The Twilight Zone Part III (Can't we be done?)

This is the last exchange, I promise. When the ad hominem attacks start that's when I quit engaging. We find ourselves in the last episode...

On the Outer Limits of the Twilight Zone - Where intelligent males don't interact with illogical women.

Dear Mary Ann,

"The first law of history is not to dare to utter falsehood;
the second, not to fear to speak the truth."
Pope Leo XIII

I agree but you apparently do not. My error is expecting a woman to be logical. You can find all of the arguments you want to support your position, but they are not according to right reason. I wish you well but do not pretend to teach or interpret the word of God. Jesus did not ordain any women for good reason. As for the bishops they could have stopped abortion and pedophilia a long time ago. Sodomy is rampant in the Church.

You say, "A baby bottle is a feeding tube." While I agree there is a similarity, baby bottles are being used to substitute or replace the natural source, a mother's nipples. This is an example of unreasonable thought processes. Breast milk is a natural process of life designed by God for a particular purpose.

Ask the Vatican if your baby bottle argument is reasonable.

Sincerely in Jesus Christ,
Fr. David


Dear Father,

Thanks for the laugh. Bet you think I'm a bad driver too. Your last email was so filled with irrelevancies and (dare I say it) illogic that I'm almost speechless. But, being a woman, I know that's impossible so I'll respond.

I note you didn't address the Vatican documents that have come out on this. Do you question the logic of the men who wrote them as well? I also note you didn't answer my question about whether you are a priest in good standing. As for your ad hominem attack and extraneous insult of women in general -- the ad hominem is the last ditch approach of a man with a bad argument.

The most logical human (other than Our Lord who was God) was a woman, Mary. She was also a teacher and spiritual advisor to the first priests. I think God gave the priesthood to men because He had already raised a woman to the role of co-redemptrix. And you might recall that it was a woman, St. Catherine of Siena, advising a pope. She is also a doctor of the Church as are St. Teresa of Avila and St. Therese of Lisieux. I try to follow St. Therese's little way of humility and that of the humble saint associated with the recently-celebrated feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Bernadette. Father Hardon often said only little people will get into heaven. Terri and Eluana are the little people (along with the unborn babies) whom you would kill by dehydration.

I was a little astounded by this statement, Father:

Those of you who have joined in the fight to have kept Terri Shiavo alive, or this 36 year old woman, Eluana Englaro, from the rewards of death will not have a part in rewards of God's kingdom unless you repent.

Who exactly is playing God? I can't imagine repenting for following Jesus' admonition to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty. I will serve Him in his least ones as long as I live and today the least ones aren't just in the womb, they are in hospices and nursing homes.

I wish you well and will pray for you.

Sincerely in Christ,

Mary Ann

From the Twilight Zone - Part 2

Yesterday I published the first part of an email exchange with Fr. David Trosch on the case of Eluana Englaro, the Terri Schiavo of Italy. Today let's...

Go deeper into the Twilight Zone - How Would You Like To Wear a Diaper?



Mary Ann,

Nutrition or hydration given via tube or intravenously, particularly over an extended period of time, is not required by moral law. Such is unnatural. If you believe that if you were aware of everything that is going on around you and would want to live in that unnatural condition, then try it some time. Get in bed, do not move, have a tube stuck in your throat and otherwise do not eat or drink while having the bed changed for you, diapers changed, given sponge baths, etc. and see if this is a condition you would want to live in.

Abortion is murder and the souls of the aborted do not go automatically to Heaven. They must pass through tests, trials and tribulations in an altered state of existence. An abortionist discussed this topic with me on the Geraldo Show many years back. I too have sidewalk counseled, picketed, and operated a pregnancy counseling center for about eight years. Three nearby abortion clinics were closed down. There is now only one operating in Mobile, AL, Planed Parenthood.

Withdrawal of nutrition or hydration is neither murder nor suicide. It is allowing a natural occurrence to take place.

You are playing God by keeping a person alive when God has called them from this life. Dehydration is at best uncomfortable for a short period of time. After that there is no pain or suffering related to it. Many people die in this manner sooner or later. One can also suffer from third degree burns, auto accidents, etc. and then die. The concept of suffering before death is not uncommon and many times calls for a person to evaluate their lives and repent. Many who do not suffer will have much greater eternal suffering in the next.

Your concept of faith and morals is greatly misplaced.

Sincerely in Jesus Christ,

Fr. David

Dear Father,

Following your suggestion to me, if you think dehydration and starvation is so easy try it. I wouldn't recommend going without water for more than 24 hours -- but why don't you give up food for a week and see how you feel. I did it for three days when Terri was being murdered. The first day was relatively easy since I was drinking plenty of fluids. By the third day I wasn't feeling very well and was glad I hadn't made the commitment to go longer. To go without food AND WATER as Terri did for TWO WEEKS I can't even imagine. If it's so easy why do we arrest people for cruelty who starve their animals? Your rhetoric is the same as those who speak for the culture of death.

You say that my "concept of faith and morals is greatly misplaced." But my position is in accord with the Vatican's that nutrition and hydration cannot be removed from a patient in vegetative state, that they are "an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life," and "obligatory" in most circumstances.

There are rare exceptions, for example when the patient's body cannot absorb nutrition and "in very remote places or in situations of extreme poverty, [where] the artificial provision of food and water may be physically impossible." But when a healthy individual who is brain damaged is denied food and water because of her handicap -- that is the ultimate playing God. How long would you last without food and water, Father? What makes your life more valuable than Eluana's or Terri? Your mentality is what cleared out the mental hospitals in Germany under the Nazis' T4 program.

A baby bottle is a feeding tube. The parent who deprives the infant because he is handicapped is playing God. So is the doctor or parent who deliberately neglects the brain damaged adult. Your rationale would equally apply to starving and dehydrating a newborn with severe Downs Syndrome. But perhaps you support that as well?

I applaud your defense of the healthy unborn. It's unfortunate you are willing to see the elderly and mentally incapacitated hurried into eternity even if they are physically healthy as Eluana was. Even her doctor testitfied to that fact. Your claim that they are dying is wrong. Eluana's doctor said she was in perfect physical health. Terri Schiavo was in good health as well. Both had to be murdered because they WEREN'T DYING and someone wanted them dead - NOW.

With all due respect, Father, I think you are the one who has a "misplaced conept of faith and morals" and is willing to "play God." I say that based, not on my own judgment alone, but on the authority of the Church. I feel in good company since the Pope and Vatican were working to save Eluana. Who is your authority?

By the way, are you a priest in good standing? If so what diocese?

Sincerely,

Mary Ann Kreitzer

An E-Mail Exchange from the Twilight Zone

Over the past few days I've been engaged in an email exchange with Fr. David Trosch about my posts defending Eluana Englaro's right to life. You may remember Fr. Trosch. He's the priest who, a few years ago, argued in favor of killing abortionists. That should have been a tipoff.

I would have bet that anyone who claims to be pro-life would share my view that starving and dehydrating the helpless to death is seriously immoral. Well, I would have been wrong, wrong, wrong in the case of Father Trosch. Over the next few days I'll present our email debate. Think of it as a soap opera...FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Episode 1 -- Entering the Twilight Zone - Dying of dehydration can be fun

Mary Ann Kreitzer,

I know a woman who can still speak who is being dehydrated and starved to death as I write. She has gone from 180 pounds to under 120 pounds. She is 5' 6" tall. She cannot eat or drink. Medications are no longer of help. She believes it would be pointless to be fed intravenously as it would just extend the suffering she is going through on a daily basis. She has many things wrong with her and even if something could be repaired other things would kill her, probably even the operations themselves. Her hospice care doctor has told her she should call her mother and tell her that if she wants to see her daughter while still alive to come quickly.

This woman is 46 years of age. She believes in God like most could not possibly appreciate. These last few weeks Jesus has been present to her most of the time. She says He is beautiful and want s to be with Him very much.
How much do you love Jesus? Why is it that you want anyone to stay in this life if they can be happy with Jesus in the next? My own father died when he was almost 87 years old. His mouth was so dry that he could not take even a small part of a consecrated Host without great difficulty. If given the precious Blood it had to be only a drop or two otherwise his tongue would react and it would be difficult for him to receive.

Why should the government (the people through taxation) have to pay to prolong the lives of a few when the same sums could be used to feed thousands. The purpose and goal of this life is not temporal happiness or a long life here and now, but to have a long and happy life with Jesus in the next. Passing from this life should be seen as a happy event that should be understood to be joy. It is not to be thought of with sadness, although I agree that there is a sense separateness that is cause for the momentary departure of a brother or sister of Christ.

Demons thrive on the torture inflicted upon living humans. They hope to have many humans join them in their suffering in Hell. Unreasonably prolonging someone's life serves Satan, not God.

To keep a person unnaturally alive is to sin against the will of God who has already determined the destination of the one passing from this life. All forms of unnaturally keeping a person alive, particularly without reasonable hope of recovery to a useful life, is against the will of God. Keeping an unconscious person alive on feeding tubes, etc. is unconscionable and unreasonable. If God wants a person to live, that person will live. Let God be the determiner of when a person is to die.

Wether we die at an early age or at 120 is up to God. Living a long life is no guarantee that one will be in Heaven. To play God by keeping someone alive who in the natural course of events would die is a condemning sin. Those of you who have joined in the fight to have kept Terri Shiavo alive, or this 36 year old woman, Eluana Englaro, from the rewards of death will not have a part in rewards of God's kingdom unless you repent. Vatican officials who have joined the fight to keep Eluana alive will have the most severe condemnation.

Jesus made it clear when He said: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it. [Mk 8:35] -- He gave one description of Hell as follows: "where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' " [Mk 9:48] -- Saint Paul said: "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all." [1Co 15:19]

Perhaps a thousand preborn persons could be kept alive with the amount of money that is spent upon someone who gains no merit in Heaven for having an extended life they cannot benefit from. There are millions of people who are starving to death that would otherwise live if the money spent on trying save the life of a person, who will probably die anyway, were spent on them.

By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer Tanalee Smith, Associated Press Writer – Sun Feb 8, 7:59 am ET
HEALESVILLE, Australia – Towering flames razed entire towns in southeastern Australia and burned fleeing residents in their cars as the death toll rose to 84 on Sunday, making it the country's deadliest fire disaster.

Can you imagine a worse way to die? I can, knowing that after I die in such a fashion I could spend eternity in Hell for keeping a person from passing from this life to be in Heaven or where judges the person will be (sic).

Sincerely in Jesus Christ,

Fr. David


Dear Father,

I visit a nursing home every Sunday. Some of the people have terminal diseases and are dying. Most, however, are not. They are in different stages of dementia, or have limited awareness, or they are frail and unable to care for themselves. Does the fact they are more or less helpless mean we should withdraw their food and water and let them be dehydrated to death?

Eluana is not dying like your friend with the multiple problems apparently is.

She is brain damaged and has "diminished consciousness." Terri Schiavo also was not dying. She was brain damaged. The media speak about Terri (and now Eluana) as "comotose." She isn't. Pictures and videos of Terri showed her responding to her mom and tracking a balloon with her eyes, laughing at her dad's jokes, etc. How aware is Eluana? I can't say because she's been carefully hidden from view.

Some of your email is very disturbing.

Why should the government (the people through taxation) have to pay to prolong the lives of a few when the same sums could be used to feed thousands.... Passing from this life should be seen as a happy event that should be understood to be joy.

What are you saying here, Father? Are the handicapped and brain-damaged "useless eaters?" Should we do a cost benefit analysis on them and use that to determine whether we let them live or die? It's been done before. I sidewalk counseled for years at an abortion mill where a pro-abort escort argued that abortion "sends the little souls to Jesus." Your statements sound chillingly like his. They also sound like the philosophy of the gnostics who believed suicide could free one from the body.

I was with my dad, my mom, and my father-in-law when they died. I had cancer myself when I was 39. I've stared death in the face and walked up to its door with loved ones. But there is an ocean of difference between a person who is actively dying and whose body is shutting down and a handicapped person whose body is perfectly fine and able to absorb nutrition. In the first case nutrition is useless and may even increase the person's suffering. In the second nutrition is essential. Terri wasn't dying until she was deliberately dehydrated. The same is true of Eluana. She is not "unconscious" any more than a severely retarded child is unconscious. They have limited capacity. From the perspective of those who want their death, the problem isn't that they are dying, it's that they aren't. Eluana's dad wants her to die and neglect doesn't look quite as evil as the lethal injection. But actually, for Eluana, the suffering will be worse which will ultimately lead to the argument for the "more compassionate" and quick needle in the veins -- like putting an animal to sleep.

You say, Whether we die at an early age or at 120 is up to God. Exactly! But these people are taking that decision away from God and usurping His authority by indirectly killing the person by neglect. Dehydration is a hellish way to die. Read the description about it on my blog entry.

You said...Can you imagine a worse way to die? I can, knowing that after I die in such a fashion I could spend eternity in Hell for keeping a person from passing from this life to be in Heaven or where judges the person will be.

Are you serious? None of us can keep a person from "passing from this life." I can't stop death and neither can you. What we can do, that is seriously sinful (as the Church teaches), is hasten people into eternal life by directly or indirectly killing them. That's what happened to Terri, Nancy Cruzan, Hugh Finn, and is now happening to Eluana. It is a moral evil that doesn't just impact the family who does it but the entire culture. And we've seen in history where it leads. Study the T-4 program in Nazi Germany.

I'll pray for you, Father. The murder of the helpless and sick through euthanasia (whether active or passive) is the diabolical twin of abortion.

To hear a Catholic priest argue for this breaks my heart.

Sincerely in Christ,

Mary Ann

Miracles for an Unbelieving World

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick. What an appropriate combination. Our Lady appeared to a young girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in the little village of Lourdes France in 1858. During the 18 apparitions the Blessed Mother left a spring that had miraculous properties. The first approved miracle occurred on March 1, 1858 while the apparitions continued when Catherine Latapie, nine months pregnant, walked about five miles from the neighboring village of Loubajac to bathe her paralyzed arm in the spring. She was immediately healed and gave birth to a son later that day. Thirty-five miracles would be documented over the next few years before the Church announced in 1862 that Bernadette's apparitions were authentic. Miracles continue to occur at Lourdes astounding medical science. For two amazing stories click here.

While physical cures may be the most dramatic, spiritual miracles of conversion and the strengthening of faith are far more important. Fr. John Hardon, S.J. confirmed that on a retreat I attended when he shared some personal experiences of witnessing physical miracles. He then stressed that miracles of the soul were of a higher nature and more valuable. I thought of that when I read an account about a family who had a daughter with cerebral palsy. They came to Lourdes every year, not asking for a cure, but asking for the strength to live another year with cheerfulness and courage. Suffering is part of the human condition; suffering well is a miracle of grace.

For more about Bernadette and the story of Lourdes take a virtual pilgrimageand meet this humble and beautiful saint whose body remains incorrupt after 150 years.

Do Schools Own Our Kids?

Kids can be nasty to each other. When they are you don't expect a school counselor to be even nastier. But that's what happened at Seven Hills Middle School in Nevada, CA when Steve Davis heard a rumor that a 12 year old student was pregnant. He gave her a pregnancy test without her parents knowledge or permission embarrassing the child and enraging her parents. The parents are suing; the school superintendent says it's no big deal. What I want to know is what the school counselor planned to do if the pregnancy test was positive - get her teacher to give her a failing grade in sex ed?...take her for an abortion?...arrange remedial sex ed for the class?... bring in extra condoms and bananas for more practice? What exactly did he have in mind? Makes one wonder what takes place at counselor in-service training. On the other hand, considering the fact that California is the porn capitol of the world, maybe we don't want to know. Read more...

What Else is in the Porkulus Spending Bill that you don't know about?

Obama is in one heckuva a hurry to pass the gargantuan trillion dollar spending bill that has more earmarks and special interest pork barrel projects ever assembled in one place. But what else is in that big fat, mega-pages-of-print bill? God only knows, but a few things have been uncovered that should give folks pause.

Stimulus to ban religious worship "'This isn't like a convenient oversight. This is intentional. This legislation pokes its finger in the eyes of people who hold religious beliefs,' Jay Sekulow, chief of the American Center for Law and Justice, told WND today."

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan Say hello to health care rationing, especially for the elderly. Betsy McCaughey writes that, "One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective." The plan effectively tells the elderly to get lost. McCaughey writes, "Daschle says health-care reform 'will not be pain free.' Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt....Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost-effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464)." So the federal government will be making decisions about whether your hip replacement, back surgery, or cancer treatment is worth it. No treatment for older Americans (unless you happen to be Ted Kennedy - there will always be some more equal than others). Whatever happened to a decision between a patient and his/her doctor?

50 De-Stimulating Facts: Chapter and verse on a bad bill.
Seems like the primary "stimulus" of this bill is to grow government. Here's a sample:
$150 million for the Smithsonian
$34 million to renovate the Department of Commerce headquarters
$500 million for improvement projects for National Institutes of Health facilities
$44 million for repairs to Department of Agriculture headquarters
$350 million for Agriculture Department computers
$88 million to help move the Public Health Service into a new building
$448 million for constructing a new Homeland Security Department headquarters
$600 million to convert the federal auto fleet to hybrids
$450 million for NASA (carve-out for “climate-research missions”)
$600 million for NOAA (carve-out for “climate modeling”)
$1 billion for the Census Bureau
There's also plenty for state government.

I vote for the pundit who said give $100,000 to every family in America and let them use it to stimulate the economy. Why should federal and state governments get all the fun?

200 Top Economists Say "Stimulus" Bill Won't Work
And it will raise taxes and likey udermine the already shaky dollar. If you think things are bad now, let Obama and his "czars" double and even triple the national debt in his first few months of office. This is the "change" and "hope" people are looking for?

Breaking News: Eluana Dies Unexpectedly

Italy's "Terri Schiavo" Dies Suddenly

Note the statement from Eluana's physician that she enjoyed almost perfect health in the 16 years since the auto accident that left her in a minimally conscious state. Will there be an autopsy to determine the cause of Eluana's unexpected death or will there be a rush to cremation?

The Latest on Eluana

Italian Senate tries to halt mercy killing

Political struggle over coma patient Eluana

For a comparison of Eluana and Terri Schiavo see my post at The Catholic Guys.

Diabolical History Repeats Itself...

Eluana Englaro may well be murdered in the next few days or weeks because of her father's desire to see her dead. She would not want to live in her current state of diminished consciousness, he says, and Italy's high court agrees. So this young woman faces the looming threat of dying from dehydration, an agonizing death despite the honeyed and consoling words of the death peddlars who claim it is a gentle way to die. Ask a woman who's experienced dehydration during her pregnancy because of excessive vomiting how gentle it is.

Dr. David Stevens, a doctor who has worked in Africa where the leading cause of death is dehydration from gastroenteritis describes it. "As dehydration begins, there is extreme thirst, dry mouth and thick saliva. The patient becomes dizzy, faint and unable to stand or sit; has severe cramping in the arms and legs as the sodium and potassium concentrations in the body goes up as fluids go down. In misery, the patient tries to cry but there are no tears. The patient experiences severe abdominal cramps, nausea and dry-heaving as the stomach and intestines dry out.
By now the skin and lips are cracking and the tongue is swollen. The nose may bleed as the mucous membranes dry out and break down. The skin loses elasticity, thins and wrinkles....The person stops urinating and has severe headaches as their brain shrinks from lack of fluids. The patient becomes anxious but then gets progressively more lethargic....Some patients have hallucinations and seizures as their body chemistry becomes even more imbalanced. This proceeds to coma before death occurs. The final event as the blood pressure becomes almost undetectable is a major heart arrhythmia that stops the heart from pumping."

These symptoms explain why feeding tubes are left intact so sedatives and anti-convulsives can be given, not only to reduce the pain of the victim, but the distress of staff doing the killing.

The threat to Eluana heralds a black stormcloud looming over the world and not for the first time.

I invite readers to look back to 1939. Germany was already immersed in social Darwinism's doctrines of natural selection and survival of the fittest. Since about 1920 propaganda for eliminating those whose lives were "devoid of value" flooded the German marketplace led by the views of Alfred Hoche and Karl Binding, a doctor and a jurist, not unlike those leading the culture of death today. When the Nazis came to power they continued and expanded propaganda for cleasing the gene pool producing films and novels that promoted "mercy killing" and stressed the expense of maintaining these useless lives. Catholic institutions for the incurably sick and mentally ill, which were likely to resist euthanasia, were sytematically closed.

The euthanasia program in Germany was coded T4 which stood for Tiergartenstrasse 4, the address of a villa in Berlin where the Nazis administered the General Foundation for Welfare and Institutional Care. It was managed by Philipp Bouhler, head of Hitler's private chancellery and Hitler's own doctor, Karl Brandt.

The euthanasia order was written by Hitler in October of 1939, but backdated to September 1st. It read: "Reich Leader Bouhler and Dr. Brandt are charged with the responsibility for expanding the authority of physicians, to be designated by name, to the end that patients considered incurable according to the best available human judgment [menschlichem Ermessen] of their state of health, can be granted a mercy death [Gnadentod)." From this quiet beginning grew a monstrous program of killing, not by Nazi thugs, but by doctors and medical staff in white coats.

Hitler believed that killing handicapped children would be accepted by the German people with little objection. The preceding May, parents of a severely deformed infant born in February (Gerhard Kretschmar), petitioned the Reich to have the child killed. A local pediatrician had refused because it was illegal so the parents sought an exception to the law. Hitler authorized not only the murder of the child, but a systematic program to register all defective children. Like the midwives in Pharoah's time, ordered to identify all the baby boys so they could be eliminated, the doctors and midwives of Germany were ordered to report all children born with severe disabilities: hydrocephaly, mongolism, spastic conditions, any kind of malformation including cleft palate, etc. the program initially targeted children under three but the tentacles soon reached out for older children including those designated juvenile delinquents as well as adults, especially the mentally ill and retarded. According to Fredric Wertham's A Sign for Cain, the Reich murdered 300,000 Aryans before they turned their final solution on the people they considered a defective race.

All evil starts with the first act. The Reich's euthanasia program began with one father, Richard Kretschmar, eager to kill his poor little handicapped son. And so it goes today. A father who cannot see beyond his daughter's physical impairment insists on dehydrating her to death. Despite the fact that the order of nuns caring for her wanted to continue, he denied their compassion and moved her to a killing center in northeast Italy more amenable to his monstrous intent. That the killing, if it is allowed, will take place a stone's throw from where the holocaust began chills the heart. Eluana's father is the spiritual twin of the ardent Nazi farm laborer, Richard Kretschmar. It is an evil history that should not repeat itself and a victory for another father, the father of lies himself.

May the Father of us all and His Son Jesus Christ protect Eluana and all those threatened by the Nazis of the present age.

P.S. Look carefully at the picture at the top of the page. Little Gunther and his two brothers had a degenerative disorder. The three little boys were gassed at Brandenburg, one of the facilities for eliminating imperfect children, but only after being studied by doctors. After their deaths, the ghouls in white coats studied their brains - all in the name of science.

Please contact the Italian Ambassador:
Ambassadors's Office Tel.: (202) 612-4401/4/5/6 Fax: (202) 518-2156 and ask for Eluana's immediate protection.
Email: (press and public affairs offices) Tel. 202- 202- 612-4440/4
politici.washington@esteri.it and stampa.washington@esteri.it

Top Vatican Judge Says No Communion for Pro-Abortion Politicians

When will the bishops of the U.S. deny Communion to the likes of radical pro-abortion House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Joe Biden? It apparently can't come too soon for the head of the top Vatican court, Archbishop Raymond Burke, head of the Apostolic Signatura. Archbishop Burke told Life Site News:

"I don't understand the continual debate that goes on about it. There's not a question that a Catholic who publicly, and after admonition, supports pro-abortion legislation is not to receive Holy Communion and is not to be given Holy Communion....The Church's law is very clear. The person who persists publicly in grave sin is to be denied Holy Communion, and it [Canon Law] doesn't say that the bishop shall decide this. It's an absolute....The Holy Eucharist, the most sacred reality of our life in the Church, has to be protected against sacrilege. At the same time, individuals have to be protected for the sake of their own salvation from committing one of the gravest sins, namely to receive Holy Communion unworthily...Individual bishops and priests simply have to do their duty. They have to confront politicians, Catholic politicians, who are sinning gravely and publicly in this regard. And that's their duty. And if they carry it out, not only can they not be reproached for that, but they should be praised for confronting this situation." (More...)

Catholics represent the largest denomination in both bodies of Congress and yet most of them are pro-abortion creating scandal and confusion as they continue to go to Communion in their parishes both in the D.C. area and in their home parishes. It's time to stop the scandal.

The Catholic Media Coalition and American Life League continue to call on the bishops to implement Canon Law 915, but little action has been taken to date by most bishops particularly those in the metropolitan Washington,D.C. area, Archbishop Donald Wuerl (D.C.) and Bishop Paul Loverde (Arlington). Joe Biden publicly received Communion several weeks ago at Holy Trinity in Georgetown. Nancy Pelosi has made it clear that she considers herself a devout Catholic and will continue to receive. Sen. Ted Kennedy had Communion brought to him at his seat during the papal Mass in D.C. last April. John Kerry and Rudy Guiliani have also been photographed receiving Communion at high profile events.

Several Bishops have taken strong action against pro-abortion politicians. Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton recently warned Bob Casey, Jr. about his vote against the Mexico City Policy calling it "an offense against life and a denial of our Catholic teaching on the dignity of every human being." He warned Casey in a letter saying, “Your failure to reverse this vote will regrettably mean that you persist formally in cooperating with the evil brought about by this hideous and unnecessary policy....As I have done several times before, I offer to make myself available to you to discuss the grave concerns that I raise here.” Bishop Martino announced several months ago that he will enforce Canon 915. Last May Bishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, KS publicly warned Gov. Kathleen Sebelius not to receive Communion. Although he did not instruct Eucharistic Ministers to deny the governor Communion he left that possibility open. According to reports, Sebelius has voluntarily refrained from presenting herself for Communion.

As of September 2008, 17 bishops had publicly stated or taken action to enforce Canon Law 915. They are to be commended for doing their duty. Please pray for these bishops and, even more, for their silent brothers.

Archbishop Raymond L Burke, Bishop Emeritus, St. Louis
Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz, Lincoln NE
Bishop Joseph A.Galante, Camden, NJ
Bishop John M. Smith, Trenton, NJ
Bishop Michael Sheridan, Colorado Springs, CO
Bishop Robert F. Vasa, Baker, OR
Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger, Evansville, IN
Bishop Robert J. Baker, Birmingham, AL
Bishop Peter J. Jugis, Bishop, Charlotte, NC
Bishop Samuel Aquila, Fargo, ND
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, Phoenix, AZ
Bishop Paul S. Coakley, D.D., Salina, KS
Bishop Joseph F. Martino, Scranton, PA
Bishop Joseph Naumann, Kansas City, KS
Retired:
Bishop Henry Rene Gracida, Bishop Emeritus, Corpus Christi, TX
Archbishop John F. Donoghue Bishop Emeritus, Atlanta, GA
Bishop John Y. Yanta, Bishop Emeritus, Amarillo, TX



CANON 915:THE DISCIPLINE REGARDING THE DENIAL OF HOLY COMMUNIONTO THOSE OBSTINATELY PERSEVERINGIN MANIFEST GRAVE SIN by Archbishop Raymond Burke