View from the choir

I am a Catholic layperson and Secular Franciscan with a sense of humor. After years in the back pew watching, I have moved into the choir. It's nice to see faces instead of the backs of heads. But I still maintain God has a sense of humor - and that we are created in God's image.

Friday, July 08, 2005

In the works

Vatican City (LifeNews.com) -- The Catholic Church has produced a new document for bishops across the world to examine that says Catholics who support legalized abortion should refrain from taking communion because they are out of step with church teachings.

The Vatican said pro-abortion Catholics are not taking their faith seriously and those who take communion and support abortion are behaving in a scandalous manner.

"Some receive communion while denying the teachings of the Church or publicly supporting immoral choices in life, such as abortion, without thinking that they are committing an act of grave personal dishonesty and causing scandal," the document says.

The draft also hearkens back to the 2004 presidential elections, which included a national debate about whether it is appropriate for Catholics to support elected officials or political candidates who favor legal abortion.

"Some Catholics do not understand why it might be a sin to support a political candidate who is openly in favor of abortion or other serious acts against life, justice and peace," the document reads.

The 88 page document is intended for Catholic bishops to examine in October and it contends that, because of abortion and other concerns such as rampant divorce, that Catholics have destroyed the sacrosanct nature of communion.


A document approved by the U.S. Catholic bishops last summer that calls on Catholic colleges and universities not to give a platform to elected officials who back abortion.

"Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles," the bishops said. "They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."

The statement, which also calls on pro-abortion Catholics to refrain on their own from taking communion, was adopted by a vote of 183-6 last summer.

(Hmm. I don’t know what the final document will say. If it keeps this tone, it will raise a few hackles.

Personally, I think it will be fine if a few hackles are raised. Maybe it will force some politicians to look at what they are doing and saying.)

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