The Pope is really making waves in the news. The automatic excommunication for politicians that vote for abortion laws have really got the media excited.
Currently, there's automatic excommunication for any Catholic woman who kills her baby by abortion and any medical personnel who perform the abortion. Now there's excommunication for politicians who vote for abortion laws.
About time, really. Politicians have to be accountable for their actions in some way.
Currently, there's automatic excommunication for any Catholic woman who kills her baby by abortion and any medical personnel who perform the abortion. Now there's excommunication for politicians who vote for abortion laws.
The background to the hullaballoo was the recent vote by Mexico's parliament to legalise abortion. An Italian reporter on the plane asked the Pope whether he agreed that Catholic MPs in Mexico City who voted for legalisation should be considered excommunicated. The Pope replied: "Yes. The excommunication was not something arbitrary. It is part of the [canon law] code. It is based simply on the principle that the killing of an innocent human child is incompatible with going in Communion with the body of Christ. Thus, they [the bishops] did not do anything new or surprising, or arbitrary."Related Link: Pope stirs up row over abortion on visit to Brazil
The Rev John Coughlin, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, flatly contradicted the Pope, saying there was no provision in canon law which stated that Catholic politicians who voted to legalise abortion automatically excommunicated themselves.
The Pope's spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said the Pope was not making new policy in his remarks, and that formal excommunication of offending politicians - a complicated and rare procedure distinct from the doctrine of "self-excommunication" - was not on the cards. But he endorsed the main drift of the Pope's words. "Legislative action in favour of abortion is incompatible with participation in the Eucharist," he said. Politicians who vote that way, he went on, "exclude themselves from Communion".
About time, really. Politicians have to be accountable for their actions in some way.
Hmmm, while I agree with "Politicians have to be accountable for their actions in some way." one has to realise the impact of ex-communciation. We are all sinners to one extent or another. One has to think carefully about the penalty of ex-communication to politicians who vote in favour of abortion. Is is too harsh or not?
ReplyDeleteIf you believe you are legalizing murder, then I think so.
ReplyDeleteThere is also a good argument to be made that the sanctity of life is being less and less respected, that destructive behaviour is being rewarded in the worst possible way - as consequences are dealt with by the termination of a process that inevitably becomes life.
Total agreement with the pope: excommunicating those who would claim to be believers but then go ahead and make murder legal. I am sure that Pope Benedict would have thought long and hard before taking this, absolutely justified decision. There is absolutely no justification for the crime of abortion.
ReplyDeletePoliticians have to be accountable for their actions in some way.
ReplyDeleteFar be it for the voting public to expect their politicians to perform their public duty. Politicians are directly accountable to the people they serve.
Which is more than can be said for certain other types of 'leaders' in this world.