United States: Priest shames 14 Catholic senators protecting late-term abortion

[mdgspencer]

Priest shames 14 Catholic senators protecting late-term abortion | WND | by Art Moore

“Since their offense is public it should be acknowledged publicly and their pastors should publicly rebuke them and ask them not to receive the sacraments.”

They voted down a bill against late term abortion whose premise is based upon the scientifically established fact an unborn child can feel pain at 20 weeks.

 

[Entwhistler]

As Father Z calls them, “The Bloody 14”.

 

[ramartensjr]

“Today is the day for their bishops to issue a formal statement acknowledging that these men and women have publicly denied their Catholic faith, and if not formally, then have informally excommunicated themselves,” Longenecker said,

 

[Ender]

Edward Peters brings the perspective of a canon lawyer to the questions of excommunication and withholding communion on his blog.

The repeated, though for now misguided, calls for excommunication in these cases, and the repeated, but worth-considering, calls for withholding holy Communion in these cases share this: they spring almost completely from Catholic laity and are almost completely ignored by ecclesiastical leadership. This almost total, multi-decade disconnect between people and pastors is source of serious tension in the Church. Pray that such tension is relieved before it erupts into even more serious problems.

 

[Jared2914]

It is nice that at least one pastor is aligning with the laity. In the past, I think the Church leadership would have definitely made public statements, possibly even excommunicating. They would not have been silent. Now, the Church leadership just doesn’t seem interested confront these problems. They’d rather wait and hope everything quiets down. Though perhaps they are doing some things behind the scenes, such as writing letters to these public figures. For that reason, I won’t criticize them. I don’t know the whole picture.