The following comes from a Feb. 2 story posted on the site of the Catholic News Agency.
Bishop Daly was auxiliary bishop of San Jose and president of Marin Catholic High School.
The bishop of Spokane said Friday that that politicians who publicly support abortion should not receive the Eucharist in his diocese.
“Politicians who reside in the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, and who obstinately persevere in their public support for abortion, should not receive Communion without first being reconciled to Christ and the Church,” Bishop Thomas Daly wrote in a Feb. 1 letter to his diocese.
“Efforts to expand access to abortion, allowing murder of children up to the moment of birth is evil. Children are a gift from God, no matter the circumstances of their conception. They not only have a right to life, but we as a society have a moral obligation to protect them from harm.”
“The Church’s commitment to the life of every human person from conception until death is firm. God alone is the author of life and for the civil government to sanction the willful murder of children is unacceptable. For a Catholic political leader to do so is scandalous,” Daly said.
The bishop’s letter came as abortion bills have been at issue in several state legislatures, and amid calls from some Catholics, and at least one bishop, for the imposition of canonical sanctions on New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo, who signed on Jan. 22 a bill that significantly expanded legal protection for abortion in his state. Daly did not shy away from that controversy.
“The champion of this abortion legislation is Andrew Cuomo, a Catholic and governor of New York. Governor Cuomo frequently cites his Catholic faith in support of legislation he favors. His public witness as a Catholic politician, coupled with his stalwart support of abortion, is unacceptable,” the bishop said.
Cuomo’s own bishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, has said that he does not intend to impose measures of ecclesiastical discipline on Cuomo, saying that while he opposes Cuomo’s public support for abortion, he does not believe imposing canonical or sacramental disciplinary measures will have effect on the governor.
Daly’s letter cited canon 915 of the Church’s Code of Canon Law, which says that Catholics “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”
Daly did not mention the penalty of excommunication, a penalty Dolan said had been suggested by many Catholics for Cuomo.
At least one U.S. bishop has called for Cuomo’s excommunication. On. Jan. 31, Bishop Eduardo Nevares, auxiliary bishop of Phoenix, tweeted: “I am compelled to raise my voice in calling on Cardinal Dolan, and ALL CATHOLIC BISHOPS to EXCOMMUNICATE the ‘Catholic’ Governors and ALL other ‘Catholic’ Politicians who are promoting the most VILE, HIDEOUS and YES, DEMONIC practice of MURDERING the NEW BORN BABIES.”
Excellent! Bishop Daly came from the San Francisco Archdiocese.
And we so miss him here in California.
“public support for abortion”. Where is that in canon law or catholic moral teaching? A politician who allows for a constitutional right to abortion isn’t “supporting abortion” publicly. This is where Bishops who delve into politics often get it wrong.
And besides that, sanctioning Catholic politicans while 1) Doing nothing to change the Constitutional basis that obligates Congresspersons swearing oath to the Constitution & 2) not sanctioning non-catholic politicans who procure abortions doesn’t work very well for lessening the impact of abortion
“A politician who allows for a constitutional right to abortion isn’t ‘supporting abortion’ publicly.” You’d better explain that “logic” to me. I’m not getting it. “…Congresspersons swearing oath to the Constitution…” The Constitution says nothing about abortion. “…Not sanctioning non-catholic politicians…” The Church has no authority to sanction non Catholics.
Fair enough. Catholics and Christians ought to be held to a higher moral standard than law allows. That’s fundamental to the right of the Church to be independent from the state. A Catholic public official can understand that the Constitution (to which they have sworn an oath) doesn’t permit the regulation of births, yet that same Catholic as a private citizen can be opposed to the practice.. A kind of example is that a public official can believe that government’s role isn’t to feed the poor, while in his private life he or she recognizes the command & does just that. Thirdly, we are called to make disciples of all nations and to baptize, yet if he or she were to support legislation to that effect, she would be violating her…
continuing –
Thirdly, we are called to make disciples of all nations and to baptize, yet if he or she were to support legislation to that effect, she would be violating her oath to uphold the Constitution, which prohibits government sponsored evangelization. Should we excommunicate or refuse communion to someone who deosn’t vote for laws baptizing our entire nation?
Certainly not. That would be coercion, and that cannot be used to bring in converts. The sanctity of innocent life is not a confessional matter introduced by Christ for Christians. It is fundamental to the human conscience. It dates back to Cain and Abel, as Robert Jackson, Nuremberg prosecutor, once pointed out.
Larry, I apologise, I missed a point you made. You said that the Constitution says nothing about abortion. What you said is actually very very important, and is quite correct. The Constitution DOES say that whatever powers are not specifically granted to the government are reserved to the PEOPLE. See the enumeration clause. Dozens of supreme and federal court cases have found that the PEOPLE can regulate their own lives, but government doesn’t have that power, because it hasn’t been included in one of the enumerated powers of gorernment. if you want to regulate birth, you have to change the Constitution.
But we’re not talking about people regulating their own lives, are we? We are talking about destroying someone else’s life. Funny how no one understood that the murder of the most innocent and vulnerable was a human right until 1973 when it was discovered by seven old men in black robes. “…Let them remember that God is the Judge and Avenger of innocent blood which cried from earth to Heaven.” Pope Pius XI, 1930, warning public officials they must protect innocent life, including babies in the womb.
Thank the good Lord that we have a Bishop in our Catholic Church that has a back bone and is willing to stand up to the Pro Abortion government officials that are ruling the United States. Pray for Bishop Daly as he will be attacked for his stand on being Pro Life.
Yes…absolutely! Catholic politicians who promote these horrible laws supporting abortion should be denied Holy Communion. So should Catholic politicians who promote war, nuclear weapons and turn a blind eye to hunger, disease and poverty. Also, priests who have molested children and Bishops who have covered up these crimes should be denied Holy Communion forever. The Bishops no longer have any moral authority in this world.
Behemonth– yes, we have social ills of war and poverty, etc.!! And yes– many clerics in the Church are guilty of many great sins!! And so far– nobody made these evils LEGAL!! To deliberately enshrine into law, THE MURDER OF A CHILD BY ITS MOTHER at any time, up to birth— is a HORRIFIC LEGALIZED EVlL
“So should Catholic politicians who promote war, nuclear weapons and turn a blind eye to hunger, disease and poverty.” And who are they? “Also, priests who have molested children and Bishops who have covered up these crimes should be denied Holy Communion forever.” No one need be denied Holy Communion after they have sincerely repented and been absolved.
Under the First Amendment, the United States is not a theocracy. Others are entitled to moral decisions with which one may not agree.
But the Church IS a theocracy.and has a right to discipline its own.
Mike M, liberals refuse to understand that if you support abortion you are NOT Catholic
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life…” What pope or bishops’ council said the above?
You conveniently left out liberty.
I also left out “the pursuit of happiness.” A person can be neither free nor happy nor able to pursue happiness if he or she is murdered, especially before even entering the world. In fact, if a state is free to legislate away an innocent person’s right to live, then there is no such thing as rights; only privileges granted by the state and sustained at the sufferance of the state. “Liberty” was not understood by our founders as the freedom to commit murder.
So I take it you are opposed to the death penalty and would excommunciate legislators who don’t repeal it? It’s now well documented that many of those on death row were in fact innocent.
This is an honest question. Government isn’t, as you say, “legislating away an innocent person’s right to live”. It’s saying that the government has never been given the authority to regulate birth. Many decades and several supreme ourt cases have reaffirmed that fact. For those of us who want to eliminate abortion, the Constitionally mandaded way to do that is to amend the Constitution.
Larry Northon– our American forefathers who wrote the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were all church-going Bible reades and believers! Secularized, media-fed, “politically correct” liberals of today, who reject Christianity and the Bible– cannot relate to a society of church-goers and Bible believers! Yet that is our Nation’s very foundation! America needs a re-conversion!
And abortion was illegal under the Founding Fathers. Even the early feminists who fought for the right to vote thought abortion was harmful to women, children and the family and said so. Susan B. Anthony and others were against it.
God Bless and protect Bishop Daly for speaking the truth.
We have all heard of the Hippocratic Oath that ALL Doctors take but, have you ever seen the Oath?
My Family Doctor has it posted in the office. You may be interested to know that it specifically states
” I will NOT perform an abortion”
I don’t know how any Doctor can live with themselves when they violate this Oath
Horrible to say, but probably most doctors do not take that oath any more.
Mike m.– you have a Christian duty to defend all life, from conception to natural death! America is not a “theocracy–“—- but you do not have to even believe in God— to protect and defend human life!! And all children are created by God! No one has the “right” to kill a child!!
Gov. Cuomo just got a big message from the Pope, with a stern reprimand, for championing his NY abortion law! Gov. Cuomo often publicly tells people to follow the Pope– as he does! Now, the Pope is mad at him!!
The famous Oath of Hippocrates used to be known and esteemed by everyone! We used to have a society that upheld the 10 Commandments and Christian values! Motherhood was sacred! Is the practice of Medicine now viewed as simply a way to make lots of money??? Instead of heroically curing the sick, and saving lives?? America needs a re-conversion to Christ!!
But murder is not a mere religious issue. John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” That statement assumes that although there may be diversity of religious beliefs, there must be consensus on the need for religion and on the moral law. Saying that a people is immoral is but another way of saying that the moral consensus has broken down. Moral diversity is poison for any civilization.
Let’s reflect on Christ’s mandate: Go! Make disciples among all the nations! Baptize them! Think about this for a moment. Is it the GOVERNMENTs job to go make disciples & baptize? After all, it’s Christ’s greatest mandate for us Christians!
Uh, no I think not, that’s OUR job. Unless you believe that our religion and our religous law should be enshrined into ciivl law, as those who believe in Sharia law do. Do YOU want sharia law to be the law of our land?
No. I want the state to stop presuming it has the authority to legalize and even promote the murder of the innocent, the very same delusion which Nazi Germany and a host of other dictatorships fell into. Once politicians no longer fear the justice of God, do you think a future tyrant would hesitate to order the murder of homosexuals if that ever coincided with popular feeling? Murder has been immoral since Cain and Abel (as Nuremberg’s Robert Jackson once pointed out.) It was not introduced by Christ for Christians. The laws which Roe v. Wade struck down were not on the books at the behest of the Catholic Church.
I said “innocent” life, that is, a human being not convicted of crimes against life or killed in the act of committing unjust aggression. As for people being mistakenly executed, that’s a matter of opinion. I’m not sure I agree that that’s been happening. I take it you would protect the criminals while condemning the babies to death? Or would you favor this Constitutional amendment you mention?