UPDATE: CNS opines today (10/19/04):
Is John Kerry excommunicated, or isn't he?
That's a fairly important question, wouldn't you agree?
But the form of the answer from Rome is simply bizarre.
A ranking official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asks an American theologian-- who is himself a consultor to CDF-- to answer a question from a layman. And in his answer, that priest-- who certainly seems to be speaking on behalf of the Vatican-- says: Yes, Kerry is excommunicated!
Now that's a bombshell statement. But it was handled like an arcane scholarly query. ("Yes, the Monophysite heresy was condemned by the 2nd Council of Constantinople. Thanks for asking. And by the way, the "Catholic" candidate for the world's most powerful political office is excommunicated.") Why?
Could it be that the CDF sent this message unofficially, because it was clear no official pronouncement would survive the vetting of the Vatican bureaucracy?
Is it a coincidence that this statement came (indirectly) from the same dicastery that "leaked" Cardinal Ratzinger's comments on giving Communion to pro-abortion politicians-- after Cardinal McCarrick withheld those comments from the other US bishops?
Is it a coincidence that this statement became public shortly after Cardinal Sodano conferred a papal knighthold on a politician who, it seems, has earned excommunication in the same fashion as Kerry?
UPDATE 10/19/04: Same source: The Vatican says that Marc Balestrieri is full of shit and Kerry has NOT been excommunicated:
"His claim that the private letter he received from (Dominican) Father Basil Cole is a Vatican response is completely without merit," Father DiNoia told Catholic News Service Oct. 19, declining to discuss the matter further.
Father DiNoia denied that Father Cole, a theologian who resides in Washington, was delegated in any way to address the questions on behalf of the congregation.
Father Cole's letter to Balestrieri, also posted on De Fide's Web site, begins by saying he had been asked by Father DiNoia "to respond unofficially" to Balestrieri's questions.
The priest concluded that "if a Catholic publicly and obstinately supports the civil right to abortion, knowing that the church teaches officially against that legislation, he or she commits that heresy envisioned by Canon 751 of the Code" of Canon Law.
Vatican officials contacted by CNS Oct. 19 said they did not agree with Father Cole's conclusion that Kerry has incurred excommunication.
"You can incur excommunication 'latae sententiae' (automatically) only if you procure or perform an abortion," one said.
In Washington, Father Cole told CNS the Holy See "gets these requests ... tons of them," and that Father DiNoia asked him to respond to Balestrieri in a private capacity.
"I have no relationship to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ... and the letter that I wrote to Balestrieri was purely private," he told CNS Oct. 19. "I wrote it as a private theologian, not with any authority. It has no authority whatsoever.
"Its worth is disputable," he added.
One Vatican official contacted by CNS said no church official had seriously approached the point of declaring Kerry a heretic.
"No, Kerry is not a heretic," he said.
Well, I know I'LL sleep better tonight knowing that a bunch of old men who looked the other way as many of their own were molesting children have decided that John Kerry won't be burnt at the stake after all.
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