Excommunicate Cuomo? Not That Easy, Sorry

In the Good Old Days, the murderous governor of New York State would be forced to kneel outside his parish church in sackcloth and ash (no matter the temperature) until he repented for his egregious, manifold, and manifest sins, including his current concubinage situation.

This ain't the Good Old Days, and even though I am NOT a fan of Cdl. Dolan, Dolan's position is indirectly defended by Ed Peters, who is a very, very, competent Canon lawyer.

Dammit.

Anyhow.

Those who think that Andrew Cuomo should be excommunicated for signing New York’s appalling abortion law need no invitation to make their case for that canonical sanction in accord with the canon law. Thomas Becket could make his case for excommunication (the curious and Latin-literate can verify that claim by checking, say, Gasparri’s footnotes to 1917 CIC 2343 § 4, provisions that took a dim view of murdering priests). But, if moderns cannot make the case for Cuomo’s excommunication (and I, among many others trained in canon law, do not think they can), they should cease calling for the (presently) impossible and focus instead on what can (and I, along with some notable others, think should) be done in the face of a Cuomo-like affront to Church teaching and basic human dignity.

OK.  No sackcloth, no ashes, no ex-comm.  What next?

...the single most publicly-observable aspect of excommunication (hardly surprising, given the very name of this sanction) is, of course, exclusion from holy Communion.....what is most obvious to the individual, to the faith community, and to the general public, is that an excommunicate is barred from participating in the Church’s greatest sacrament, holy Communion (Canons 915 and 1331)....

...Now, here’s the point: all of the personal, community, and even secular values served by barring an excommunicate from holy Communion as part of the sanction of excommunication are immediately available simply by applying Canon 915, a sacramental disciplinary norm in Book IV of the Code (and not a penal norm from Book VI), which canon requires ministers of holy Communion to withhold the Sacrament, not just from those under formal sanction, of course, but also from those who ‘obstinately persevere in manifest grave sin’. Let that phrasing sink in....

Just that simple. It's obvious, it's public, it's MORE than 'symbolic,' and it says everything that the Church should say. THIS is the hill to die on, Eminence. Of course, dying takes a bit of corragio, not only for Cdl. Dolan, but for every OTHER Bishop in this country whose Diocese includes people like Cuomo--and for the priest/pastors who are the 'point men' in this battle.

There are a lot of them in Milwaukee, of course. Think Abp. Listecki will enforce Canon 915 on them through his priests?

You do, eh? Wanna bet? How much, sucker?