Rogue Catholics

A reader sent me a link to the following article. This article here entails a a story where half the Catholics at one church have signed a petition opposing Bishop Sheridan supposed ban on Holy Communion. What I thought was funny is that they are from "Rogue Valley", how appropriate. It contains the usual misunderstanding of not only Church teaching but also what Bishop Sheridan actually said. Again people are failing to distinguish between private and public sin.

"The implication of it (Sheridan's edict) is that, if you can't vote for a pro-choice Catholic (Democratic candidate John Kerry), you have to vote for (President) Bush because he's pro-life before you're born - but after that, you're anybody's target," Sack said. "Killing born children and their parents seems to be fine with him. I don't know how you can call him pro-life when he's put 10,000 Iraqi civilians in their graves."

Notice the helpful way the reporter helped us out by adding (Sheridan's edict) to inform us about what the person was referring to. The word edict was used multiple times in this article. Funny how this word is never used in reference to when a judge uses the law for their own end. This must be part of the style sheet reporters use to always substitute statement with edict when a Bishop writes something they disagree with.

"I signed it because I don't feel the Eucharist is a bargaining tool," said Jeanne Ellen Podolske, Our Shepherd's director of liturgy. "His (Sheridan's) actions are not consistent with what scripture and the church tells me. The state of the world now is so complex that you can't reduce it to one issue."

What a surprise that a Church liturgist is ignorant of what the Church and the scripture says. For example canon 915 says: "Those ... who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion." The Vatican specifically interpreted manifest grave sin to refer to objectively grave sin, not (only) to those subjectively guilty of grave sin.

Jesus said in Matthew 18 "and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." Jesus also separated the sheep from the goats. Both groups believed in Jesus but those who did not obey him were denied eternal communion with him.

St. Paul said "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself."

And this "can't reduce it to one issue" is just getting old. If someone robs you at the point of a gun you don't ask them what their opinion on welfare is. You are only concerned with their non pro-life view of wanting to kill you. To the Baby in the womb there is but one issue that ultimately concerns them. To those being experimented on in the lab there is only one issue that concerns them.