BOSTON, Oct. 18 - A canon lawyer seeking to have Senator John Kerry excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church because of his support for abortion rights said on Monday that he had ammunition in the form of a letter issued at the request of a senior Vatican official.
The lawyer, Marc Balestrieri of Los Angeles, who heads a conservative Catholic nonprofit organization called De Fide, also said that, based on the letter, he would now seek to have four other Catholic politicians excommunicated: Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mario M. Cuomo, the former governor of New York.
"Senator Kerry, and all pro-choice Catholic politicians, who publicly call themselves Catholic yet who blatantly violate canon law by continuing to profess heresy and receive Holy Communion, must publicly reject their abortion advocacy for the sake of their own souls, and the others they have scandalized," Mr. Balestrieri said in a statement.
I'm not Roman Catholic, but I am somewhat familiar with canon law. Basically it comes down to this:
1. Roman Catholic doctrine (and all Christian doctrine, for that matter) teaches that abortion is the taking of innocent human life (i.e. murder).
2. Roman Catholic doctrine also teaches that the taking of innocent human life is grave sin.
3. Those committing grave sin - including those encouraging and/or permitting them to do so - are not allowed to receive the body and blood of Christ (the Eucharist) unless they first repent of that sin (confess the sin as sin and vow never to commit it again).
4. Those who commit a grave sin and refuse to repent cannot receive the Eucharist. This is important because according to Catholic Doctrine, participation in the Eucharist is essential to the forgiveness of sins.
5. As a result, Roman Catholic doctrine treats this as heresy and requires the excommunication of such individuals.
Or something like that.
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