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I would like to know how Nancy Pelosi can
be considered a Catholic when she supports
partial-birth abortions?
Marilyn
{
How
can she be considered a Catholic when she
supports partial-birth abortions? }
Eric
replied:
Hi, Marilyn —
There is no official Catholic definition
of Catholic. Typically,
though, once you are baptized Catholic
or are received into the Church,
you are considered Catholic from
then on for purposes of canon law.
In some cases, if you leave the Church
by a formal act (such as joining
another church) you may be treated as
a non-Catholic but even that may
not be true anymore. The Church is
a family and, just as you can't leave
your family, you can't really leave — or,
at least, can't easily leave — the
Catholic Church.
The fact is, if
she wants to be Catholic, and was
baptized Catholic, she's Catholic.
That doesn't mean we're proud to
have her as a member. Nor does it
mean she's in, what we call, full
communion with the Catholic
Church.
By canon law, an argument
could be made that she's a heretic, although it would probably
have to go through a canonical decision
before that was official, and I haven't
heard a competent canonist make this
argument. Also canonically, she could,
and many argue should, be denied
Communion
— Archbishop Raymond Burke,
now the top bishop in the Church's
court system (similar to our Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States.), made an eloquent
argument for this but that's up to
her bishop.
Eric
Mike
replied:
Dear Marilyn —
I just wanted to clarify something my colleague Eric said.
He said: There is no official Catholic definition
of Catholic.
The word Catholic means in its totality. So the Catholic faith is the Christian faith in its totality as St. Pacian of Barcelona implied back in 375 A.D. The Catechism states in CCC 830-831:
830 The word catholic means universal, in the sense of according to the totality or in keeping with the whole. The Church is catholic in a double sense:
First, the Church is catholic because Christ is present in her.
"Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church."
(St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Smyrn. 8,2:Apostolic Fathers,II/2,311)
In her subsists the fullness of Christ's body united with its head; this implies that she receives from him the fullness of the means of salvation. (Vatican II, Unitatis Redintegratio 3; Vatican II, Ad Gentes 6; Ephesians 1:22-23) which he has willed: correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession.
The Church was, in this fundamental sense, catholic on the day of Pentecost (cf. Vatican II, Ad Gentes 4) and will always be so until the day of the Parousia.
831 Secondly, the Church is catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race: (cf. Matthew 28:19)
All men are called to belong to the new People of God. This People, therefore, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God's will may be fulfilled: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as one. . . . The character of universality which adorns the People of God is a gift from the Lord himself whereby the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the return of all humanity and all its goods, under Christ the Head in the unity of his Spirit. (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 13 §§ 1-2; cf. John 11:52)
You said:
I would like to know how Nancy Pelosi can
be considered a Catholic when she supports
partial-birth abortions?
Though she is a baptized Catholic, she, like us, still have the greatest possible gift God has given to us:
Our own free will.
A gift we can do great things with or a gift we can do dangerous, demonic things with.
Many are turned off by the Catholic faith, not based on Her teachings, but based on the numerous scandals and behavior of members who claim to be Catholic but whose words, deeds, and actions are anything but Catholic. They dissent from the faith Jesus entrusted to them by their Baptism.
This is why she can consider herself a Catholic. She either has no idea what it means to be Catholic or has chosen to dissent from the Teachings she claims to believe in, for what the world has to offer her.
Hope this helps,
Mike
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