It feels a bit futile to just comment on Drudge links all morning, but here's another one that sticks in my craw, or raises my hackles, or something. The Vatican has decided that what's good theology for some is not good theology for all. I'm not a Catholic, but I think it's absurd the way the Vatican refuses to take a significant stand on the most critical issues of our age.
Balestrieri submitted a query to the Congregation several months ago, asking if someone who publicly supported abortion rights would be guilty of heresy and incur what the Church calls "automatic excommunication."So... is Cole's theological position valid or invalid? Why does the motivation of the questioner matter in any way? He's only trying to establish doctrinal fact. If public support for abortion is heresy, wouldn't that cover prominent Catholics? Or do they get some sort of special indulgence for political reasons? I gladly defer to Martin Luther's position on that matter.Di Noia, the Congregation's undersecretary, referred the request to Father Basil Cole, a canon lawyer in Washington.
Cole provided a response which said that if a Catholic "publicly and obstinately" supports the civil right to abortion despite knowledge of the Church's teaching, that person commits heresy and "is automatically excommunicated."
Balestrieri asserted that Cole's letter was proof that the Vatican was on his side. But Di Noia said: "His claim that the private letter he received from Father Basil Cole is a Vatican response has no merit whatsoever."
"I thought I was advising a student who was working on a project. I referred him to a reliable theologian on the matter. I was acting in my capacity as a theologian trying to be helpful to a young person," he told Reuters.
"I had no idea his aim was actually to build a heresy case against John Kerry or against anyone else. I feel that we have been instrumentalized," Di Noia told Reuters.
It's not double-talk at all. Rather, it's one more bit of evidence that we're all clueless about how the Vatican works. I took a stab at explaining things in my own blog
TML: I'm certainly not qualified to comment on "how the Vatican works", but I don't need to be to point out an obvious case of irrationality and/or political opportunism. The Vatican may certainly choose to be irrational and/or politically opportunistic, that's it's prerogative.
If you want to keep up with this story, I'd recommend going to Bettnet:
http://bettnet.dyndns.org/blog/weblog.php
The headline was pretty exciting, that the Vatican was moving to excommunicate Kerry. My wife even called me at work to say that she saw it on Drudge. But when you read the story, it was a referral of an issue to a theologian in the US. What he said was exactly what the Church says in so many words, but just is not as weighty as the Vatican taking action.
Just to be clear, Cardinal Ratzinger, the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, has been very clear that Catholic politicians cannot support abortion and continue to receive communion. You can read it for yourself: http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/bishops/04-07ratzingerommunion.htm
But it is left to the local bishops to enforce it. Most US bishops, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, take the position that they are not going to withhold communion from anyone. Some US bishops have been brave enough to speak out on this and actually enforce what the Church believes, and we are indebted to them. Each bishop has a lot of latitude in his diocese, so there can be many approaches to the same issue. That's why the Vatican wasn't happy to be caught out. It's not so much that it's not the correct doctrine, but it's not usually their turf to enforce rules around the world. The Catholic Church is definitely not the monolith most people think it is.
But ultimately it can look very confusing. The Vatican promulgates many rules that are never carried out. This has caused a lot of angst among loyal Catholics. I'm pretty naive, but I get a sense that a schism is coming in the US between Catholics loyal to the Vatican and those who are not. But that's a big can of worms.