I won’t sign. The Church is not a democracy. I’ll let the Bishop decide without my suggestion as to whether he wants to excommunicate these people.
GoofyJim:
I understand that the Catholic Church is not a Democracy, but this petition is only asking the Bishops to do what the Vatican has already asked them to do, and what they, in obedience should already be doing:
The Kerry Affair: What Ratzinger wanted from the American Bishops
ROMA - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was clear with Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington and the head of the “domestic policy” commission of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference. He was more than clear, he set it down in writing: no Eucharistic Communion for the politicians who systematically campaign for abortion.
Read: no Communion for the Democratic candidate for the White House, the Catholic John F. Kerry.
Ratzinger’s memorandum is presented in its entirety below. It was sent as a confidential letter, during the first half of June, to Cardinal McCarrick and to the president of the bishops’ conference, Wilton Gregory.
chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/7055?eng=y
As you seem to feel we are demanding that the Bishops do something they haven’t been already instructed to do, please read Cardinal Ratzinger’s (now Pope Benedict’s) letter contained within that article. And, Once you’ve finished with that, please read the following on Abortion from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (this also applies to everyone who doesn’t understand the need to refuse our Lord’s Body and Blood to politicians who separate themselves from the Body of Christ by publicly supporting the slaughter of the innocent unborn with their votes and public statements):
Article Five - The Fifth Commandment
2261 Scripture specifies the prohibition contained in the fifth commandment: “Do not slay the innocent and the righteous.” The deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule, and to the holiness of the Creator. The law forbidding it is universally valid: it obliges each and everyone, always and everywhere.
2269 The fifth commandment forbids doing anything with the intention of *indirectly *bringing about a person’s death. The moral law prohibits exposing someone to mortal danger without grave reason, as well as refusing assistance to a person in danger.
Abortion
http://javascript<b></b>:openWindow('cr/2270.htm');
****2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication
latae sententiae,” “by the very commission of the offense,” and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a5.htm
Please read the entire linked page. Those who publicly promote Abortion publicly separate themselves from the Body of Christ. Per St. Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 11:23ff:
*For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” *
*For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. *
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another – if any one is hungry, let him eat at home – lest you come together to be condemned…
1 Cor 11:23ff RSV
Please also look up and read 1 Corinthians 10 on your own so you can understand just how serious this is…
I hope I’ve made the reason for this petition clear, as well as why I would sign it.
Your Brother and Servant in Christ, Michael
