Monday, April 26, 2004

Protest at Vatican Embassy in Washington

Addressing the demonstration, Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choices stated:

"Just yesterday, the Vatican again demonstrated that it is out of step with Catholic people as it used the sacrament of Holy Communion to push its political agenda. The Vatican has consistently shown itself to misunderstand the American principle of separation of church and state. This kind of blanket pronouncement will only lower the credibility of US Catholic bishops with ordinary Catholic people. It is time for church leaders to accept that Catholics in good faith disagree with the absolute prohibition of legal abortion demanded by the Vatican. It is time for church leaders to acknowledge that the threat of denying the sacraments to Catholics who disagree with their positions has no basis in church law. It is both bad politics and bad religion. "
Surely, Ms. Kissling is being misquoted...No doubt what she meant to say was:

"Just today, we heretics and apostates again demonstrated that we are out of step with Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church as we use the sacrament of Holy Communion to push our political agenda. We have consistently shown ourselves to misunderstand the American principle of separation of church and state.

"Our blanket pronouncements will only lower our credibility with all Christian people. It is time for Church leaders to excommunicate all of us who, in bad faith, disagree with the absolute prohibition of legal abortion as taught by the Church throughout history. It is time for Church leaders to acknowledge that the denying the sacraments to those of us who are heretics, apostates, and schismatics is a noble and proper course of action and is thoroughly based on Church law. It is both bad politics and bad religion when we are not punished for our offences and scandals. "

Link is here.

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