From The Dignitatis Humanae Institute: "False Charity Not To Excommunicate Visibly Pro-Abortion Politicians"

Note: The following is a press release from The Dignitatis Humanae Institute

Rome, 03 October 2013

Commentating on the heated debate on whether Holy Communion should be withheld from Catholic politicians who support abortion or euthanasia legislation, Luca Volontè, a Catholic Italian statesman with 20 years of experience affirmed: "It is simply a falsehood to believe one can readily divorce one's faith from personal involvement in public policy. To do so is to fail both God and one's neighbour, and stand complicit in grave sin. The Church teaches that pro-abortion politicians have already automatically excommunicated themselves ("latae sententiae"). It is therefore an act of false charity not to make this situation publicly manifest, because it deprives the person of receiving the most serious warning that they need to correct their behaviour, thus leading him/her into the erroneous belief that the Church might tacitly support such legislation."

The comments follow an interview from His Eminence Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest court position in the Vatican. In the interview with The Wanderer, the Vatican's most senior American spoke of the inability to reconcile pro-abortion Catholic politicians with their worthiness to receive Holy Communion: "it is a contradiction, it is wrong, it is a scandal, and it must stop! We live in a culture with a false sense of dialogue - which has also crept into the Church - where we pretend to dialogue about open and egregious violations of the moral law."

Despite vociferous criticism from the liberal commentariat of this dogmatic approach, Cardinal Burke, who also serves as the President of the Advisory Board of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, simply reiterates Church teaching as found in Canon Law and outlined by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith by the then Cardinal Ratzinger in Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion: General Principles. The memorandum states: "Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person's formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his Pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church's teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist."

In Ireland, the Catholic priests who have followed the memorandum's directives in response to the recent legislation sanctioning abortion have been met with howls of outrage from culpable Irish politicians who seek to divest themselves of their faith and moral responsibility whilst engaged in politics. Mr Volontè noted, "As Catholics in public office, often faced with the seemingly overwhelming pressure to submit ourselves to the party whip, we should in that moment seek inspiration from St Thomas More, the patron saint of politicians, who demonstrated with his life that God and morality cannot be separated from man and politics; "man is created by God, and therefore human rights have their origin in God, are based upon the design of creation and form part of the plan of redemption. One might even dare to say that the rights of man are also the rights of God." "

The Dignitatis Humanae Institute aims to uphold human dignity based on the anthropological truth that man is born in the image and likeness of God and therefore has an innate human dignity of infinite worth to be upheld. The Institute promotes this understanding by supporting Christians in public life, assisting them to present effective and coherent responses to increasing efforts to silence the Christian voice in the public square.

Pope Francis' Prayer Intentions For October 2013

The Pope's general prayer intention for October is: “That those feeling so crushed by life that they wish to end it may sense the nearness of God's love.”

His mission intention is: “That the celebration of World Mission Day may help all Christians realize that we are not only receivers but proclaimers of God's word.”

Novena to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

On October 13, Pope Francis is planning a Marian Day celebration at the Vatican and at this event he plans to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

As such, PrayMoreNovenas.com is organizing a novena as a way to join in unity with the Holy Father and prepare for this event.

So, beginning on October 4, Faith of the Fathers Blogs, and I will be joining more than 63,000 Catholics to pray the Novena to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Won't you join us for this important event? You can sign up to receive email reminders to get the novena prayers here:

http://www.praymorenovenas.com/novena-immaculate-heart-mary

The Silence of Our Friends -- the Extinction of Christianity in the Middle East

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• The last month and a half has seen perhaps the worst anti-Christian violence in Egypt in seven centuries, with dozens of churches torched. Yet the western media has mainly focussed on army assaults on the Muslim Brotherhood, and no major political figure has said anything about the sectarian attacks.
• Last week at the National Liberal Club there was a discussion asking why the American and British press have ignored or under-reported this persecution, and (in some people's minds) given a distorted narrative of what is happening.
• Among the four speakers was the frighteningly impressive Betsy Hiel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, who has spent years in Egypt and covered Iraq and Afghanistan. There were lots of stories of Muslims protecting Christian neighbours, but there were also incidents with frightening echoes; Hiel described a man riding on his bike past a burned down church and laughing, which brought to my mind the scene in Schindler's List when local Poles make throat-slitting gestures to Jews en route to Auschwitz.
• Some of this has been reported, but the focus has been on the violence committed against the Brotherhood. Judging by the accounts given by one of the other speakers, Nina Shea of the Center for Religious Freedom, the American press is even more blind, and their government not much better; when Mubarak was overthrown one US agency assessed the Muslim Brotherhood as being 'essentially secular'.
• The night ended with historian Tom Holland declaring sadly that we are now seeing the extinction of Christianity and other minority faiths in the Middle East. As he pointed out, it's the culmination of the long process that began in the Balkans in the late 19th century, reached its horrific European climax in 1939-1945, and continued with the Greeks of Alexandria, the Mizrahi Jews and most recently the Chaldo-Assyrian Christians of Iraq. The Copts may have the numbers to hold on, Holland said, and the Jews of Israel, but can anyone else?

Read more by clicking below:

The Silence of Our Friends -- the Extinction of Christianity in the Middle East