Archbishop Wuerl's Actions Puzzling (Updated)

WASHINGTON, July 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In comments to the Washington Times, Archbishop Donald Wuerl has described himself as a "pastoral and spiritual" leader, and said that his job with Catholic politicians who oppose core Church teachings is to "teach" and "help them form a conscience."

"My primary responsibility is to teach and therefore to help every Catholic inform their conscience."

"When people do things contrary to church teaching, my responsibility is to help them understand that is wrong. Sometimes that takes a lot of conversation. Sometimes you're not successful at it," Wuerl told the Times' Julia Druin.

Wuerl, however, declined to tell Druin whether he would ever reach the stage of such disciplinary measures as refusing Communion. "I think there will always be a time you say, 'For the good of the church, you are now presenting a public scandal,' but you have to remember this person has a bishop and he has to be involved in this discussion as well. I think discipline is always the last step," he said.

The archbishop's actions, however, have already spoken for him. Earlier this year, Wuerl angered many when he raised no objections to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a vigorous supporter of abortion and opponent of Catholic teachings on life and family, receiving Communion at a Mass celebrated by notorious abortion campaigner, the late Fr. Robert Drinan.

Despite having been begged by pro-life leaders to address the issue, Wuerl told California Catholic Daily reporter Allyson Smith that "there was no reason to make any comment about" the incident. When asked directly if he would "discipline [Pelosi] at all" for her "persistent and obstinate" support for abortion, the Archbishop responded, "I will not be using the faculty in that, in the manner you have described."

When Smith asked if he would tell priests and deacons to refuse her Communion, the archbishop said, "You're talking about a whole different style of pastoral ministry. No thank you." [More]

My comments: I don't understand this line of thinking - it just doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't follow that if someone is going to "teach" the truth and "help them (others) form a conscience", why not act in accordance with those beliefs? Isn't Archbishop Wuerl the shepherd, and as such, doesn't he determine who should and shouldn't receive Communion? The Church teaches that abortion is murder and a mortal sin. When one is publicly committing mortal sins by voting for abortion time and time again and when even the Holy Father is saying that they should not receive Holy Communion, isn't one violating God's laws as well as their vow of obedience by permitting this to happen? Or doesn't it matter to him that by giving Holy Communion to politicians who are creating a public scandal that he is not only condoning their actions, but is creating a scandal on a much larger scale? To me, this tells others that it is not necessary to follow anything that the Church teaches, nor is it necessary to listen or to obey the Holy Father nor is it really necessary to confess your mortal sins and make a firm purpose of amendment not to commit that sin again before receiving the Eucharist. To desecrate the Eucharist in this manner seems like one of the most offensive sins there is. Any thoughts?

When my husband and I were trained as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion in two different dioceses in the midwest, we were basically taught that you don't give Holy Communion to politicians who support abortions. We were also told by one of the priests who trained us that if a pro-abortion politician entered church to attend Mass that he would approach this individual before Mass and say, "Don't you dare try to receive Communion."

Comments

  1. I totally agree with your comments in the second to last paragraph. And, I also think it's wonderful about the priest who would tell the pro-abortion politicians before Mass not to attempt to receive Holy Communion.

    The bottom line is that we need more bishops like Archbishop Burke!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, we do. We need Shepherds with backbones who act on what they believe and live out their faith. We need leaders who show us that they love the Lord and will follow Him no matter what the cost. Aren't we all call to follow after Him? We are all called to holiness and to be martyrs for the Lord.
    Bishop Burke is a white martyr as is Cardinal Pell.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, Archbishop Wuerl's actions are indeed puzzling, but can also be called blind, even hypocritical.

    Here in Canada we have very serious problems with our Bishops, as our recent Open Letter to the Bishops of Canada describes. [can be found at http://www.votelifecanada.ca/Main1/OpenLetterBishopsOf_Canada.html]

    I noticed in your comments that you also mentioned Cardinal Pell, who seems, on the surface, to be a strong Bishop but who has shown definite signs of weakness and failure. On our blogsite I did a rather extensive series of posts regarding this. [see http://votelifecanada.blogspot.com/2007/06/dear-pope-benedict-cardinal-pell-needs.html]

    I believe we have to be very careful to not give free passes to the Bishops. Where they represent the Catholic faith well we must commend them but we must equally show concern and distress when they dissent from Church teaching or show cowardice, etc.

    Peace of Christ.
    Eric

    ReplyDelete

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