The Associated Press reported Monday that the Vatican is warning U.S. bishops to carefully evaluate any proposals aimed at barring pro-choice Catholic politicians from receiving Holy Communion in the Church.
The report by David Crary [https://apnews.com/article/religion-058bdc0c37aa5ee780e18f4666a999ee] cites a letter from Cardinal Luis Ladaria, Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the president of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops cautioning against consequences of discord that may result from the meeting of the bishops on June 16 concerning the Communion issue.
Cardinal Ladaria calls for a two-stage dialogue, first between the bishops themselves, then between the bishops and pro-choice politicians among their flocks. He continues that the bishops ought to seek “unanimous support” among themselves so that any approved policy does not tend toward “discord rather than unity within the episcopate and the larger church…”
Additionally, Ladaria says that any policy should be applied to all Catholics and not just to politicians. He also cautions against human life issues being regarded as the “only grave matters of Catholic and moral teaching” in the bishops’ decision. Ladaria also calls for the bishops to confer with the bishops in other countries “both to learn from one another and to preserve unity in the universal church “
COMMENTS:
His insistence is puzzling as Ladaria said later in his letter that any new policy ought not override the authority of individual bishops. Most in the Catholica might find agreement on this point as both Eastern and Western Church have long recognized that intrusion of one or more bishops into the affairs under another bishop’s authority is to be undertaken only with the most extreme caution. But that leaves open the question of just how natural law does or ought to affect every diocese, and every person professing that faith. Our concern for human life does not stop at a diocesan boundary.
As for the other points in Ladaria’s letter, the notion that any policy should be applied to all Catholics and not just to politicians seems to be a given. This ‘sauce-for-the-goose-sauce-for-the-gander’ claim should be policy for all the laity, remembering that the politicians are laypersons themselves.
But at the same time, the bishops must take note that the rank-and-file Catholic is presumably not in a position of political leadership, and not in such a position as politicians who have influenced the entire nation against Catholic doctrine for decades. The failure of the bishops to discipline prominent Catholic figures in public life also makes life difficult for lesser pro-life leaders in local settings. We need only to call to mind the plight of the Little Sisters of the Poor, the leaders of state and county Right to Life organizations, the Catholic adoption agencies and pregnancy care centers, and so on…
The bishops must take the lead, and lead the leaders. To the extent that these do not, life in the rank-and-file pro-life forces both Catholic and protestant is made the more difficult.
The Cardinal also cautions against human life issues being regarded as the “only grave matters of Catholic and moral teaching” in the bishops’ decision. Who among the bishops might make such a claim? This is analogous to the “single issue” argument that the opposition customarily poses against most anyone who takes a strong position disliked by the other side. Until the protagonist of a position makes that claim for himself and declares that he is posing a single issue, Ladaria’s concern is a non-issue. One need only peruse the Catechism of the Catholic Church to find many moral issues that the Church regards as grave matters.
In yet another point, Ladaria calls upon the bishops to confer with the bishops in other countries “both to learn from one another and to preserve unity in the universal church. Has the Church learned nothing throughout its lengthy history? Why must the USCCB take global counsel so as to exercise discipline within their own flocks?
At a certain point, concern and even demand for a pervasive, even global unity so as to prevent discord must yield to the prior regard for the validity of the Church’s witness to the basic matters of human life. Because some might not agree has no bearing on the duty of the bishops to exercise discipline among their flocks. There are always some who do not agree!The bishop of a diocese is the presence of Christ to the diocese that has been entrusted to his care. The business of a Catholic bishop is to care for doctrine and moral teaching and witness in his diocese, and for that matter, its witness to the world for which Christ died. He does not require external permission to exercise that duty, while he realizes that he may pay for it.
The sum?
The Catholic bishop realizes that although the Church is not the world, the world is persistent in its desire to intrude upon the Church and to nullify its witness to the truths entrusted to it. Conflict is never to be sought and certainly not to be desired. But at the same time it is not to be avoided for the pursuit of a unity that in the Church’s history has never been the case, and never will until the Kingdom of God comes.