Pete Vere: July 2004 Archives

A number of you asked me how you can go about helping Marc Balestrieri in his canonical effort to combat the alleged pro-choice heresy espoused by Catholic politicians such as John Kerry. In fact, Al Matt asked me to answer this very question for his readers when I asked him last Wednesday whether I could cover this story in my regular monthly column for the Wanderer.

With this in mind, here's a sneak peak at the rough draft of the column I hope to submit. It is written in three parts. The first part is basically a summary of what I've already blogged on this subject, while the second part offers a basic explanation of why I maintain the pro-choice position to be heretical according to the clear teaching of the Catholic Church. Finally, the third part outlines three basic actions every Catholic can do to support Marc in his canonical petition.

----------------

Of Canons and Culture…
Lay Canon Lawyer Sues John Kerry for Heresy

Pete Vere, JCL

On June 14th, some heavy news hit both the canon law world and the American political scene. Marc Balestrieri filed a formal canonical petition before the Archdiocese of Boston in which he denounced John Forbes Kerry for the ecclesiastical crime of heresy. By July 1st, Marc had posted his eighteen-page petition available to defide.com where those with Internet access may view it.

Balestrieri’s canonical petition came as a surprise to many – including conservative canonists like myself. While other Catholic faithful have filed similar canonical actions in the past, what makes Balestrieri’s petition unique is that he happens to be a respected lay canonist. Yet like many lay canonists who fall within generation-x, Balestrieri is fed up with the scandal caused by pro-abort Catholic politicians. So he decided to attempt canonical recourse against the well-known senator from Massachusetts.

I know Marc personally. I will gladly vouch for his credentials as a canon lawyer. He told me in our last conversation that he spent six months researching both the procedure and the merit of this canonical action before undertaking it. It shows. When it comes to the facts and to the law, Balestrieri’s research, presentation, and handling of the situation is solid. I only wish that I had possessed enough courage to initiate a similar action against Paul Martin in Canada before he became Prime Minister.

In terms of Balestrieri’s future, however, this is the most risky venture undertaken by a canon lawyer since the eighties when Fr. Tom Doyle predicted a future sexual abuse crisis among the clergy. Defide.com reports that Marc is a lay judge with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles tribunal. One can only imagine Cardinal Mahony’s reaction to this petition. So Marc is likely putting both his reputation and his livelihood on the line with his canonical denunciation of Democrat presidential nominee. You’ve got guts Marc, and I pray our readers at the Wanderer will support you in this endeavor.

Yet this canonical action raises an important question, namely, what precisely is John Kerry’s heresy? Despite the misunderstanding of some sympathetic to Balestrieri’s action, Kerry’s heresy does not concern his reception of Holy Communion. This is separate – albeit not unrelated – issue. Rather, Kerry’s heresy concerns his affirmation that abortion is a matter of private morality with no public responsibility on the part of Catholic politicians.

For example, the presidential hopeful recently appeared on Larry King Live. When questioned about bishops threatening to deny him Holy Communion because of his voting record on abortion, Kerry responded: "Well, there are some bishops who have spoken out, but that's not the position of the Church, and as you know, we have a separation in America of Church and state. My obligation as a Catholic is to examine my conscience, under the freedom of conscience under Vatican II, Pope John XXIII, and Pope Paul […] I mean, being for choice does not mean you are for abortion..." As an aside, perhaps it is no coincidence that Kerry failed to mention Pope John Paul II in his litany of Church authorities whom he claims support his position. One need only read Evangelium vitae to know where our current Holy Father stands with regards to this issue.

Alternatively, one can contrast Kerry’s doctrine with that taught by the Catholic Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church aptly summarizes Church teaching in article 2270 as follows: "Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent to life," (emphasis mine). With regards to the political responsibility of every Catholic toward the child in the womb, article 2273 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation…"

In denying these clear teachings of the Catholic Church while claiming to be a devout Catholic, John Forbes Kerry inflicts scandal upon Christ’s faithful. As fellow Catholic blogger Lane Core, Jr. explains in somewhat more contemporary language: "John Forbes Kerry is a darn heretic. He has caused and continues to cause great harm to the Catholic Church and to individual Catholics by stirring up doubt among Catholics and others about the Church's teaching and the Church's authority to teach, and by other scandals — even to the point of leading innumerable others, including Catholics, into believing The Right to Murder Unborn Children heresy — not by what he professes to believe but by what actions he takes and does not take, which is all that really matters."

Obviously, Balistrieri’s canonical action is something every orthodox Catholic should support. So how can we go about doing so as simple Catholic laity? First, keep Marc in your daily prayers. This battle is as much spiritual as it is canonical. Perhaps you can offer up an extra Rosary for him or spend an hour before Our Lord in Eucharistic adoration.

Secondly, Marc requires some financial support. Perhaps it is only coincidence that the same day Marc’s petition was made public, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles posted a new job opening for a canon lawyer. Time will tell. In the meantime, Marc requires basic living amenities such as food, water and shelter like the rest of us. When I last spoke to Marc, however, he had not eaten in several days, having poured his meager life savings as one of the Church’s lay employees into this canonical action. You can donate to Marc’s effort electronically at defide.com or you can send a check via postal mail to the following address:

DE FIDE
1223 Wilshire Boulevard, PMB 346
Santa Monica, CA 90403-5400

Thirdly, like over 1500 other Catholics, you can join Marc as a petitioner to his canonical action against John Kerry and the latter’s alleged pro-choice heresy. In my opinion as a canonist, this is in keeping with the canonical right of every Catholic outlined in the third paragraph of canon 212 as follows: "Christ’s faithful […] have the right, indeed at times the duty […] to manifest to the sacred Pastors their views on matters which concern the good of the Church." The destruction wreaked on millions of women and children each year by abortion, as well as the scandal to the faith caused by pro-choice Catholic politicians such as John Kerry, obviously concerns the common good of the Church. Therefore, to exercise your canonical right to express yourself on this matter, please visit Defide.com and learn how you can join Marc Balestrieri as a co-petitioner to this canonical action.

LOL! Lane Core, Jr. has attempted to translate Marc Balestrieri's petition against John Kerry for heresy into the language of the laity. Here's a sample:

"John Forbes Kerry is a damn heretic. By word and deed, he espouses the heresy that The Blog from the Core will call The Right to Murder Unborn Children. The Church has dogmatically defined that the deliberate taking of innocent human life is intrinsically evil, and that procured abortion is included in this definition. John Forbes Kerry is a damn heretic. Though he says that he personally believes what the Church teaches about abortion, he nonetheless espouses heresy by what he does: he pro-actively, even vigorously, does whatever he can to assure that an intrinsically evil act is legal and will remain legal, and to advance its status in society to the point that it will be understood as an everyday human right and acknowledged by mainline churches as such."

You can read the entire translation at Lane's blog.

To begin, thank-you everyone for your prayers this past weekend. They are much appreciated.

Well I've basically monopolized Pacheco's phone line this weekend as phone calls and emails (both incomming and outgoing) in the canon law world are abuzz about Marc Balestrieri's canonical action against John Kerry. Behind the scenes, the situation has taken on a little more clear definition -- some good, some bad and some ugly.

First the bad news. While I have not been able to confirm this independently, I have heard from a trusted third-party source that Marc has now reportedly lost his job. Please keep this in mind. Marc expressed deep gratitude to the people at St. Blog's and FreeRepublic for their spiritual, moral and financial support and asked me thank everyone from him. He was especially taken back by Oswald Sobrino's donation of book royalties to the cause. Additionally, a lot of the leading boomer canonists are not too pleased about this canonical action, and they're gonna fight hard to oppose it.

On the positive front, a number of other leading gen-x canonists are weighing in on Marc's side and/or have enthusiastically committed to defending this action. They have contacted both Marc and myself, and it looks like our battle plan is coming together. Two of the canonists weighing in (Anselmo and another I will call Constantine for the time being) are procedural experts, which is good news for me since my prowess when it comes to procedural law is only average among canonists. So for the time being, the decision was made to keep me out of the procedural action until Anselmo and Constantine figure out a way to weigh in, at which point I will simply piggy-back off of their effort.

Basically, this means I will be helping Marc with the media and fundraising end of things until we come to the substance (or what canonists call "the merit") of the case. At this point, I look forward to arguing that pro-abort Catholic pols should be given the opportunity to repent, and failing to do so, excommunicated for heresy. On this note, it is important to remember that the heresy is not that they frequent Holy Communion, as has been misunderstood by some acting in good faith on our side. This is a separate problem. The heresy in question is that the topic of abortion is one of private morality, and that one can legitimately be privately opposed to abortion while defending and promoting a public "right" to dismember and butcher a child in the womb.

With my canon law books in boxes, and given the calibre of canonists on the other side, I feel much more at ease arguing the heretical nature of the pro-choice position rather than engage in procedural battles over whether laypeople can bring such an action before a tribunal. Canonists on the other side are arguing that the competency to initiate such an action falls exclusively to the Promoter of Justice. Concerning this procedural controversy, Dr. Ed Peters (a canonist whom I highly respect and probably the only boomer canonist that has taken a public stand generally favorable to Marc thus far) has now weighed in with some pretty solid commentary in my opinion. Given my own strengths and weaknesses as a canonist, I'm gonna leave this debate to Marc, Peters, Anselmo and Constantine.

Additionally, Marc put in a solid performance before the media -- both Catholic and secular -- despite having eaten very little over the past week and getting even less sleep. His one slip-up, which fortunately does not concern the merit of his action, was forgetting to mention the defide.com website on Fox News. I'm pointing this out publicly, Marc, so you won't forget next time. Anytime you have millions of viewers watching, you need to promote your website.

Now for the ugly. I spoke with a number of respected boomer canonists opposed to this action over the weekend.  Their opposition is stiff. They have been caught off-guard by this action. However, they have also been caught off-guard by the growing number of leading gen-x canonists that support the action. Although we should keep in mind that there are boomers and gen-x canonists on both sides.

In the last fifteen years, the fighting between boomer and gen-x'ers in a number of the sacred sciences has become fierce. In many cases, it's personal. Fortunately, canonists have avoided this because, to their credit, boomer canonists have for the most part not taken these debates personally and have held any ideological debates between the two generations to the realm of ideology. Part of it, I think, is that the fight between boomer canonists and World War II era canonists after the Second Vatican Council was particularly fierce, and most boomer canonists who recall the battles fought during this time do not wish a repeat.

Of course, I'm simplifying the situation somewhat. But in a nutshell, certain unwritten rules have evolved through which canonists, when divided, argue their differences in both private and public forums. What my boomer friends have basically told me is that as long as our side sticks to the unwritten rules, their side will do so as well, and thus regardless of how the debate is ultimately resolved, everyone can walk out with their reputation untarnished. That being said, our side should keep in mind that the issue is very emotional for them as well. They recall a time when Rome investigated every little minor suspicion of theological or canonical imperfection. Additionally, they remember when Catholics were persecuted and basically locked out of the political process. So they are also willing to stick to the rules of "the game", but they're gonna hit hard as well as bring out all their star players. They also anticipate we will do the same. But as long as everyone sticks to the unwritten rules, we all may come out bloodied, but the issue will be resolved with our reputations as canonists still intact.

Pro-Abort Catholic Politicians and Heresy Trials

Well, I’m back. Thanks to everyone for your prayers, and thanks to St. Anthony, we finally made it across the border with our car. That being said, it appears I missed some excitement while off-line these past couple weeks. A number of you kindly sent me links to stories involving Marc Balestrieri’s canonical petition against John Kerry concerning the scandal being caused to Christ’s faithful from the latter’s support for abortion. Marc is a lay canonist in his early thirties and a pretty solid guy. So his action in support of innocent children in the womb took both myself and other lay canonists from our generation by surprise.

I cannot begin to explain the likely consequences of Marc’s actions. Don’t get me wrong; up until this point Marc enjoyed a solid reputation as a canon lawyer. He spent six months researching this petition, and his research, presentation, and handling of the facts and of the law is solid. Yet in terms of his future, this is the most risky venture undertaken by a canon lawyer since the eighties when Fr. Tom Doyle predicted the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Basically, Marc is putting his reputation and his livelihood on the line here.

We spoke earlier today by phone, and he is already come under heavy fire from the Democrat machine, some heavy players within the Catholic hierarchy, not a few respected canonists, and even some neo-conservative Republicans. Up until now, he’s also fought much of this battle alone, against powerful enemies on several fronts, and out of his own pockets. Keep in mind that Church employees don’t make a whole lot of money to begin with, and Marc has living expenses like the rest of us. As long as this canonical action is drawing public attention, despite the Church’s shortage of canon lawyers, most dioceses won’t touch him.

Yet Marc assured me when we spoke that the costs were worth it. He also told me that he would rather seek Kerry repent than be excommunicated, and this remains the end for which Marc hopes. Barring this happy outcome, however, Marc is ready and willing to sacrifice his future over this canonical action. Although I cringe whenever I think of what’s in store for Marc, I know he is doing the right thing.

I cannot deny that I have often toyed with the idea of initiating a similar canonical action. Nevertheless, I always backed down. There’s a number of excuses I could offer – having a wife and two children to support being the main one, not wanting to draw too much attention as a Canadian living in the United States being another – but in the end, these were merely excuses.

The real reason I backed down was cowardice. I simply was not ready to absorb the personal and financial costs involved. Yet Marc’s actions have forced me to confront the costs of my own cowardice. Each year there are close to three million victims of abortion in America. Half of these victims, the children in the womb, forfeit their lives to altar of the sexual revolution. The other half, that being the mothers, find themselves emotionally and psychologically damaged for the rest of their lives. This has got to stop, and the Church must take firm action against the Catholic politicians who support this grave evil.

Marc, I know you follow these blogs. And I appreciate your kind compliments towards me and other lay canonists who fought some of the earlier battles. But we spent most of the day speaking among ourselves and we all agree that you’ve set the new standard of courage with your canonical action as none of us have had the courage thus far to lay it all on the line like you have. You’ve got some heavy persecution ahead and none of the boys envy you. May God bless you in this effort and may He give us the courage to stand by you and you defend His most innocent of creation.