Monday, April 28, 2008

Archbishop Wuerl Is No St. Ambrose

Archbishop Wuerl's dereliction of duty is atrocious. His refusal to deny Communion to pro-abortion politicians as well as ignoring the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's ruling of disallowing distribution of Communion to pro-abortion politicians borders almost on disobedience to Pope Benedict XVI's celebration of Mass at National's Stadium. Robert Novak in the New York Post this morning pointed this out of the heterodoxy on Archbishop Wuerl's position. Just because practicing Catholics watched House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senators John Kerry, Christopher Dodd and Edward M. Kennedy received Communion at National's Stadium during the Pope's Mass doesn't mean that it is o.k. to ignore Church teaching and mock our Catholic faith. Archbishop Wuerl invited all three pro-choice politicians knowing they would step forward to receive Communion in front of the Pope.
Vatican sources say the pope has not retreated from his long-held position that pro-choice politicians should be deprived of Communion, but the decisions in Washington and New York were not his. Benedict did not reiterate that position in Washington and New York, because a pope traveling abroad is influenced by the stance of local church authorities - and American bishops are divided. . . . Wuerl is averse to colliding with powerful laymen. He could have avoided any confrontation at Nationals Park by simply not inviting the pro-choice politicians to a mass where there was no room for the vast majority of Catholics who wanted to attend.
In the fourth century A.D. Roman Emperor Theodosius was visiting the Bishop of Milan St. Ambrose. St. Ambrose remembered The Roman Emperor's crime of the willful killing of 7,000 rioting citizens. Because of this the good bishop asked the Emperor to repair his crime by an exemplary penance. With "religious humility", says St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei., V, xxvi), Theodosius submitted; "and, being laid hold of by the discipline of the Church, did penance in such a way that the sight of his imperial loftiness prostrated made the people who were interceding for him weep more than the consciousness of offence had made them fear it when enraged". "Stripping himself of every emblem of royalty", says Ambrose in his funeral oration (c. 34), "he publicly in church bewailed his sin. That public penance, which private individuals shrink from, an Emperor was not ashamed to perform; nor was there afterwards a day on which he did not grieve for his mistake." The three pro-abortion politicians that Archbishop Wuerl willfully invited, those three that have been participants in the greatest slaughter of unborn innocent children clearly have not learned the grave mortal sins they are creating with their legislation. Archbishop Wuerl is clearly no St. Ambrose when he cannot himself even keep pro-abortion politicians from receiving Communion much less be an example of a good shepherd to his flock. For Robert Novak's New York Post article click here. For the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on St. Ambrose click here.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I revised that, added more material - didn't know if you saw it... for some reason, no bloggers in America are writing about Mar Bawai!

Anonymous said...

great post, Tito

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