The Catholic Church’s eternal teaching against killing the innocent by abortion doesn’t apply this year because it might affect the real world. At least, that seemed to be the message from the Vatican this past week.
Throughout his career, Sen. John Kerry has called himself a Catholic while promoting abortion, including government-funded abortion.
In June, Los Angeles canon lawyer Marc Balestrieri sued Kerry in Ecclesiastical Court in Boston for heresy. As part of his research, Balestrieri went to the Vatican to ask if a Catholic politician who supports a right to abortion is automatically excommunicated with no need for any special process or declaration from the pope or a bishop.
Within 10 days, Balestrieri heard from Fr. Basil Cole of Washington, D.C., who wrote to say he'd been asked by Fr. Augustine Di Noia at the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to answer. Fr. Cole's reply: Yes. Abortion is so evil that any Catholic who publicly supports it is in effect an accessory to the crime, and excommunicates himself by his own action.
On October 15, Balestrieri announced what he'd learned (see defide.com), yielding banner headlines on The Drudge Report and then everywhere else: Kerry Said To Be Excommunicated.
Possibly responding to screams from the Democrat-leaning US National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Vatican dove for cover. “Vatican denies it responded to lawyer seeking Kerry's excommunication,” reported the Catholic News Service, quoting an anonymous Vatican official as saying, No, Kerry is not a heretic, but without explaining why not.
After first denying he'd been in touch with Balestri at all, Fr. Di Noia admitted to Reuters: I thought I was advising a student who was working on a project. I referred him to a reliable theologian on the matter. I had no idea his aim was actually to build a heresy case against John Kerry or against anyone else.
So if he'd known Balestrieri was trying to shoot down Sen. Kerry, he'd have gotten him a different answer? Does the truth change depending on who is asking the question? Does moral law only apply to children's school papers, not in the real world?
What's really going on here? Faced with an honest Protestant president who reads their books, quotes their pope and has done more than any modern US president to rebuild respect for God and human life, many of those who work at the Vatican are…disgusted. About 60 percent of them hope that Kerry wins the election, reports the (left-leaning) National Catholic Reporter.
The Vatican is the headquarters of the Universal Church, but its culture is deeply European. And Old Europe has been dying for 50 years, becoming a continent of slackers with declining economies, shrinking native populations and entire countries refusing to join the war against the Islamic terrorists on their doorstep for fear that, if the West wins, America will somehow benefit.
Similarly, some at the Vatican want abortion, euthanasia and terrorism to be defeated without anyone having to fire a shot, excommunicate a politician or otherwise get their hands dirty.
It's hard to see how such a strategy of futility has any future — within the Church or without.
I am inspired to believe change is on the way, in part by a quote from a good, straight-shooting priest from the US, who, despite some surprising missteps after his arrival at the Vatican, will no doubt regain his nerve and can-do spirit. He is, after all, an American. A few years ago, he declared at a Washington conference: “Don't be embarrassed by telling people the truth. To have an impact on public life, Catholics need to approach it with confidence in their faith.”
His name is Fr. J. Augustine Di Noia.
Copyright © 2004 by High Tor Media, Inc. Used by permission.
Duncan Maxwell Anderson is president of High Tor Media, Inc., a N.Y. book-packaging firm.
