Edifying Spectacle

I don't see that it's all that nutty. One of the definitions of heresy is presenting teaching or action contrary to the teaching of the Church AS IF IT WERE NOT CONTRARY. What Balestrieri is saying is "either stop promoting abortion through your legislative actions or stop presenting yourself to the public as a faithful Catholic." What Balestrieri has done is bring a suit within the Church to correct what he regards as a violation of the Church's policies by one of its members. Every religious institution has some mechanism for maintaining its integrity as an institution; it's just that the Catholic Church is so big and so old that the process is necessarily a very formal one. Let's face it: Kerry has benefitted enormously in Massachusetts politics by his affiliation with the Church. I'm a westerner myself, but I get the impression that being Catholic is as essential for a politician in Boston as being Mormon would be in Salt Lake. So it's not like the Church is entirely out of line in insisting that Kerry follow its teachings. Incidentally, Balestrieri was fired the other day from his job (with the LA Archdiocese, I believe) for bringing this suit. Yet I don't hear any outcry about discrimination, such as would result if anybody else were fired for a private action like this.

BALESTRIERI V. KERRY, FOR THE SOUL OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: THE CASE THE MAJOR MEDIA GENERALLY IS CHOOSING NOT TO REPORT, SO THAT THE PUBLIC CAN BE CAPTIVATED BY THE SCOTT PETERSON, KOBE BRYANT, MARTHA STEWART AND KEN LAY CASES INSTEAD OF THE SHAMELESS BEHAVIOR OF UNREPENTANT, NOMINALLY CATHOLIC PRO-ABORTION POLITICIANS AND THEIR ALLIES AMONG THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY IN THE UNITED STATES In the words of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “[t]he Eucharist is the source and summit of Catholic life.” Tragically, the sex abuse scandal is not the only major scandal of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. For decades, Roman Catholic priests in the United States have been complicit in the abuse of Holy Communion by politicians like Senator Kerry. Last month Marc A. Balestrieri, a canon lawyer and then an assistant judge of an ecclesiastical court in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, demonstrated that he really took the teachings of his Roman Catholic faith seriously. For nearly all of Mr. Balestrieri’s 33 years abortion has been legal in the United States. A religious man unaffiliated with any political party, Mr. Balestrieri was appalled by legalized abortion and the sinister effect of pro-abortion politicians on much of the Roman Catholic clergy in the United States. Since the U.S. Supreme Court created a constitutional right to abortion on its own authority in 1973, some 45,000,000 so-called legal abortions have been performed in the United States. To be sure, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States has continued to condemn abortion as sinful. It has even bussed people to Washington, D.C. to demonstrate annually against the Roe v. Wade decision or to stand on sidewalks or the sides of roads carrying “Stop Abortion” signs But, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States has tolerated the scandal of persistently obstinent pro-abortion politicians posing as fit to receive Communion and sheepishly accommodated them by giving them Communion upon demand, in contravention of Canon 915. Even though Roman Catholics believe that consecration literally transforms bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus, and that it is sacrilegious for an unfit person to seek Communion without repenting and for a distributor of Communion to distribute it to any person to whom Canon 915 specifies it is not to distributed. With the “shepherds” in the United States generally abdicating their responsibility and the most prominent among them declaring he was “uncomfortable” with obeying Canon 915, one of the flock (Mr. Balestrieri) took an action that should have been taken long ago against literally hundreds of unrepentant, nominally Catholic pro-abortion politicians. Mr. Balestrieri targeted the most prominent of the unrepentant, nominally Catholic pro-abortion politicians: John Kerry, former altar boy, United States Senator from Massachusetts, presumptive Democrat Presidential candidate, and poster boy of Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-choice America (formerly the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League). On June 14, 2004, Mr. Balestrieri filed with the Boston Archdiocese a sworn document described as “a Denunciation for the Public Ecclesiastical Crime of Heresy, Diabolical Scandal Leading to Heresy, Immediate Formal Cooperation in Heresy, Abjection of the Sacred Species, Diabolical Scandal Leading to Murder, and Grave Harm to Public Morals and Contempt for the Faith and Ecclesiastical Authority” and “a Criminal Complaint for Reparation of Harm” resulting from the crimes listed. Mr. Balestrieri denounced Senator Kerry’s “deliberate, manifest, and pertinacious adherence to the proposition that one has a right to choose abortive murder.” Mr. Balestrieri identified that as an ecclesiastical crime, heresy, that is, "the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith...." The relief demanded is a declaration of excommunication and the imposition of additional penalties and punishments against Senator Kerry, including barring Senator Kerry from receiving Communion or any other sacrament until Senator Kerry publicly repudiates his heretical support for abortion or, in Mr. Balestrieri’s words, “the Right-to-Murder heresy.” Mr. Balestrieri alleged that he personally had been gravely injured by Senator Kerry’s “continuous attack on and disturbance of the pacific possession and unity of [his Roman Catholic] faith, a…right to all Catholics, In addition, Mr, Balestrieri invited “all other individuals who have been gravely scandalized, offended, angered or aggrieved as a direct result of [Senator Kerry’s] actions or omissions” to join his suit. To show Senator Kerry’s persistent obstinacy, Mr. Balestrieri cited Senator Kerry’s support for abortion in his first speech in the United States Senate more than nineteen years ago and his perfect pro-abortion voting record, including opposition to even partial birth abortion. Mr. Balestrieri also vigorously objected to Senator Kerry’s public receipt of Holy Communion several times this year and asserted as fact “an urgent need for the elimination of Scandal whereby a life-threatening heresy attacking a Dogma of Divine and Catholic Faith is growing substantially within the Church.” The use of Holy Communion as a political photo opportunity is utterly disgraceful, but not unprecedented. On Palm Sunday 1998, Bill Clinton was still denying that he had engaged in any inappropriate behavior with “that stalker,” Monica Lewinsky. With the world watching, he sought and received Holy Communion in a Roman Catholic Church in South Africa at a Mass broadcast on television in the United States. Bill Clinton had graduated from Georgetown University, a prominent Catholic school located in Washington, D.C. He surely must have known that, as a Baptist, he should not have sought to receive Holy Communion in a Catholic church. He (or at least one of his advisers) certainly should have known. Why would Bill Clinton have made that kind of “mistake”? Only God knows for sure, but it appears that the anticipated political benefit to him that would flow from his appearing to be in a state of grace was even more irresistible to the manipulative man than Monica Lewinsky ever had been. Holy Communion is for Catholics who have confessed their sins, resolved to sin no more and done penance. A person seeking Communion is tacitly representing that he is fit to do so. Such a person is supposed to be in a state of grace. Surely he (or she) is not supposed to be an unrepentant adulterer desperately lying to everyone and anyone in order to hold on to a political office and avoid a loss in a civil suit and criminal prosecution for perjury and obstruction of justice. Today the most prominent Democrat misusing Holy Communion for political purposes is Senator Kerry. Senator Kerry is supporting even partial-birth abortion, calling abortion a woman's right instead of a wrong and vowing to keep abortion legal. At the dinner hosted by NARAL Pro-Choice America (formerly, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, Senator Kerry proudly and passionately proclaimed, "We are not going to turn back the clock. There is no overturning of Roe v. Wade. There is no packing of courts with judges who will be hostile to choice." Of course, Senator Kerry shamelessly wants to have it both ways: to be NARAL’s champion AND a practicing Catholic presenting himself to receive Communion, as though he is in a state of grace and in full communion with the Church and therefore fit to receive. John Kennedy won 80% of the Catholic vote in 1960, and Senator Kerry wants Catholics to vote for him as one of their own too. Team Kerry does not want Mr. Balestrieri and his case covered because people might learn that Senator Kerrry is a heretic and a rank opportunistic who can't be trusted. Team Bush does not want them covered because it fears a backlash, especially if it is identified with Mr. Balestrieri, and some unrepentant, nominally Catholic pro-abortion politicians are Republicans. The secular media does not want them covered because it is secular and liberal and supports Senator Kerry and abortion. The official Catholic media does not want them covered because Mr. Balestrieri has embarrassed the hierarchy in the United States that controls it and exposed the hierarchy as intimidated. But, like the child who said that the Emperior had no clothes, it is Mr. Balestrieri who is right. Mr. Balestrieri is right about heresy, scandal and Canon 915. Mr. Balestrieri is following the glorious example of Saint Thomas More, martyr and Patron of Statesmen and Politicians. Senator John Kerry’s position on abortion is like Pontius Pilate’s position on Jesus. As Father James Poumade put it in a homily delivered on May 30, 2004: “Pontius Pilate was personally opposed to executing Jesus, and may even have come to believe in Him, but didn’t wish to impose his belief on the crowd….He knew what his decision meant….It is inconsistent to claim that one can reject the faith publicly and still be Catholic. Those who try to do so are the only ones truly guilty of mixing politics and religion. Being a practicing Catholic means following the will of God as revealed to us through Scripture and Tradition and the teaching authority of the Church.” After Mr. Balestrieri’s case against him was reported by the Washington Times, Senator Kerry surprised his own spokesperson by claiming to believe that life begins at conception But Senator Kerry is continuing to try to have it both ways on that life-and-death matter. On one hand, like a faithful Catholic, Senator Kerry is asserting personal opposition to abortion: “I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception…." On the other hand, Senator Kerry is assurings abortion supporters that he will let them have all the abortions they want, for whatever reason. Senator Kerry is offering this rationale for preaching against abortion and legislating in favor of it: “I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist," he continued in the interview. "We have separation of church and state in the United States of America." To the naïve, Senator Kerry’s position may make him look admirably openminded and restrained instead of arbitrary and controlling. However, it is sheer sophistry, that is, “subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation,” of which Senator Kerry should be ashamed, The "separation between faith and life" that Senator Kerry is trying to use for political advantage was condemned long ago by the Second Vatican Council as “counted among the more serious errors of our age." As the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stated in its Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life: “[T]he lay Catholic's duty to be morally coherent…is one and indivisible. There cannot be two parallel lives…: on the one hand, the so-called 'spiritual life', with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called 'secular' life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social responsibilities, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture.” The Doctrinal Note emphasized that lay Catholics, in fulfilling civic duties, are to be “‘guided by a Christian conscience,’ in conformity with its values,” and that “their proper task [is] infusing the temporal order with Christian values, all the while respecting the nature and rightful autonomy of that order, and cooperating with other citizens according to their particular competence and responsibility.” The Doctrinal Note categorically rejected the claims that citizens have “complete autonomy with regard to their moral choices and lawmakers…are respecting this freedom of choice by enacting laws which ignore the principles of natural ethics and yield to ephemeral cultural and moral trends, as if every possible outlook on life were of equal value.” The Doctrinal Note distinguished legitimate and illegitimate freedom. It explicitly respected “the legitimate freedom of Catholic citizens to choose among the various political opinions that are compatible with faith and the natural moral law, and to select, according to their own criteria, what best corresponds to the needs of the common good.” The Doctrinal Note explained that it is “the Church’s right and duty to provide a moral judgment on temporal matters when this is required by faith or the moral law.” With respect to abortion, the Doctrinal Note was emphatic: “John Paul II, continuing the constant teaching of the Church, has reiterated many times that those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a ‘grave and clear obligation to oppose’ any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them.” (Emphasis added.) A faithful Catholic politician may not compromise on fundamental matters. “When political activity comes up against moral principles that do not admit of exception, compromise or derogation, the Catholic commitment becomes more evident and laden with responsibility. In the face of fundamental and inalienable ethical demands, Christians must recognize that what is at stake is the essence of the moral law, which concerns the integral good of the human person. This is the case with laws concerning abortion and euthanasia (not to be confused with the decision to forgo extraordinary treatments, which is morally legitimate). Such laws must defend the basic right to life from conception to natural death.” Senator Kerry surely knows that the truth concerning the right to life of all persons from conception to natural death is not an idiosyncratic “religious” notion and his talismanic invocation of the words “separation of church and state” does not immunize him from responsibility for his sin of promoting abortion in the eyes of God or the Church. Senator Kerry and all other politicians of whatever political affiliation should not be permitted to confuse their fellow Americans or to intimidate any member of the Roman Catholic clergy. Mr. Balestrieri is owed a great debt of gratitude not only by Catholics but by all persons of good will who disdain manipulation, obfuscation and intimidation and want to know the truth about politicians. Michael J. Gaynor 95 Darrow Lane Greenlawn, New York 11740-2803 (631) 757-9452 (tel) (631) 754-3437 (fax) GaynorMike@aol.com

Yes he is and he can be shunned.