If your job obliges you to cooperate with sin, which Congressman Patrick Kennedy’s job does not, then “quit your job and save your soul.” That’s what the Bishop of Rhode Island told Bill O’Reilly on the O’Reilly Factor yesterday. O’Reilly was asking the bishop to respond to the position of the Kennedys, the Cuomos, the Kerrys, and all the other “Catholic” politicians who vote pro-abortion that their personal religious views about a moral issue should not determine how they vote as representatives of a wide variety of constituents. In other words if one gets elected by pro-abortion voters (which, of course, would not happen if one did not campaign as a pro-abortion candidate) then one must legislate in accord with the majority will of the electors. Translate that: one must vote in accord with the will of one’s major donors. Tobin answered the question head-on when he said that if that were true, then one must “quit your job and save your soul.”
The bishop also said, very forcefully, that the will of God is what must always be obeyed, not the will of the people. “Nothing is more important than that,” he said. When it came to Congressman Kennedy, Tobin distinguished between public scandal and private sin. O’Reilly did not interrupt him on that score. Kennedy, obviously, is a public figure, publicly pushing legislation opposed to Catholic moral doctrine and the natural law. So, the bishop stressed, why would such a figure expect to be treated as a Catholic in grace, and properly disposed to receive the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist? The message was clear: If you’re a Catholic, then you believe what the Church teaches and try to live accordingly. If you disagree with what the Church teaches, which Kennedy has repeatedly said he does on certain issues (abortion, same-sex marriage, etc., etc.), then you are not a Catholic. I think that this good shepherd could have made that point clearer in his pastoral letter regarding the Kennedy issue, as published in the diocesan paper. Kennedy is not just a public sinner, he is a public sinner who publicly states that he disagrees with the moral teaching of the Church he claims he belongs to. Ergo, his communion with the Church is more than “flawed” (as the bishop put it paternally in his letter), it is non-existent.
The good bishop also said in the five minute interview that he was not “punishing” the congressman, he was appealing to the congressman not to punish himself by receiving Holy Communion in the state of sin. He didn’t get enough time to get that whole point over, but one could tell that was what he wanted to get across to the audience. He did get across what a “huge scandal” it is for a Catholic politician to vote in favor of pro-abortion legislation.
At least Bill O’Reilly let the bishop talk. The same could not be said for the disgraceful bully-pulpiting antics of Chris Matthews, who also claims to be “Catholic.” I guess these people never learned how to define terms. Matthews tried to evade the issue of abortion itself — pro-aborts almost always do because it is too self-incriminating — by focusing instead on the punitive measures that would have to be in force if abortion were criminalized. Unfortunately the bishop was unprepared for that little trick. In other words, let’s not talk about the pre-born baby getting dismembered, let’s talk about the punishment the law would impose on a woman who committed the crime of abortion. Tobin kept getting interrupted by the over-torqued Matthews as he tried to explain that such was not the Church’s province, but that of the state’s justice system. If he had been given a chance to finish a sentence, he could have simply highlighted the fact that before Roe v. Wade the one prosecuted for the crime (now they call it “right”) of abortion was the abortionist who did the actual killing. The woman who had the abortion was not prosecuted. As far as the Church is concerned, the woman is guilty of a very serious and unnatural offense — the murder of her pre-born child. In fact, she incurs ipso facto excommunication, as does anyone who aids her in the act — that is, if she is aware that abortion is an excommunicable and commits the sin anyway. A confessor must receive special faculties from his bishop to lift this excommunication.
Following Chris Matthews arrogant ranting another MSNBC commentator, Lawrence O’Donnell, on Monday’s Morning Joe program, added more fuel to the fire.
LifeNews reports: “This is a political act by a political bishop… Political bishops do the church absolutely no good. This guy’s—this bishop is a political hack,” he said.
Conservative writer Karen Northon says none of this would have been a public spectacle if not for Kennedy’s “gotcha” move of bring up a letter intended to be private.
“The American public at large knew little to nothing about these previous exclusions of prominent politicians from the Catholic ritual – until Kennedy started whining,” she writes. “If he hadn’t gone public with his non-issue against the Catholic Church, chances are good we wouldn’t be talking about this now.”
She said it is “astounding that Lawrence O’Donnell gets paid to share his opinion on a national stage.”
“The degree of ignorance conveyed in O’Donnell’s summation of the ordeal showcases an increasingly prevalent bipolar disconnect between reality and liberal folly,” she concluded.
Bishop Thomas Tobin is certainly getting a taste of what it means to be hated for the sake of the name Jesus Christ. He needs our prayers. May God give him strength. Let us pray, too, that his fellow brothers in the episcopacy come out publicly and give him their support.
