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From The California Catholic
Beyond the right to life
Cardinal McCarrick addresses San Bernardino vicariate meeting on the duties of citizenship
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop-emeritus of Washington, D.C., addressed the annual meeting of the San Bernardino diocese’s six vicariates on Feb. 13. McCarrick, said an announcement on the San Bernardino diocesan web site, is “considered one of the Church’s foremost experts on socio-political issues.”
Though the diocese was hosting the event featuring McCarrick, the web site announcement was hesitant to say what the cardinal would address. “He is expected to speak about ‘Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,’ a document released late last year by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops that details core Gospel values that Catholics should use in making personal, social or political choices,” said the announcement. “In an election year, Cardinal McCarrick is expected to offer unique insights on the relationship between Church teachings and high profile political issues of the day.”
According to a Feb. 14 Riverside Press Enterprise article covering the vicariate meeting, McCarrick told his audience that the bishops’ document does not tell Catholics how to vote but urges them to vote for the candidates who best support Church teaching. “The first and most essential right has to be the right to life,” said the cardinal; still, “we are not a single-issue church. You start with the right to life. You have to. But you have to go beyond it. You cannot be authentically Catholic unless you go beyond it.”
The Press Enterprise noted that McCarrick “was in the thick of political controversy in 2004 when he opposed proposals by several fellow bishops to deny communion to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry because of Kerry’s support for legal abortion.”
McCarrick was the president of a task force that had been meeting in 2004 to offer recommendations on the question of denying communion to Catholic pro-abortion politicians, or even to Catholics who vote for pro-abortion politicians. It was McCarrick who consulted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then head of the Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the matter, and Ratzinger replied with a memorandum.
The memorandum said pastors should meet with anyone guilty of formal cooperation in abortion or euthanasia (such as a Catholic politician “consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws”), “instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.”
Ratzinger, citing a 2002 Vatican ruling on divorced and remarried Catholics, then said: “When ‘these precautionary measures have not had their effect or in which they were not possible,’ and the person in question, with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, ‘the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it’ [Emphasis added.] … This decision, properly speaking, is not a sanction or a penalty. Nor is the minister of Holy Communion passing judgement on the person’s subjective guilt, but rather is reacting to the person’s public unworthiness to receive Holy Communion due to an objective situation of sin.”
In a June 15, 2004 address to the U.S. bishops, Cardinal McCarrick seemed to soften Ratzinger’s words. Relaying Ratzinger’s communications (received, said McCarrick, both by memorandum and in telephone conversations), McCarrick said that Ratzinger “recognizes that there are circumstances in which Holy Communion may be denied.” [Emphasis added.] McCarrick added that “Cardinal Ratzinger clearly leaves to us as teachers, pastors and leaders ***WHETHER ***to pursue this path.” [Double emphasis in original.]
Beyond the right to life
Cardinal McCarrick addresses San Bernardino vicariate meeting on the duties of citizenship
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop-emeritus of Washington, D.C., addressed the annual meeting of the San Bernardino diocese’s six vicariates on Feb. 13. McCarrick, said an announcement on the San Bernardino diocesan web site, is “considered one of the Church’s foremost experts on socio-political issues.”
Though the diocese was hosting the event featuring McCarrick, the web site announcement was hesitant to say what the cardinal would address. “He is expected to speak about ‘Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,’ a document released late last year by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops that details core Gospel values that Catholics should use in making personal, social or political choices,” said the announcement. “In an election year, Cardinal McCarrick is expected to offer unique insights on the relationship between Church teachings and high profile political issues of the day.”
According to a Feb. 14 Riverside Press Enterprise article covering the vicariate meeting, McCarrick told his audience that the bishops’ document does not tell Catholics how to vote but urges them to vote for the candidates who best support Church teaching. “The first and most essential right has to be the right to life,” said the cardinal; still, “we are not a single-issue church. You start with the right to life. You have to. But you have to go beyond it. You cannot be authentically Catholic unless you go beyond it.”
The Press Enterprise noted that McCarrick “was in the thick of political controversy in 2004 when he opposed proposals by several fellow bishops to deny communion to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry because of Kerry’s support for legal abortion.”
McCarrick was the president of a task force that had been meeting in 2004 to offer recommendations on the question of denying communion to Catholic pro-abortion politicians, or even to Catholics who vote for pro-abortion politicians. It was McCarrick who consulted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then head of the Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the matter, and Ratzinger replied with a memorandum.
The memorandum said pastors should meet with anyone guilty of formal cooperation in abortion or euthanasia (such as a Catholic politician “consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws”), “instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.”
Ratzinger, citing a 2002 Vatican ruling on divorced and remarried Catholics, then said: “When ‘these precautionary measures have not had their effect or in which they were not possible,’ and the person in question, with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, ‘the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it’ [Emphasis added.] … This decision, properly speaking, is not a sanction or a penalty. Nor is the minister of Holy Communion passing judgement on the person’s subjective guilt, but rather is reacting to the person’s public unworthiness to receive Holy Communion due to an objective situation of sin.”
In a June 15, 2004 address to the U.S. bishops, Cardinal McCarrick seemed to soften Ratzinger’s words. Relaying Ratzinger’s communications (received, said McCarrick, both by memorandum and in telephone conversations), McCarrick said that Ratzinger “recognizes that there are circumstances in which Holy Communion may be denied.” [Emphasis added.] McCarrick added that “Cardinal Ratzinger clearly leaves to us as teachers, pastors and leaders ***WHETHER ***to pursue this path.” [Double emphasis in original.]
