Kennedy reveals he's been excommunicated
Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, in Rhode Island because of the congressman's support for abortion rights, Kennedy said in a newspaper interview published Sunday.
The decision by the outspoken prelate, reported on The Providence Journal's Web site, significantly escalates a bitter dispute between Tobin, an ultra orthodox bishop, and Kennedy, a son of the nation's most famous Roman Catholic family.
"The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion," Kennedy told the paper in an interview conducted Friday.
Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him "that I am not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I've taken as a public official," particularly on abortion.
Let us pray others follow Bishop Tobin's courageous leadership.
This has been a long period where the teachings of the Catholic Church have been he-said-she-said in the public square. Various people who hold the tenets of the Church in contempt, yet claim authority to teach It, have erected a golden calf and named it "Catholicism". Far too many souls are being seduced.
Being complacent (or craven) is not an option.
We have a small window of opportunity to enlighten the intellect of Catholics in Congress and the House about the gravity of imposing immoral and inept medical care and how it will affect salvation. Losing the ability to tell right from wrong is caused by being emboldened in our sins and gives the devil the opportunity to use us as tools.
This is the subterfuge of the spiritual world we cannot see, the Holy Spirit uses people as tools and the devil uses people as tools:
The world is filled with information. Education brings us to a fork in the road where we act upon free will. One road is living a life of surrender to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, fed by God's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Catholic Church. The other road is the chaos of following our own desires.
In subterfuge of this spiritual world people rise to call others to migration.
Anytime Christ's Church holds the Light up for all to see and follow, the spiritual battle for souls will provoke the spiritual force opposing the Light to use their tools call souls back to the darkness.
The culture is entrenched and the message of the Prodigal Son will be twisted. To be effective, the message from Apostolic successors has got to be swift, powerful and unified.
Kennedy could appeal the decision to officials in the Vatican, but the hierarchy of the Catholic church is unlikely to overturn a bishop, said Michael Sean Winters, a church observer and author of "Left At the Altar: How Democrats Lost The Catholics And How Catholics Can Save The Democrats."
"It's really bad theology," said Winters, who opposes abortion. "You're turning the altar rail into a battle field, a political battlefield no less, and it does a disservice to the Eucharist."
How is throwing the Eucharist into a cesspool a disservice?
Unworthy reception of the Eucharist not only does a disservice to the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord - it does a disservice to the soul who receives unworthily because it entrenches them in their sins. Further, it does a disservice to all those watching the circus of a public servant who dissents from the Church because they believe the actions of receiving is the equivalent of Communion with the Catholic Church.
As Fr. Convertino of St. Anthony's Shrine has memorialized, priests living a life of misleading their flocks have no problem with scuffles at the Altar. They do it all the time when people want to receive by mouth without touching the Blessed Sacrament or on their knees.
At the end of the day, those putting on the circus in the public square for the last 40 years have not plowed out and migrated the people towards the path of salvation. The world has descended. It's time for new leadership. The leadership of the last forty years is inching us towards the destruction of the empires this culture has built.
The Mercy of God will not permit a culture where so many of His souls are led to trudging the road to hell. The Old Testament is filled with empires that were wiped out by the Hand of God. God loved us so much that He sent His Only Son. The New Testament is filled with Christ's teachings, explanations and the sacrifice it cost Him to leave us a Church with Apostles designed to form our consciences and set us on the right road.
If you find yourself on the road with Patrick Kennedy and a culture that opposes the teachings of the Church, some soul searching on the identity of the spiritual subterfuge beckoning you is definitely order.
He declined to say when or how Tobin told him not to take the sacrament. And he declined to say whether he has obeyed the bishop's injunction.
God help him. Like it or lump it, Patrick Kennedy is experiencing the prodigal son, the father who would not let the son on the wrong path destroy the consciences in the rest of his household. Tough love to oust your flesh and blood but the reality is, there comes a point in time when somebody can undermine and poison the Truth in a household and the head of that household must take action to protect others.
The duty of a Shepherd of the Catholic Church to protect their children physically is minutia in the grand scheme of things. If they remove those who harm a body and leave those who harm the souls, their own salvation is at risk. The path to hell is paved with the skulls of shepherds who permitted a counterfeit church in the name of Catholicism to be erected and mislead.
I'm edified and hopeful at the new signs that the USCCB is going to guard and protect the Name Catholic from being hijacked. The excommunication of Patrick Kennedy is the first step on our road to recovering our heritage for our children.
Fr. Rutler's magnificent column this week hits this right between the eyes:
FROM THE PASTOR
November 22, 2009
by Fr. George W. Rutler
November 22, 2009
by Fr. George W. Rutler
Our Lord predicted that “… the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.” (Mark 13:24) In every generation, there will be efforts to block Christ (the sun) and muffle the voice of his Church (the moon).
Cardinal Consalvi reminded Napoleon that even weak bishops for nineteen centuries had not been able to block the voice of Christ. A century and a half later, when the Vichy government claimed Catholic credentials but promoted genocide, Pierre Laval blustered: “Nobody and nothing can sway me from my determination to rid France of foreign Jews. Cardinals and bishops have intervened, but everyone is a master of his own trade. They handle religion. I handle government.” Three years later, Laval was executed, and in 1981 a chief object of Laval’s threats, Cardinal Gerlier, was posthumously declared “Righteous among the Nations” by Yad Vashem.
In 1980, Cardinal Madieros of Boston wrote: “Those who make abortion possible by law cannot separate themselves from the guilt which accompanies this horrendous crime and deadly sin.” Shortly afterward, the Cardinal visited my college in Rome. He recounted how Senator Edward Kennedy told him: “You do your business, and I’ll do mine.” The next year, Cardinal Madieros died unexpectedly in heart surgery at the age of 67.
On November 12, the Bishop of Providence, Thomas J. Tobin, responded to a public comment of Congress-man Patrick Kennedy who had said: “The fact that I disagree with the hierarchy on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic.” The bishop asked, “What does it mean to be a Catholic?” He quoted the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “It would be a mistake to confuse the proper autonomy exercised by Catholics in political life with the claim of a principle that prescinds from the moral and social teaching of the Church.” The bishop gave a checklist for being a Catholic that applies to each of us: “Do you accept the teachings of the Church on essential matters of faith and morals, including our stance on abortion? Do you belong to a local Catholic community, a parish? Do you attend Mass on Sundays and receive the sacraments regularly? Do you support the Church personally, publicly, spiritually and financially?”
In 1947 Cardinal Ritter of St. Louis threatened to excommunicate any of his flock who tried to stop the racial integration of Catholic schools, and in 1962 Archbishop Rummel of New Orleans did in fact excommunicate a judge and two other Catholics for opposing desegregation. The media hailed them as prophets. But when newer bishops in the mold of Benedict XVI refuse to play courtier to decadent dynasties, voices older than Laval, and as old as Pilate, whine with a tone of lèse majesté: “Mind your own business.”
Cardinal Consalvi reminded Napoleon that even weak bishops for nineteen centuries had not been able to block the voice of Christ. A century and a half later, when the Vichy government claimed Catholic credentials but promoted genocide, Pierre Laval blustered: “Nobody and nothing can sway me from my determination to rid France of foreign Jews. Cardinals and bishops have intervened, but everyone is a master of his own trade. They handle religion. I handle government.” Three years later, Laval was executed, and in 1981 a chief object of Laval’s threats, Cardinal Gerlier, was posthumously declared “Righteous among the Nations” by Yad Vashem.
In 1980, Cardinal Madieros of Boston wrote: “Those who make abortion possible by law cannot separate themselves from the guilt which accompanies this horrendous crime and deadly sin.” Shortly afterward, the Cardinal visited my college in Rome. He recounted how Senator Edward Kennedy told him: “You do your business, and I’ll do mine.” The next year, Cardinal Madieros died unexpectedly in heart surgery at the age of 67.
On November 12, the Bishop of Providence, Thomas J. Tobin, responded to a public comment of Congress-man Patrick Kennedy who had said: “The fact that I disagree with the hierarchy on some issues does not make me any less of a Catholic.” The bishop asked, “What does it mean to be a Catholic?” He quoted the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “It would be a mistake to confuse the proper autonomy exercised by Catholics in political life with the claim of a principle that prescinds from the moral and social teaching of the Church.” The bishop gave a checklist for being a Catholic that applies to each of us: “Do you accept the teachings of the Church on essential matters of faith and morals, including our stance on abortion? Do you belong to a local Catholic community, a parish? Do you attend Mass on Sundays and receive the sacraments regularly? Do you support the Church personally, publicly, spiritually and financially?”
In 1947 Cardinal Ritter of St. Louis threatened to excommunicate any of his flock who tried to stop the racial integration of Catholic schools, and in 1962 Archbishop Rummel of New Orleans did in fact excommunicate a judge and two other Catholics for opposing desegregation. The media hailed them as prophets. But when newer bishops in the mold of Benedict XVI refuse to play courtier to decadent dynasties, voices older than Laval, and as old as Pilate, whine with a tone of lèse majesté: “Mind your own business.”
Father, no doubt, is rejoicing today.
Come on shepherds, stand up and fight.
***ADDENDUM
I'm passing along a suggestion a friend just sent me that I'm certainly going to follow and I hope you also consider:
Today's Mass & Communion is for this Bishop! God Bless Him & may he live a long long life!
Cover his back and lift him up.
No comments:
Post a Comment