Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Cardinal McCarrick's scandal becomes bishops' scandal

From Catholic Insight:
Washington—Theodore Cardinal McCarrick is no longer archbishop of Washington, but even in retirement, he is holding to his position of accommodation with “pro-choice” Catholic politicians. Furthermore, he is always ready and willing to enunciate his views in this regard to the secular media.

In a late October interview with the Associated Press, the Cardinal criticized statements by the Archbishop of St. Louis, Raymond Burke, who stated as long as five years ago that priests should not give Holy Communion to Catholics who publicly support abortion. Recently, Burke repeated this stand with respect to Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, on the grounds that the politician is “a Catholic who has been publicly espousing positions contrary to the moral law and … knows it.”

McCarrick opposes Burke’s position based on a vague rule of his own; namely, “that no elected official will ever perfectly fall in line with every policy position the Church takes” (LifeSiteNews, Oct. 16, 2007). McCarrick mentioned euthanasia and the death penalty. (Editor: The latter indicates his confusion: opposition to the death penalty is a prudential option, not a mandatory teaching of the Church.)...

I don't believe it's as much confusion on the part of the retired (thankfully) cardinal as it is a misguided and seemingly wilful attempt to blur the issues and refuse to abide by the discipline of the Church or the Code of Canon Law.

After all, did not McCarrick withhold (some would say, deliberately) from the body of bishops the contents of Cardinal Ratzinger's memorandum, "Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion - General Principles" when they discussed the issue in Denver in 2004?


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