Not a canonist, but this doesn't sound right
(CNSNews.com) - Catholic members of Congress who vote for the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) could face "automatic excommunication" if the act is determined to be "formal cooperation" in the evil of abortion.
When asked last week whether a Catholic politician voting for the FOCA - which would impose nationwide abortion on demand and government funding of abortion - would incur automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said the question would need to be discussed once the actual language of the bill was known.
George is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
In order to be considered in the next Congress, which convenes in January, the Freedom of Choice Act needs to be reintroduced. In the current Congress, it has been sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
At a press conference at the fall meeting of the USCCB held in Baltimore last week, CNSNews.com asked Cardinal George if the language in the Catholic Catechism that says "formal cooperation" in abortion incurs the penalty of excommunication would apply to a Catholic member of Congress voting for FOCA.
"The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense and the church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life," CNSNews.com asked.
The CCC actually goes on to say right after this "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," and Canon 1398 says the same. It has not been an interpretation of this canon that it extends further than those directly involved in a "successful procured abortion."
"If openly Catholic politicians vote for this Freedom of Choice Act, which would pretty much allow unfettered access to abortion in the United States, would it be an automatic grounds for excommunication? But even if it's not automatic ... could you just explain the process of the excommunication?" CNSNews.com added.
"The excommunication is automatic if that act is in fact formal cooperation, and that is precisely what would have to be discussed once you would see the terms of the act itself," responded George.
I would love this to be true, but I seriously doubt that regardless of how the law is written and how ardent it is in supporting abortion that it will result in an automatic excommunication. Certainly those who voted for abortion including partial-birth abortion have ever been seen as excommunicated by their own action. I would certainly loved to see Rome broaden the Canon to mean precisely this (which I think would be possible). Though Canon 915 certainly applies to those who "obstinately persist in manifest grave sin" could be denied Communion. Individual bishops though could certainly excommunicate those politicians who would vote for FOCA.
"The categories in moral theology about cooperating in evil, which make you complicit in the evil even though you don't do it yourself, are material cooperation, which is usually remote and therefore doesn't involve you in the moral action except in a very auxiliary and minor way, and formal cooperation, which would involve you even though you are not doing it, in the way that makes you culpable," said George.
"So we would have to take a look at each case, and at each law, to determine whether or not the cooperation is material or formal. We've never done that," he added.
Not sure how a vote for FOCA could result in only "material cooperation" with evil.
Fr. Frank Pavone of the Priests for Life told CNSNews.com: "Any legislator who would vote for such an extreme piece of pro-abortion legislation [FOCA], and any executive who would sign it or judge who would uphold it, or even a citizen who would lobby in any way in favor of it, would be committing a serious sin, objectively speaking. It is cooperation with evil in a totally unjustified way."
Totally agree with that.
Pavone said that the Roman Catholic Code of Canon Law lays out multiple conditions which must be met before an automatic excommunication occurs. "This really becomes a legal question that would require analyzing those conditions in an actual situation, and it is a step removed from the more clear-cut case of a person actually performing or undergoing the procedure [of abortion]," he said.
Dr. Mark Miravalle, a theology professor at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, said of a Catholic politician voting for FOCA, "I think you would have to conclude that it would be a formal act, a formal cooperation [in the act of abortion]."
The purpose of FOCA, he continued, "is to ensure the right of a woman to have an abortion."
One theoretical case where it would not be formal cooperation, but material, he said, was if the politician was pro-life at heart but did not favor legislation as the way to overturn abortion. Miravalle said, however, that such a case would be an "extremely rare and almost entirely theoretical impossibility, given the gravity of the legislation."
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"Automatic" excommunication is no excommunication at all and is just a way for cowardly bishops to skirt their grave duty and avoid making the difficult decisions required by their high office.
Would it be too much to ask Catholic News Service to spin the old rolodex and actually find a canon lawyer they can speak to when they're writing a story about canon law? Like, oh, I don't know, maybe Ed Peters, for instance, who's only written a book about excommunication. Maybe they could even cite the actual Canon Law itself, since it's actually available on the Vatican website. They could probably find it by using that Google-thingy on their desk.
It's also good to see in the full article the Archbishop who says the bishops have to challenge the lay faithful to oppose FOCA. Perhaps he has already started by having a conversation with a very prominent member of Congress, one of the faithful of his diocese, about her totally anti-life position on abortion.
Ed,
CNS in this case is Conservative News Service which the Bishop's CNS previously tried to sue for having the same initials. The clue is that you would never see the bishop's news service raise this.
Voting to *not act* in prohibing abortion might be excusable, so would removing obstacles.
However, it seems to me laws such as FOCA are actually participating in abortions, in that it requires some to participate, and prohibits others from working against it.
If a woman were having an abortion, and one physically restrains people from counseling the woman,Is that action not part of the evil act? If it requires others under pain of law to perform abortions (think of the poor pharmacists) - wouldn't that be actively committing abortion?
So, if I were the legal type, one could say that it's not formal participation in evil, until about 20 minutes after the law is passed and an evil abortion is carried out. Then it is.
Tzard,
Since all abortions are evil, and there are so many performed that if they were to spread them out over time, one would be occurring every 24 seconds, twenty minutes would be too long to wait.
Interesting question about "formal participation", but doesn't the spirit of the law count? If you were on your way to drop a bomb on an entire population, but you died of a heart attack before you got there, wouldn't you be judged as having committed the offense? Considering what Jesus said about adultery and calling one's brother a fool, God tallies "formal cooperation" differently than man does. So, in applying canons, why do we look for man's standard rather than Christ's?
FOCA will certainly be introduced, it will likely pass and be signed into law, and various Catholic legislators will commit objective grave sin by supporting it. They will be liable to consequences under Canon 915 for doing so (btw, they should be liable whether FOCA passes or no).
But they will not be liable to excommunication under c 1398. I suppose I'll just have to go on repeating this until somebody (in a position to get quoted on the issue) reads my post from last year: http://www.canonlaw.info/2007/05...on-1398- to.html.
RIGHT ON JEFF:
"The clue is that you would never see the bishop's news service raise this."
Truth telling posing from a cultural distance, covers up the blame of the Catholic Hierarchy for their dismal performance over the past 35 years in keeping silent, and soooo quiet over forming consciences.
The most reverend, fiiiirst EMINENCE among the flashy ornamental USCCB, cardinal George -an entire BLOG dedicated to his FAAAAAANS-, crowned those 35 years with a confusing, fuzzy, compromised message on why are allowed to bear the name Catholic the lawmakers of baby butchery’s.
The exquisite, pompous semantics mumbo jumbo of MATERIAL, OR FORMAL (???), EXCOMMUNICATION, for surgical attendants, or, intellectual authors is an HISTORICAL piece of work.
Indeed MUCH worse than… a clearly hostile message towards abortion minions. Those enemies are easy to deal with, but these compromised “pastors” are a whole other issue!
Dear Jeff, Thank you for staying on top of this issue.
Certainly, Canon 915 should be enforced. When one reads that Canon it looks like "plain English" as to what to do. Then, Card. Ratzinger made the plain English clearer, even using the example of a Catholic pro-abortion politician as one who commits a grave & manifest sin.
As to the issue of excommunication, I'd have to defer to such as Dr. Peters. (IF, the "automatic excommunication" were to apply to pro-abort politicians -and I don't think it does- then almost all of them would have already incurred this penalty).
Here's the rub for me, as a Pastor, the FOCA Bill would be the legislative enshrinement of the judicial decision in Roe v. Wade decision, and then some!
It would seem to me, IF the Bishops were seriously about standing as one to fight FOCA, then they MUST excommunicate any Catholic Senator/Congressman who votes for it. The evil is the gravest one can imagine, and the scandal of not imposing a penalty would also be serious.
As a certain presidential nominee said, and it could apply to the Bishops who do not fight the evil with the full weight of the spiritual & disciplinary actions at their disposal: "just words, just speeches..."
The next few months will be interesting. The Bishops are in need of our prayer---not just for their sakes but for the good of the poor sheep, many of whom seem to be lost in the present fog of war: between good & evil, light & darkness, truth & falsehood.
Lord have mercy on us all.