By Mark David Blum, Esq.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the highest court at the Vatican declared House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a Catholic, must be denied Communion under the law of the Catholic Church. He specifically declared that according to Canon Law, Canon 915, which says those Catholics who obstinately persevere “in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.” Said the Cardinal, “this is a person who obstinately, after repeated admonitions, persists in a grave sin--cooperating with the crime of procured abortion--and still professes to be a devout Catholic.”
Frankly and bluntly put, the Catholic Church should keep their mission focused on their church and to stay out of the civil arena. There is no role for religion in politics. Whenever policy or law starts with the premise that “God said”, that automatically disqualifies the law or policy as being against our Founder’s intent. Let the Churches save our souls in their houses of worship and let Congress attempt to save our nation in the People’s House.
Someone needs to tell Cardinal Burke and the Vatican that the issue of abortion is long settled in the United States. We have come to the point where our national attitude about the subject is, “if you don’t like abortions, don’t have one.” Our focus on education and providing alternatives to pregnancy has been the greatest weapon in the war defending free choice and individual privacy. Abortion is a sorry afterthought and in nearly all cases, the choice of last resort.
But the Catholic Leadership cannot let it go. Ignoring the centuries long criminal cover-up in their own house, the Church continues its war on American liberty. Now they blackmail a legislator, former Speaker of the House, for upholding her sworn duty to honor Mr. Jefferson’s wall. Jesus said to give unto Caesar that which is his. Loyalty and fidelity to the mandates of the Constitution are just that; Casesar's. The Holy Roman Church has gone to Holy War against their own followers and the American government; unless we relent to their ideology.
My own position is that I could care less. On the subject of abortion, I also feel that if you don’t want an abortion, don’t have one. At the same time I fully recognize the rights and freedoms enjoyed by the Church and its’ legions to believe in whatever religious ethos they desire. I am not the person to judge another’s belief system nor pass opinion upon its’ values. What I am is an American and one fully familiar with the giant wall that separates civilian government from and church.
At its’ core, this Holy War is a War on Birthdays. No longer relevant, birthdays are now just recognizing that you survived one more trip around the sun. It has always been understood that to an American, the date you were expunged from your mother’s womb was the most important date in your life.
According to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, all your rights and privileges as an American immediately attached the moment of your birth. But the Church wants that to change the date of your birth into a meaningless event. Instead they demand we should start celebrating ‘Conception Day’. That, after all, is the penultimate moment when your life began. Passing through the birth canal is deemed by the Church to be a non-event and just part of the process.
Tell the Vatican to step aside and take their Holy War back to their pulpits. Our government must be off-limits to the Church’s influence and intimidation. We cannot tolerate a Church demanding civil authority yield to their demands. Americans are not to be prisoners of a single ancient belief system. We are the chalice in which dreams of freedom and liberty FROM religion have been placed. The Knights of the Church must stand down.
Otherwise let Hallmark get busy generating a new holiday … Conception Day … and let us Rejoice; as we recall the freedoms of years long ago.
