Lawmakers who back abortion, euthanasia told not to receive Communion

Lawmakers who back abortion, euthanasia told not to receive Communion
By Dan Rossini
Catholic News Service
LA CROSSE, Wis. (CNS) -- Archbishop Raymond L. Burke has formally notified Catholic lawmakers in the La Crosse Diocese that they cannot receive Communion if they continue to support procured abortion or euthanasia.

The four-paragraph canonical notification, published in the Jan. 8 edition of The Catholic Times, the La Crosse diocesan newspaper, called upon Catholic legislators in the diocese "to uphold the natural and divine law regarding the inviolable dignity of all human life."

"To fail to do so is a grave public sin and gives scandal to all the faithful," it said.

Archbishop Burke, who is to be installed Jan. 26 as St. Louis' new archbishop, released the canonical notification along with a 10-page pastoral letter to Catholics in the La Crosse Diocese about their political responsibility to uphold the value of human life.

He noted that the documents were issued while he is serving as diocesan administrator of La Crosse following his Dec. 2 appointment as archbishop of St. Louis. However, he said, the pastoral letter and the notification carry the full weight of his authority as bishop of La Crosse because both were signed Nov. 23, the feast of Christ the King.

"Catholic legislators who are members of the faithful of the Diocese of La Crosse and who continue to support procured abortion or euthanasia may not present themselves to receive holy Communion," the notification said. "They are not to be admitted to holy Communion, should they present themselves, until such time as they publicly renounce their support of these most unjust practices."

The two documents followed reports in the secular press in December that Archbishop Burke had sent private letters to three Catholic legislators in the diocese, warning them of the spiritual dangers of their votes against human life.

According to Archbishop Burke, the notification became necessary as an outcome of his correspondence with Catholic legislators. None of the three lawmakers to whom he wrote accepted his invitation for a private meeting to discuss their voting records, and in letters to the bishop indicated they were not open to changing their positions.

"After several exchanges of letters, it became clear in all three cases that there was no willingness to conform to the teaching of the church," he said. "So the notification became a necessity in order that the faithful in the diocese not be scandalized, thinking that it is acceptable for a devout Catholic to also be pro-abortion."

Archbishop Burke has declined to name the three politicians but secular news reports have identified two of them as state Sen. Julie Lassa and U.S. Rep. David R. Obey, D-Wis.

The archbishop said the simultaneous release of the two documents was a coincidence, since the pastoral letter had been in the works for months. "I'd been thinking about it for a long time, and working on it with the help of others, and we finally got it into its (final) form," he said.

"I've come to understand as bishop that there is a real confusion on the part of many people in the diocese with regard to the relationship of the moral law to our civil laws," he added. "So I wanted to write a letter to clarify this."

In the letter, titled "On the Dignity of Human Life and Civic Responsibility," Archbishop Burke said many Catholics misunderstand the concept of "separation of church and state," taking it to mean that church teachings have no application to political life.

The letter affirms, on the contrary, that Catholics have the obligation to form their political judgments from church teachings, "especially in what pertains to the natural moral law, that is, the order established by God in creation."

"If the Catholic Church insisted to legislators that they vote for laws that punish people who steal, no one would find anything objectionable in that," said the archbishop in the document. "People all recognize that to take someone else's property is a crime. The natural law teaches us that. So also it teaches that human life is inviolable."

The letter also addresses the position of some Catholic politicians who say their efforts to help the poor and marginalized make up for the fact they do not vote consistently in favor of protecting life, and that in a democracy legislators are bound to vote according to the will of the majority of their constituents.

The archbishop's notification on reception of Communion cites a passage from the "Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life," issued by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in January 2003.

That document reiterates the pope's teaching that Catholics involved directly in lawmaking bodies have a "grave and clear obligation to oppose" any measure that is an attack on human life. "For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them," it says.
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Editor's Note: The pastoral letter and the notification are posted on the Web site of the Diocese of La Crosse, www.dioceseoflacrosse.com.

This bishop (our new Archbishop) is a man to be proud of...I can't wait to meet him! The actual notification is here.