'Twixt Scylla and Charybdis

Filipino Catholics show the Americans how.

Filipino archbishop bars pro-abort pols from Communion

Manila, Jul. 14, 2008 (CWNews.com) - In a debate reminiscent of recent disputes among American bishops, Church leaders in the Philippines have taken up the question of whether pro-abortion politicians should be barred from the Eucharist-- with one archbishop answering with an emphatic Yes.

Archbishop Jesus Armamento Dosado of Ozamis has announced that politicians who support legal abortion will not be allowed to receive Communion.

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...Another ranking Filipino prelate, Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Linguyen-Dagupan, said that the ban on Communion for pro-abortion politicians-- which now covers only the Ozamis archdiocese-- could be extended throughout the country.

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...Archbishop Cruz supported his fellow prelate, saying that denial of the Eucharist is an appropriate ecclesiastical sanction. He told Radio Veritas, the bishops' broadcast outlet: "If a priest or bishop does not punish a public sinner, it is the priest or bishop who is wrong." (Thanks to Catholic World News.)

Many Catholics must tear their hair out wondering, why, oh why, cannot our American bishops show spine, like those Filipinos, when it comes to an obvious and grave matter like abortion? A possible explanation is American Catholic bishops are for the most part liberal, marching in lockstep with pols like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Ted Kennedy. Unfortunately for them, to be opposed to abortion, as they must be, is to be identified with the mossbacks on the right and their conservative agenda, something they must find repugnant. Unlike thirty years ago, it is not tenable for a liberal politician to be opposed to abortion yet liberal bishops may be aghast at the notion keeping company with conservatives and their hidebound positions, even on the abortion issue.

Liberal Catholic bishops are thus in the difficult position of attempting to navigate between Holy Mother Church and her uncompromising teaching on abortion and angry modern leftists for whom abortion on demand is an article of faith; who will bite off the heads of those opposed to it. The way the bishops seem to deal with the conundrum is to preach vigorously against proponents of abortion then administer communion to the very same proponents they preached against earlier.

Bishops who do break bread with pro-abortion politicians might consider this, however: if they were to summon up the courage and refuse to allow those who are Catholic from receiving, they would find themselves cheered by huge numbers of other Catholics (maybe even some liberals among them) grateful to the bishops for standing firm for the faith. At the same time their standing among modern leftists would remain unchanged: despised because they are Catholic. So what have they got to lose?