Thursday, July 24, 2008

Kmiec Denied Communion: Chapter Two

This is almost 'inside baseball,' but it's hot stuff in RC circles.

I'll let Roeser tell the story--he's really good at that.

Roger Cardinal Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, has called the priest who refused to give Communion to pro-Obama Catholic Douglas Kmiec, on the carpet. As many who read this site know, Kmiec, law dean of Pepperdine University, has been dining out with the mainstream media through self-generated publicity since a priest turned him down for Communion because of Kmiec’s support of Obama who not only is pro-abortion but killed the Born Live bill in the Illinois legislature.

...Kmiec who parlayed great legal expertise into a top Justice Department job under Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, was passed over for the Supreme Court by both administrations. He surfaced first as a supporter of Mitt Romney for president but when Romney pulled out, changed direction and endorsed Obama. Some of his old law colleagues at Notre Dame law school and Catholic U say the switch was due to his driving ambition to go to the Court...

After announcing his support of Obama, Kmiec was the featured speaker at a dinner of Catholic CEOs in Ventura, California, near Pepperdine. But at Mass prior to the dinner, the celebrant refused to give him Communion. A line following Kmiec stood waiting as the lawyer-professor said, “I think you’re making a mistake, Father” to which the priest said “I don’t think so.” Kmiec’s wife ran sobbing from the church which caused other wives to whimper sympathetically--but Kmiec turned the refusal into a favorable story about himself with the mainstream media by disclosing it to E. J. Dionne, a pro-abort Catholic columnist for “The Washington Post.”

...On NPR Kmiec was interviewed and portrayed himself as a kind of Thomas More in reverse, being pilloried because of his support for Obama. Now Los Angeles’ liberal prelate has written to the priest summoning him to the chancery to explain his action. Like the late Joseph Cardinal Benardin whom he venerated, Mahony has linked pro-life with other non-related liberal actions. Bernardin performed a signal work for liberal Democrats when he devised, with true Machiavellian savvy, the concept of the “seamless garment.” ...

Fr. Bryan Hehir a staffer at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, took the biblical notation and made it a liberal crusade. He concocted the theory that he could weaken the strength of the anti-abortion injunction by tying it to a host of liberal goals and calling the entire linkage “seamless.” He took (a) nuclear freeze and (b) anti-death penalty and fused them with (c) pro-life. Ergo: Democratic presidential and congressional candidates could claim a “pro-life” score of 2 out of 3.

...Roger Mahony, tall, stoop-shouldered with a face adorned by a perpetually glistening anchor-man smile, switched the formula. Since nuclear freeze was off the table, he added immigration rights in addition to anti-death penalty. This fit his immediate political needs since he needed to distract the media from sexual abuse of children in Los Angeles by embracing a cause liberals would rally to.

...Using Bernardin’s “seamless garment” with pro-illegal immigration as a pretext, Mahony vowed a campaign of civil disobedience in 2005 against the Sensenbrenner-King immigration bill in the archdiocese’s 288 parishes which dealt with illegal enforcement only.

Thus the prelate who decided what immigration law he will reject and instructs his flock to disregard is out to punish the priest who concentrated on his right to deny the Eucharist to one who espouses not just abortion but who endorses a candidate who has denied dying babies nutrition and medical care.

...From his august $150,000 throne can Roger the Dodger excoriate those who are unfeeling about illegal immigrants’ rights. It is to this enormous palisade that Roger the Dodger…a Prince of the Church… called the errant priest who dared to deny Communion to a defector who is hustling Catholic votes for Barack Obama.

You ask: is this Church divine?

It has to be--to survive people like Roger the Dodger as it has so many others before even Thomas Cranmer.

There's a lot more at the link, but you get the idea.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

He doesn't have any real information and is just blowing smoke. If you would take off your ideological glasses you would see that.

Dad29 said...

Roeser is better-informed than either you or I.

And, by the way, the priest has a good defense based in Canon Law. It IS a judgment-call for the PRIEST to make, not for anyone else, under Canon law.

Dad29 said...

See this discussion:

http://www.canonlaw.info/2007/05/primer-for-those-who-prefer-knowing-to_4375.html

There is no question that the priest makes the call.

He MAY have made the wrong call, and I am inclined to think that he did, based on Peters' take.

But there is a strong case that can be made for the priest, under C. 915.

The case FOR the priest goes as follows: Kmiec, a Catholic of some repute (i.e., not Joe Schmoe) openly and loudly supports a candidate who is 100% wrong on the question of abortion.

Not only does he loudly and publicly support that candidate, but Kmiec also writes articles and essays attempting to persuade OTHER Catholics (and non-Catholics) that the candidate is better than his competitor.

Were Kmiec actually "Joe Schmoe," I would argue that the priest was wrong.

But Kmiec is NOT "Joe Schmoe." His actions and words get attention, and have the potential of swaying enough people so that the 100%-wrong candidate gets elected.

Thus the prudential judgment that under 915, the priest is right.

Personally, I would judge the priest to be wrong (assuming that what we know is all that is to be known about the case.)

But if I were Mahony, I would reprimand the priest AND Kmiec equally. Further, I would treat both reprimands equally: either both are public, or both are private.

Anonymous said...

Peters offered his opinion on the case. He said it wasn't even close. http://www.canonlaw.info/2008/05/was-prof-douglas-kmiec-really-denied.html

Roemer may have knowledge of some things, but he ain't offering it here. His main offering scandal mongering.

Dad29 said...

Find ONE un-true item in Roeser's essay--just one.

The scandal, DY, is Cardinal Mahony.

Dad29 said...

Further, DY, learn to read.

Peters and I are in total agreement (TOTAL) that it is the priest's call.

And Peters and I are in TOTAL agreement that the priest was wrong.

Maybe you spent too much time in the sun today?

Joe of St. Thérèse said...

Those that are obstinat in public sin can not receive Communion. A pro-abortion poltician that's in the public eye. I'm tendent to agree with the priest on this one, but I don't know all the details.

Anonymous said...

In addition, the "seemless garment" crap that Bernardin and Mahoney invented as a pro-abortion ruse doesn't work for ObambiKmiec on any level - since he has done the 180 and now supports the death penalty and border enforcement.

He's 0 for 3. Kmiec's a liberal nitwit.