It is heartening to see American Bishops begin to assert their traditional role as defenders of the faith to their flocks, and stand for the ancient Catholic social teaching that protects life.
They also need to consider revisiting their call for abolition of capital punishment as the historic Catholic support for capital punishment—part of the tradition protecting the innocent—is vital to the social teaching of the Church, as that teaching needs to remain true to itself to retain its potency in the conversion of sinners and retention of the flock.
To overturn a principle as ancient as the judicial use of capital punishment—as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops proposes with its Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty—could bring all of the Church's enduring principles into question as noted by Avery Cardinal Dulles: "The reversal of a doctrine as well established as the legitimacy of capital punishment would raise serious problems regarding the credibility of the magisterium." (2004, Catholic Teaching on the Death Penalty, in Religion and the Death Penalty, Owens, Carlson, & Elshtain (Eds.) p. 26)
Kansas: archbishop bars governor from Communion
Kansas, May. 9, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City has announced that Governor Kathleen Sebelius should not receive Communion because of her support for legal abortion.
In a column appearing on May 9 in the archdiocesan newspaper, The Leaven, the archbishop said that Governor Sebelius has sent a "spiritually lethal message" by implying that she could remain a Catholic in good standing while supporting abortion on demand.
The archbishop's column cited in particular the governor's veto of the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act, which would have required abortionists to inform women about the effects of the procedure and alternatives to abortion.
The governor's stand in favor of abortion is particularly painful, Archbishop Naumann wrote, because Sebelius is a Catholic. He reported that he had met with her "several times over many months to discuss with her the grave spiritual and moral consequences of her public actions." Because the governor has now rejected his pleas and her public stand constitutes a scandal to the faithful, the archbishop said that he has now directed her to refrain from receiving Communion. Archbishop Naumann reported that he has asked Governor Sebelius to accept this directive, so that she will "not require from me any additional pastoral actions."
Lampstand Foundation website, http://www.lampstandfoundation.org/
"The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity. Nobody is so competent as the sinner in matters of Christianity. Nobody, except the saint." Charles Peguy (1873-1914)
About
- David H. Lukenbill
- I am a California native, married, we have one daughter and live close to the American River with two cats and all the wild critters we can feed. I am a management consultant to nonprofit organizations and have an Associates of Arts degree in Administration of Justice from Sacramento City College, a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Public Administration degree, also from the University of San Francisco.