Hi, Chris —

I heard about this on EWTN's The World Over, and I don't recall anyone being excommunicated.
The bishop said the hospital was no longer a Catholic hospital.

After reviewing the situation and talking with the people involved, he thought the abortion was unwarranted and needless.

• Wouldn't any Catholic, practicing or non-practicing, logically expect the bishop to stand up for Catholic principles and remove the title Catholic from the hospital?
• Why would those people leave the church, unless they truly didn't believe in the teachings of the Church to begin with?

Heck, unlike the early church, the bishop wasn't even thrown to the lions!

We have many in our church that have been poorly catechized. They are probably just a few of many. This isn't a matter of feelings; this is a matter of faith and what we believe as Catholic Christians. You have the Catechism I sent you so it is your choice to believe or not.

You said:
[They] said they could no longer belong to a church that would excommunicate good people like the nun when they don't even excommunicate priests that have raped and molested thousands of boys.

Priests have been defrocked and laicized in many cases since 2002.   These people who left the parish haven't been keeping up with the news. Some dioceses have gone bankrupt (at least seven to my knowledge) due to scandalous priestly behavior. The only sure solution, in my humble opinion, is unexpected seminary visitations by the local bishop, at least twice a year.

I go into greater depth in my recent commentary.

As practicing Catholics we would say:

We don't leave the Bark [or Truth] of St. Peter due to the Judas behavior of some priests. Unless, you are immaculate, like Our Lord stated:

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. (John 8:7)

Mike —

The nun was not excommunicated. The name Catholic was withdrawn from the hospital because:

• it performed a direct abortion
• refused to admit it, and
• pledged not to do it again.

Instead, the hospital said that killing the baby was necessary, the lesser evil, and therefore moral.

Mary Ann

Mike,

Yes, the sister who made the decision to allow the abortion was excommunicated with much fanfare.

• July 2010 Respect Life Newsletter from the diocese of Phoenix

There are two reasons why this is different.

1. One, there is a canon law that provides for excommunication for cooperating in an abortion, and no canon that calls for excommunication for child rape. You can argue there should be one (and I would), and maybe there will be one, but there isn't one now, and one can't arbitrarily impose penalties without a basis in law, otherwise you make a mockery of justice. First you have to enact the law and specify the punishment, then you can punish people for committing the crime. This is a basic matter of jurisprudence.
   
   
2. Second, anyone who would claim that child rape is worse than murder has their priorities wrong or has an erroneous understanding of abortion. Abortion is murder, period, end of story. I suspect that anyone who claims that child rape is worse than murder doesn't believe that abortion is truly the taking of an innocent human life, or doesn't have an appreciation for that fact. Yes, indeed, as bad as child rape is (and it is an absolute abomination), abortion is far worse than child rape. If they want to leave the church over that, God will be their judge. You just can't believe what the Catholic Church believes about abortion and believe that child rape is worse. You just can't!

Eric

Hi, Eric —

Thanks for the clarification. I did not know she had been excommunicated. The difference in this case between her position and the child rapist priest, is that she claims that she is doing a moral thing, that a wrong choice is a right choice; that Church teaching is false.

The priest is committing a crime, but he is not saying that the Church should allow child rape.

She has put herself outside of the Church by her beliefs. The priest, if not repentant, is outside of grace, a far worse thing. In general, however, anyone who commits, procures, or directly assists in an abortion is automatically excommunicated.

As for whether that penalty should apply to priest rapists, there could be healthy debate. Clerical raping of a child used to have relatively minor and discretionary penalties, but they have been stiffened. Excommunication or moral offenses have always been a warning sign: don't go there. Maybe we need it again. In any case, it is true that murder is worse than rape, in some ways, but in other ways not so, because child rape leads the child into evil, and that is worse than death. Hence, Christ spoke of millstones around the necks of such people. (Matthew 18:6)

Mary Ann

Chris,

God can bring good out of evil, but we may not do evil so that good may come of it.

Mary Ann

Dear Chris,

Both points you state are correct:

• Both acts are disgusting and mortal sins, and
• Murder is worse than abuse.

Paul