A Catholic priest is calling on bishops to excommunicate the 14 Catholic-identifying U.S. senators who voted last week against banning late-term abortions. He is also calling on priests to deny the Catholic pro-abortion senators Holy Communion.
“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,” Father Dwight Longenecker wrote in a recent blog post.
Many bishops often refuse to publicly correct pro-abortion politicians who say they are Catholic. Of these, a small number prefer to be more “pastoral,” handling the matter in private.
But Father Longenecker wasted no time on this premise, pointing out the reality of the infraction committed by public figures identifying themselves as Catholic when they publicly support abortion.
“Since their offense is public, it should be acknowledged publicly and their pastors should publicly rebuke them and deny them access to the sacraments,” he said, adding that if Church hierarchy does not do so, then Catholics should make their concerns known via the most effective channel – the collection basket.
“If the bishops and priests do not do this,” Father Longenecker added, “the faithful in their parishes and dioceses should rise up and blizzard them with letters, emails and the one thing that will really make them sit up and take notice: withholding their contributions.”
Longenecker, pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Greenville, South Carolina, wrote about the fact that last Monday 46 of 97 members of the U.S. Senate voted against ending debate on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the result of that was the Senate not being allowed to vote on the bill, and the senators in effect voting against the ban.
Full story at LifeSiteNews.
The priest is correct. These people should be excommunicated. Where are the bishops who are supposed to teach Christ’s Teachings? Hiding in the hoard of government money?
Fr. Longenecker may not be too welcomed by the USCCB (hiding in their hoard of government money– thanks John Patrick) and be sent to form a parish in Pt. Barrow, Alaska, where he can also preach to the polar bears.
CRUX CONTRIBUTOR
Raised in an Evangelical home, Fr Dwight Longenecker studied theology at Oxford University and served as a Anglican priest before becoming a Catholic. In 2006 he returned to the USA to be ordained. He now serves as parish priest of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville SC. Browse his books and be in touch at dwightlongenecker.com.
Converts speak and evangelize the truths of our Catholic faith with zeal. If only other priests and bishops had ears that hear…
Ok. The bishops should also excommunicate any Catholic politician who votes for funding for nuclear weapons. Every pope since St. Pope John XXIII has condemned the use and existence of these horrific weapons. By the way, Father Longnecker was educated at the fundamentalist Bob Jones University! He is a convert to Catholicism.
There has not been a vote on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
From Fr.’s website…”After graduating from the fundamentalist Bob Jones University with a degree in Speech and English, I went to study theology at Oxford University. Eventually I was ordained as an Anglican priest and served as a curate, a school chaplain in Cambridge and a country parson on the Isle of Wight.”
God and Our Lady bless and protect this courageous priest. Let us pray for the weak shepherds who don’t publicly denounce the wickedness of these evil politicians. This is a terrible sin of omission.
Rightly so, the Prophet Isaiah says of these: “For the leaders of my people–the LORD’s watchmen, his shepherds…they are like mute dogs unable to bark”. (Is 56:10)
Not catholic politicians er rather more accurate to call them protestant politicians.
El National Catholic Register informó el lunes que otro miembro nuevo, el teólogo moral alemán Gerhard Höver, propuso en una reflexión sobre Amoris Laetitia publicada en la web de la Academia, que el término «intrínsecamente malo» es demasiado restrictivo, ya que no puede responder correctamente a la complejidad de diferentes situaciones«El jesuita padre Alain Thomasset, también nuevo miembro de la Academia desde el año pasado, ha dicho que no cree en la existencia de dicho término. En su discurso de 1987, traducido en LifeSiteNews por primera vez al inglés, el Papa Juan Pablo II dijo que «asegurar que los esposos vivan su vocación santamente» está entre las preocupaciones pastorales «más urgentes e importantes» de la Iglesia.