Very Pro-Life Sunday Parish Bulletin - Jan. 24, 2021

Sunday Parish Bulletin Post from Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church in Worcester, MA for this Sunday, Jan. 24th, 2021

FROM THE PASTOR
Excommunication from the Church is not a game to played with. It remains the most serious form of teaching that informs a Catholic that they are “officially” existing outside the Body of Christ resulting from their actions, words, non-actions or silence, whichever applies. Excommunication is so serious that it is rare, as rare as a red piece of steak. The purpose of excommunication is actually quite pastoral: to draw back into the Body of Christ a soul that has wandered so far off the path to heaven, that the narrow gate Jesus mentions in the Gospel (Matthew 7:14), and getting through it, is now closed. It is shut tight, meaning, unless the excommunicated person seeks the mercy of God, repents of their waywardness, and reforms their life to be fully consistent with our Catholic faith, then they are outside the communion of the Catholic Church where their eternal salvation remains in the most serious possible jeopardy.

Jesus granted the Church the power and expected courage to declare such a condition present in the soul of a believer. The “power of the keys,” given by Christ to Peter and the Apostles holds within it not only the humble authority to forgive sins, but also the power to declare a person to be so far from the love of God and his Church that said person is now in the gravest danger of eternal damnation. Both elements are of the utmost serious business in our Catholic faith.

The excommunication power to declare any soul in such a grave state of present danger, however, resides with the Pope and Bishops in communion with him. Excommunication is so rare that most Bishops throughout the world have never imposed what I would call this “declaration of awareness” on one of their sheep to draw them back to the fold. Many Popes also never declared a person or group excommunicated during their Pontificate, while many have. St. Pope John Paul II did declare the self -imposed excommunication against an Archbishop in 1988, and 4 other “bishops” the Archbishop “ordained” without the Holy Father’s approval. All five of them were declared excommunicated resulting from their own heretical actions, four of whom would be later reinstated by Pope Benedict XVI. But officially, in his 26-1/2 years as Pope, St. John Paul II did not excommunicate a single person directly. With all the evil in our world, and the evil choices some Catholics have made over the centuries, it begs the questions, “What does it take for the Bishop of Rome and all Bishops to declare excommunication upon a Catholic believer? At what point should a Catholic be forced to decide for themselves if they choose to be inside or outside the Body of Christ, with an explicit choice right before them?” These are difficult questions to answer.

While Popes and Bishops hold the power of the keys on this subject to declare that an individual or group has chosen to live their lives outside the Body of Christ because of their own actions, it is important to remember that God has not emptied Himself of the same power to declare the same imposition. St. Paul’s “takedown” on the road to Damascus by Jesus (Acts 9) is a perfect example of this. So is the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15), leaving behind 99 of them to find and bring back the lost one. Of course, what does it take for one to believe that God has imposed excommunication against someone He loves unconditionally to return them to the fold? I believe we can all agree that God will use whatever means it takes for Him to bring a person back to the path of salvation. This would be fully consistent with his unconditional love for humanity. However, unconditional love for humanity does not allow us free reign to do whatever we wish. Far from it. God is always and everywhere offended by sin. Especially the sins of abortion (the intentional killing of an unborn child) and racism, and direct complicity in them. Which brings me to the hard issue we have just experienced here in Massachusetts a few weeks back regarding the passage of the Roe Act and its expansion and continued attack on the dignity and sacredness of human life. An act that even the Governor of this state, a staunch advocate for abortion rights, found so heinous and questionable that he vetoed the bill.

His veto of this evil act would go on to be overridden by state Senators and Representatives, many of whom are Catholic, becoming the law of the land that everyone who resides in Massachusetts is now forced to accept in the Church. As we can see, there’s an issue of faith here. My personal issue is with Catholic legislators who drove the bill, supported it from the get go, voted for it once, and then voted for it again to override the Governor’s veto, making it the law of this state, with the full expectation that you and I must abide by this law. There was full complicity on the part of Catholic state politicians (and others) who are now directly complicit with the moral evils of abortion and racism. Quite honestly, the Massachusetts Roe Act of late 2020, providing us another reason to forget that weird year now past, is eerily similar to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 that forced all American citizens to be complicit in returning escaped slaves to their owners and respect an immoral law. I’m sure we all agree that slavery was/is an evil condition. The Fugitive Slave Law was pushed through Congress by powerful southern slave owners, forcing all northern (and southern) citizens to return escaped slaves or be punished if caught not complying with this law. How many Catholic doctors and nurses (and non-Catholics) are now forced, like American citizens in the 1850’s, to be even more complicit in the evil law today known as the Roe Act?

Why do I believe these Catholic legislators are complicit in both abortion and racism? First, abortion is the intentional killing of an innocent human being. A child no less. A child unable to speak for or defend him or herself. Every single one of these Catholic legislators knows this teaching of our faith. They cannot claim spiritual ignorance or fall back on the weak argument of separation of Church and State for their yea vote on the Roe Act, needing to separate their “personal religious beliefs” to avoid imposing said beliefs on the entire population of Massachusetts. This excuse fails for the simple reason that God does not judge us in two ways. He judges the entire person, whether one works for government or elsewhere. The separation of Church and State is a recent human invention (less than 3 centuries) that many Catholic politicians rally behind, using it as an excuse to vote the party line. God laughs at such morally illogical thinking and practice. His justice will judge the entire person, 24/7, and what we said and did to build up his Kingdom on earth. Abortion remains the deliberate taking of human life, and these Catholic legislators in Massachusetts are now even more directly complicit in it because of their vote on the Roe Act. And second, they are also directly complicit in an act of unfettered racism. How so? I’m glad you asked. Every Catholic state Senator or Representative in the Commonwealth knows where abortion clinics presently exist or are built. Where is Planned Parenthood in Worcester? In a poor section of the city on lower Pleasant Street. Have you noticed it was not built on upper Salisbury Street or upper Burncoat Street where politicians live?

And where was Planned Parenthood prior to lower Pleasant Street? Less than ½ mile from Great Brook Valley on upper Lincoln Street. These locations have the fingerprints of full-on racist Margaret Sanger all over them, she being the founder of Planned Parenthood. They are covered with her total disdain of African Americans and Hispanics. Her great desire in life was to limit the births of African-American and Hispanic children, and what better way than to kill them in their mother’s womb by laying a structural foundation in the neighborhoods in which her potential “customers” lived.

The Catholic politicians who voted for the Roe Act have now seared their own fingerprints into those of the racist Sanger. They fully knew when they voted in favor of this bill that non-Caucasians are the high percentage “customers” of Planned Parenthood and their savage ways. In my humble opinion, they are full-on complicit with the mortal sin of racism.
I return to the topic at the beginning of this column; excommunication. There was an Archbishop in Louisiana in 1962, Archbishop Joseph Rummel of New Orleans, who threatened excommunication to any Catholic who opposed his announcement regarding the official end of segregation in the New Orleans Parochial School system. In other words, those who chose the side of racism (segregation) would then be on a path to hell. The door to heaven would be shut tight to them. They would officially be outside the Body of Christ. This power was invested in him by Christ the Lord, and he used it effectively and to good purpose.

His power was not used to condemn anyone. Only God can do so. His authority was used to highlight the truth that by making a certain choice, in this case to support racism through segregation, the potential adherents to the racist philosophy of segregation would be placing themselves completely outside the Body of Christ, the Church.

I cannot answer why our four Bishops in Massachusetts together – or even one individually - did not present the same to the Catholic politicians who, prior to signing on to the Roe Act that made them complicit with not only racism, but abortion too, they would be signing on to the utmost serious issue of the death of their soul, placing themselves fully outside the Body of Christ. (I welcome anyone to present to me an argument that explains this is not the reality here). Our four Bishops, whom I love dearly, would they not have been granting a great grace from heaven in using their authority given by Christ himself to move the Catholic legislators to search their souls rather than sign on to the Roe Act, holding the party line, and then move on to their next bill like the previous one was just another day at the Statehouse? How could these legislators not be given something to think about regarding their eternal salvation prior to their vote supporting abortion and racism? I profess ignorance to the answer.

But you know what I do believe for real? I believe the authority to declare excommunication resides not only with the Pope and Bishops in communion with him. It resides with God Himself, who is not restricted by the Canon Law of the Catholic Church he established and continues to guide. And that, in my personal opinion, God has declared from above His sentence of present excommunication on any Catholic legislator in any state who supports and votes for the intentional destruction of human life, God’s number one gifted creation, accompanied with, no less, the mortal sin of racism. The argument of separating Church and State, or not imposing one’s personal beliefs on an entire community, is rubbish to God. He sees through the mockery, for God’s foolishness is wiser than man’s greatest wisdom.

What are the main features of the 2020 Roe Act of Massachusetts? The three big ones are: first, the bill allows for abortions through nine months of pregnancy, even if there is no threat to the mother’s life. Second, the bill also allows for “passive infanticide” by eliminating a requirement to provide medical care to a child born alive after an attempted abortion, despite the necessary medical equipment present in the room by law, i.e., let the child die on their own. To this horror I can only say, “I wash my hands of this state. I’m ashamed to be one of your citizens.” And a third central feature of the Roe Act has to do with 16- and 17-year old girls, young ladies (whatever title fits), who are impregnated by whomever, that they no longer need a parent’s permission to procure an abortion. The real speak here is that Mr. Government becomes the new parent, robbing the real parents of 16 and 17 year old girls of their authority as parents. As one can see, the evil inherent in this bill cannot be overstated. And what cannot be missed is that numerous Catholic legislators supported it, raised it up, voted for it, overrode a veto of it, and made it the law of this state.

Excommunication is of the utmost serious business in the Catholic Church. It is used rarely, as it should be. However, there are certain evil choices made over time where justification of its use, coupled with the truthful recognition that one or more Catholics have now entered the waters of eternal danger, is absolutely necessary for pastoral reasons. I believe God has reached that point in Massachusetts because of explicit complicity of Catholics in the grave sins of abortion and racism.
In the words of St. John Paul II from Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life): “To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (Jn 8:34).”
Peace, Fr. Riley