LifeSiteNews.com caught up with O’Malley in Washington, DC last month, where he was among the concelebrating bishops for the Vigil Mass for Life at the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. LSN asked O’Malley what he considered the appropriate pastoral response to pro-abortion politicians receiving Communion.
"Well, I think that the only way that that solution [denying communion] should be invoked is if there were a large catechesis or if it was universal for the whole church," the cardinal responded. "You can’t have people doing things in one parish and another, you would only divide the Church hopelessly.”
Is this guy serious?
O’Malley said an official papal directive or change in Canon Law would be “the only way it is really going to work.”What is he talking about?
“That would be helpful if they did it,” he continued. “But if it is not done – to make it look like it’s an individual bishop sparring with the people of particular parties is only going to divide the Church in a very terrible way. Then you’ll have some priest who will obey and others who won’t, other divisions of the Church, more scandal, and undermining the authority of the bishops.”
O’Malley revealed that he had been concerned about the issue for a long time, and asked Pope John Paul II for guidance when the pontiff was soliciting input from bishops for his pro-life encyclical Evangelium Vitae.
“I wrote to him and asked him to please give us very clear direction on how to deal with politicians who will be pro-abortion and will be Catholic,” related O’Malley.
“We have not had the kind of clear response that we need.”
Canon 915 gives explicit instructions and the Vatican has supplemented the instructions with numerous other directives.
Here's one from Cardinal Ratzinger from 2004.
Unfortunately, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) never received the letter as Ratzinger intended. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, chairman of the USCCB task force on the issue, only referenced the document as an afterthought in his 12-page report to that committee.
Later – in what may have been a Vatican end-run around McCarrick – Ratzinger's letter hit international headlines after being leaked to Roman media.
And, in another example of how the USCCB thwarts the Roman Catholic Church, they issued their own policy burying the Vatican's instructions.
In the end, the US Bishops task force put out more generalized guidelines in the document "Catholics in Political Life," which leaves the appropriate pastoral response towards pro-abortion politicians - including denial of Communion - to the prudential judgment of the individual bishop. Ratzinger would later affirm to the USCCB that the document was "very much in harmony" with his general principles.
Again, this is the same kind of dishonesty Cardinal O'Malley displayed as the ink was drying on the Caritas Abortion contracts and the money was changing hands.
Really, I cannot get over the depth and breadth of the deception. They rely upon the ignorance of the regular schlubs in the pews.
Frankly, I am not edified by the cover ups of the Catholic faithful.
Right now this is rumor and hearsay even by the admission of the blogger ("working on a lead"). I won't allow it to be promoted here especially since it concerns an Archbishop. When there is some type of substantial evidence which meets (my obviously subjective) bar of news, then we can talk about it here.
But when I posted the names and the remainder of the story, they won't give the people the information.
We're in tough shape.
