12 comments

  1. I think that is a cheap shot ad. It’s really sad that the Pope would need to go forth and take personal responsibility away from the lay people. The problem with saying it is up to the priests to judge in these cases includes the problem that if people are allowed to receive communion despite various mortal sins they will determine that it is alright being that the priest did not deny them.
    Priests should use their discretion in cases where they KNOW 100% that a person isn’t in communion with the church. Otherwise, they should hold each person to be responsible (while certainly preaching about the consequences in homilies) and understand that it is impossible for any of us to determine the exact point of conversion. Perhaps it happened minutes before communion.
    Just my opinion, however. I’m just not very excited about cheap shots at the Pope.

  2. Talk about “More Catholic than the Pope!” This is an example of arrogance, and displays a surprising lack of reflection on what is in fact a complicated issue.
    I don’t think it is ALL’s place to tell the Pope how to run his Church any more than it is the place of, say, John Kerry. By all means, write to your bishops (privately) and pray for a just resolution. But disrespecting the Holy Father in a public manner is unacceptable.

  3. I dont think the ad was meant as a cheap shot.
    For someone with Judie’s weight- being an active member of the Pontifical Academy and her many dedicated years to the Magesterium and the US pro-life movement, I hardly think that she is attacking our Holy Father.
    The point she is trying to make is that the US Bishops are taking this as a joke and they are in complete disarray, to me this ad points that out clearly.
    Bishop Vasa ,recently in an article by Barb Kralis ,stated that he does not have to answer to the USCCB, he answers to Rome. We know what Rome says on the canon regarding communion.. but our Bishops seem to ignore it.
    Someone has to say it out loud and I do commend Judie for having the strength to keeping up the pressure on our Bishops.

  4. I think that the ad is awesome. And I don’t think it’s being disrespectful of His Holiness. In fact, perhaps, he needs to be clipped across the back of the head (figuratively speaking) to wake up to the problem here in the USA. What is it going to take to have the Vicar of Christ speak on this issue and correct the errors of these men?

  5. Can we review the various statements and see if she’s fairly summarizing Cdl. Ratzinger’s views?

  6. I think Catholic politicians who publicly dissent from Church teaching should be corrected firmly and charitably. Excommunication should not be ruled out. But I would prefer that they be formally excommunicated in the diocese in which they reside. The bishops shouldn’t just say that the politicians ought not present themselves for communion.
    That being said, I think this ad is confusing and unnecessary. It’s wrong to approach it from the standpoint of canon law. Bishops are not only authorized by Church legislation, they are *required by their office* to correct public misstatements of the faith, if they see their flocks being misled.
    You can’t hold the Holy Father directly accountable for any problems in the American portion of the Church. It’s our mess, and we need to clean it up ourselves.
    In general, ALL does not help the pro-life cause very much. It’s things like this that allow people to write them off as an extremist fringe group.

  7. ALL has long struck me as an organization that allows its collective emotions to run the show, sometimes almost to the point of hysteria, rather than let its collective head stay cool and control the emotions. The poster in question is an example of this.

  8. All these comments remind me of what Bishop Jenky here in Peoria Il said….
    –“Why do we as Catholics not stand up and fight and defend our faith? What will it take to finally get us mad?”–
    http://www.cdop.org/catholic_post/post_9_7_03/homily.cfm
    What will it take folks? Perhaps for Judie and ALL this is what it took. Maybe we should all ask ourselves that question.. What will it take to finally get us mad?

  9. Get mad and defend our faith against…Cardinal Ratzinger? The Pope? I think I can be excused for thinking that that’s just a leeeeetle counter-productive.
    Getting upset about things is one thing, being so perpetually ticked off that we practice friendly fire (and in ALL’s, it’s a fairly common occurence, IIRC) is another.

  11. It seems that I’m always on the wrong side of any given issue.
    To be honest, I didn’t find any problem with ALL’s ad this time, and I was quite critical of their last ad that was very irreverent toward the American Bishops. But this one isn’t irrevent toward the Pope. They’re simply asking him to do something about this, they’re voicing their concern, a right which is guaranteed them by Canon Law. It’s not forbidden to voice concerns to the Pope.
    It’s not as if they’re accusing the Pope of any wrongdoing here. They’re asking him to do something because the American Bishops won’t. How they react if he chooses not to do anything will be the deciding factor in whether or not they’ve gone too far, but I think at this point there’s no need to criticize this particular ad. The only criticism I have for it is that perhaps this would have been better addressed privately than in the Washington Times.
    As for Cardinal Ratzinger, I’m perplexed by his statement that the Bishops’ policy is in harmony with his own, which doesn’t seem to be the case considering the letter he sent them. I wish he’d clarify what he means, that might be extremely helpful.

  12. I assume their objection is to Ratzinger’s comment that the USCCB’s policy is fine – not to his earlier letter telling them what to do.
    But, the policy mostly says it’s the local bishop’s job to enforce the relevant canon. That’s quite right.
    As for Judie Brown, when she stops dissenting from at least a couple of teachings of the ordinary magisterium, I’ll start taking her seriously as a faithful Catholic voice who doesn’t mean to attack the pope and Cardinal Ratzinger.

Comments are closed.