Archbishop Burke's Column in America Magazine

Having read the article by Archbishop Burke, titled "Catholic politicians and bishops", I can only say that this article is so completely understandable and logically flawless that if, it seems, anyone disagrees with the arguments and reasoning used, that person must be incapable of rational thought.

Archbishop Burke has demonstrated a consistency in all of his writings and appearances from his Notification and Pastoral Letter issued in La Crosse, to his interviews on EWTN and elsewhere, to this latest article in America. He reaffirms the teaching of the Church and, in doing so, leaves no doubt about the seriousness and the gravity of the Church's teaching and discipline and the pastoral care required of bishops.

This column should be required reading for all (including those bishops who have embraced a deficient understanding of what "pastoral care" truly means.

...it seems to me that there has been a general failure in the church to teach effectively the truth about the holy Eucharist and what is required to approach the sacrament worthily. I have frequently had the impression that some Catholics today believe that mere presence at Mass means that one may receive Communion. Reception of Communion can become a kind of social action of those present at Mass. In such a climate, to state that anyone is excluded from Communion is seen as the imposition of a harsh sanction, when, in fact, it is merely the recognition that one is involved in objectively grave sin.

...Supporting legislation that provides for procured abortion is participation in a gravely sinful act, what the church’s moral teaching calls formal cooperation. The natural and divinely revealed moral law forbids this cooperation in the taking of an innocent life (Evangelium Vitae, No. 73b). Therefore a Catholic politician who supports or votes for laws that are unjust, because they permit procured abortion, persists in a gravely sinful act.

Having considered the matter carefully, I respond that the division is already present, both in the conscience of Catholics who dissent from a most fundamental church teaching and in the “intolerant secularism” prevalent in our nation, which would exclude Catholics from political life unless they be willing to violate their conscience. In our habit of “political correctness,” we do not like to acknowledge these divisions, but they must be recognized for the sake of our consciences and for the good of the nation.

For a bishop or any pastor to exclude someone from Communion is always a source of great sorrow. The sorrow is caused by the care that a pastor naturally has for a soul who rejects the teaching of Christ and his church. What would be profoundly more sorrowful would be the failure of a bishop to call a soul to conversion, the failure to protect the flock from scandal and the failure to safeguard the worthy reception of Communion.

America article is here.