-first-time/#entry2599518

 

 

Edited June 21, 2013 by Chestertonian

[fides quarens intellectum]

“Abortion is not sacred ground; it is sacrilegious ground."  Nice. 

 

Call me crazy, but the things that sometimes come out of that woman's mouth still surprise me.

[CatholicsAreKewl]

I just don't get how politicians can claim to have a set of beliefs and not follow any of them. 

[Seven77]

maybe she meant "scarred" or "scared" ground... or "scarred gown"

[cappie]

Did Fr. Pavone call on Nancy Pelosi to renounce the Catholic faith?

 

http://canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/did-fr-pavone-call-on-nancy-pelosi-to-renounce-the-catholic-faith/

[Basilisa Marie]

So short answer: No, they're asking her to renounce her duties as a public servant, not Catholicism.  It's a grave sin to ask any Catholic for any reason to renounce their faith. 

[KnightofChrist]

She needs to be formally excommunicated, or she needs to renounce her anti-catholic beliefs. She already rejects key parts of the Faith by her actions and by words like 'abortion is sacred', yet she still pretends to be a Catholic in good standing. The sad part is by inaction she is allowed to do so. Sure there are plenty of letters, and words written to her and directed to her and others like her but in the end no real action is taken. There's no easy way to say it, but it is disgraceful.

Edited June 21, 2013 by KnightofChrist

[Chestertonian]

So short answer: No, they're asking her to renounce her duties as a public servant, not Catholicism.  It's a grave sin to ask any Catholic for any reason to renounce their faith. 

 

That's true. I just copy and paste the title of the article into the 'thread title' field. Guess I need to start coming up with my own titles based on what the article actually says.

[Gabriela]

Will they excommunicate her? Who does that? What does it take? What's the process?

[Era Might]

Will they excommunicate her? Who does that? What does it take? What's the process?

 

A formal inquest must be sent to the Grand Duke of Lombardy, who will initiate proceedings after consultation with the Earl of Sandwich and the Cardinal of Milan.

[Nihil Obstat]

Will they excommunicate her? Who does that? What does it take? What's the process?

 

I am not quite sure, but I think the process starts with her own bishop.

[Socrates]

She needs to be formally excommunicated, or she needs to renounce her anti-catholic beliefs. She already rejects key parts of the Faith by her actions and by words like 'abortion is sacred', yet she still pretends to be a Catholic in good standing. The sad part is by inaction she is allowed to do so. Sure there are plenty of letters, and words written to her and directed to her and others like her but in the end no real action is taken. There's no easy way to say it, but it is disgraceful.

 

What you say is true, but Fr. Pavone and Priests for Life have no power to formally excommunicate her, which would be the job of her bishop.  

 

Unfortunately, most bishops are too afraid of alienating their Democratic constituency to take any solid action.  Too many of our bishops tend to put worldly politics ahead of their spiritual duties.  We need to pray, hard.

[Lil Red]

 

Unfortunately, most bishops are too afraid of alienating their tied into the Democratic party constituency to take any solid action.  Too many of our bishops tend to put worldly politics ahead of their spiritual duties.  We need to pray, hard.

 

fixed. :) 

[cappie]

Will they excommunicate her? Who does that? What does it take? What's the process?

 

 Being excommunicated from the Catholic Church is widely misunderstood: It doesn't mean that you're banned from church and stripped of your Catholicism. Rather, excommunication is a strong, remedial penalty meted out with the hope that it'll wake you up and move you to true repentance — and back into full communion with the faithful. In short, it's reversible.

 

Excommunication is the most severe form of ecclesiastical penalty and is used only as an absolute last resort. Excommunicants remain Catholic because of baptism and still obligated to attend Mass, but they are deprived of all sacraments (except for the Sacrament of Penance). For example, you can go to Mass but not receive the Holy Eucharist. The excommunicated are forbidden from employment or holding any position of authority in a diocese or parish. They are also deprived of a Catholic burial.

 

The following offenses warrant excommunication as a result of a judgment from a church authority:

    Pretended celebration of the Holy Eucharist (Mass) or conferral of sacramental absolution by one not a priest

    Violation of confessional seal by interpreter and others

 

Some excommunications, however, are automatic (effective at the moment the act is committed) and without the intervention of the Church. Catholics are automatically excommunicated for committing these offenses:

    Procuring of abortion

    Apostasy: The total rejection of the Christian faith.

    Heresy: The obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth, which must be believed with divine and Catholic faith.

    Schism: The rejection of the authority and jurisdiction of the pope as head of the Church.

    Desecration of sacred species (Holy Communion)

    Physical attack on the pope

    Sacramental absolution of an accomplice in sin against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments

    Unauthorized episcopal (bishop) consecration

    Direct violation of confessional seal by confessor

 

 In short, a person must be old enough, knowledgeable enough, and free enough in his or her action to incur the full weight of such a penalty.

 

Unless the local ordinary or an ecclesiastical court finds that the offense in question occurred, the obligation to observe an automatic excommunication lies solely on the excommunicated (Can. 1331 §1).

 

The local bishop has the authority to remove most excommunications, but many bishops delegate this power to all their parish priests when it involves a penitent confessing the mortal sin of abortion. This way, the person going to confession can simultaneously have the sin absolved and the excommunication lifted. This is to make it easier for people to go to confession and reconcile themselves with God and the Church, especially after a very emotional, personal, and serious matter, such as abortion.

 

Some excommunications, however, are so serious that only the pope or his delegate can remove the penalty. For example, if someone desecrates (shows irreverence to) the Holy Eucharist, only the pope can remove that excommunication. Likewise, if a priest attempts to absolve someone guilty of breaking the Sixth or Ninth Commandment with whom he himself participated in that sexual sin, his excommunication is automatic and reserved to Rome. So, too, a bishop who ordains a priest to the order of bishop without prior orders from the pope is automatically excommunicated, and only the pope can remove that excommunication, which applies equally to the ordaining bishop and the bishop being ordained.

 

 

 

 

[Socrates]

fixed. :)

 

I wrote it that way to emphasize that they are thinking/acting like politicians, rather than spiritual fathers.