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.
Author: Pete Vere
To begin, thank-you everyone for
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.
The Catholic Faithful vs. John Kerry
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.
Help! Urgent Prayer Request!
Hi folks, I have an urgent prayer request. There’s been a rather frightening twist in my moving plans back to Canada. Barring Divine intervention, I’m likely gonna find myself stuck in no-man’s land between the US and the Canadian border. It concerns importing my car, as I attempt to negotiate between US customs, Canada customs, my insurance company and possibly a second one, and the bank that holds the lien on my car. Please keep this in prayer, as it needs to be resolved before the day is over.
Yankee Go Home!
[Warning: Harsh Blog Commentary Follows — Not suitable for mothers, young ladies and children]
With apologies to GWAR…
It’s not your imagination and it’s not a bad trippy,
yes, that’s right, it’s Michael Moore the hippy
As some of you might be aware, there’s a federal election going on in Canada right now. And guess what? The Conservative Party is winning. The reason for this is simple: Canadians like myself who take their religion seriously are sick and tired of having the Liberal goverment (assisted by the socialist NDP) shove the homosexual agenda down our throats.
Michael Moore is not happy about the rise of the Conservative Party of Canada in the polls. So he recently made his way to Toronto where, with all the arrogance of an American imperialist, he warned Canadians against voting for the Conservative Party of Canada.
Michael, I’ve spent the past four years living in the United States. Most Americans I have met are warm and hospitable people. These are memories that I will take with me when I move back to Canada next week to pursue my doctorate. You, however, are the exception to my otherwise positive experience of Americans. In fact, with your smug paternalistic attitude YOU — and not President Bush — are the stereotypical ugly American that the rest of the world complains about. You’re obnoxious, you’re condescending and you’re also fat from eating too much junk food.
We Canadians know how we will vote in the next election. Our votes are not about to change because some journalistic equivalent to masturbation (your entire shtick, in my opinion, is about Michael Moore — nobody else — so you don’t even have enough credibility to be dismissed as a hack) orders us to do otherwise.
Michael Moore, go home! You’ve made a big enough nuissance of yourself in your own country. Leave Canadians alone…