A Matter of Faith & Morals

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The ghost (or perhaps use of the Greek word daemon is more appropriate) of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin still haunts us.

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I won't bore you with a recitation of his now infamous "Seamless Garment" speech at St. Louis University in 1984. Suffice it to say that he put support of nuclear weapons on par with support of abortion.

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The full speech can be found at:

http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/bernardinwade.html

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Cardinal Bernardin's arguments have been taken up by an unlikely source, one Douglas Kmiec, pictured below.

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From our friends at Wiki, here's his bio:

“Douglas W. Kmiec (born September 24, 1951) is an American legal scholar. He is the Caruso Family Chair and Professor of Constitutional Law at Pepperdine University's School of Law. He served as head of the Office of Legal Counsel (U.S. Assistant Attorney General) for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, a position previously held by U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia in the Nixon and Ford administrations.”

“Professor Kmiec is the former Dean and St. Thomas More Professor of the law school at The Catholic University of America (2001-2003). With leaves for government service, Professor Kmiec was a member of the faculty at Notre Dame Law School from 1980 to 1999. At Notre Dame, he directed the Thomas White Center on Law & Government and founded the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy.”

“He writes the Faith and Precedent column for the Catholic News Service.”

Here’s where it get’s interesting. Although originally a supporter of Mitt Romney, he now supports Barack Obama.

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Again to quote Kmiec:

"To think you have done a generous thing for your neighbor or that you have built up a culture of life just because you voted for a candidate who says in his brochure that he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade is far too thin an understanding of the Catholic faith."

He backs Obama because he will:

“And end an unjust, preemptive war – another obvious life issue -- that deprives families of some of our most self-sacrificing yet often least advantaged young men and women and drains our economy in a 3 trillion dollar fashion, crippling our practical ability to be the force for human good that Americans want their country to be.”

In June, he was denied communion by an un-named priest from an un-named religious order in the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

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The paragon of orthodoxy, Roger Cardinal Mahoney, in what he termed "for the good of the Church," investigated the incident and concluded that the denial of communion to Kmiec was "shameful and indefensible." He forced the priest to apologize to Kmiec.

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Kmiec has written a book entitled “Can a Catholic Support Him?”

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An exerpt of which can be found at:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/09/the-day-i-was-denied-communion.html

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Here’s the money quote:

“As of this writing, I have successfully kept the name of the priest and his religious order out the public record. Every expert in Canon Law who has examined the question and concluded under Canon 915 that the denial of Communion was unauthorized and inappropriate. After the even became public, Cardinal Mahoney called the priest into his office, and several months after that meeting, Father ______sent Carol and myself a letter of apology. The letter is thoughtfully written and the apology accepted. Perhaps there was a Providential hand at work using the two of us to teach a lesson to a larger congregation. The lesson? Any Voter Guide even hinting at a Catholic duty as a matter of faith and morals to vote against Senator Obama is seriously in error.”

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When, oh when, will this cancerous tumor of error be excised from Holy Mother Church?!

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The “Hand of G*d” informing us that voting for Obama is not in conflict with the Catholic faith?

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O tempora, O mores!

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Finally – Does anyone know who this priest is? I’d like to give him a medal.

Comments

[james rich]

"Shameful" and "indefensible" seem like pretty harsh words to use. Nothing like assuming the best intentions of your diocesan priests. We should know who the priest is by next week, because the bus tire marks will be all over his robes.

It would seem more approriate to use the words "mistaken" or "ill-conceived" to express disagreement by Bishop Rog.

What is interesting, my friends, is to notice the words that are used about the respective parties in these past weeks: Pelosi is in error; she doesn't know her Church history or Catechism; but this priest does something that is disgraceful and indefensible.

I'll tell you, I'll bet there is a raging battle going on between/amongst the bishops right now. And you can see one side trying to keep it civil and above board, while the other side is so very reactionary and emotive. It does say something about what's going on.

[T. Shaw]

Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of lentils. For what price is Kmiek selling his soul?

I wish Commie'ek would tell us the true reason he is backing the nation of islam, empty suit, FNMA/FHLMC funded, lying lightweight.

I believe that there are intrinsic evils and non-negotiables set forth by the Church for 2,000 years and, specifically, by this Pope; and then there are prudential judgments. Prof. Kmiec may try to distort, exaggerate and omit prudential judgements so they 'trump' intrinsic evils all he likes. He is still wrong. I don't care how many degrees he has, or how many years he has misspent teaching incipient liars the Constitution (hey, it's like 58 pages 3x5 with footnotes!), I believe he is in grave danger of going to hell. I fear he will have an awful lot of company down there, too.

Regarding sold-out souls: it seems not to be peculiar to this fallen age or to the Pharisees who chose temporal power over the Kingdom of God. St. John Chrysostom: "The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops."

[american aquarium drinker]

I've heard the quote to be: "The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of rotten bishops."... it's only the rotten ones that deserve that fate.

Until the church gets this straightened out internally and starts proclaiming the truth as a united front, it is going to be very difficult to make major progress on this issue...or any other major moral issue for that matter. You have one group of clergy doing the right thing and another group, in this case a Cardinal (!) come out and undercut them. This just adds confusion and scandal - especially for poorly formed Catholics, liberal Catholics and non Catholics alike....Why shouldn't they think they can't vote for Obama or any other pro-death candidate when Catholic clergy endorse them (Fr. Pfleger) or do not publicly call them out? ...We have Bishops that are endorsed by the Rainbow Sash Movement for crying out loud.

[Jeffersonranch]

It continues to be the bishops. The Pope needs to clean house.

[Jeffrey]

I don't understand why the guy thinks Obama is anti-war. He's stated in the debates that "all options are on the table" in regards to Iran. That implies that nuclear war is an option for him.

Nuclear war is horrible and evil. We as Catholics ought to always be against it. I've been to Hiroshima twice and there is no excuse for what we did. However, the abortion issue is more important, and it takes precedence.

[Truth]

The anti-Catholic comments of the author identified as "truth" whose e-mail was self identified as divastarmusic@hotmail.com have been deleted.

Loy