More on Four Subversive Traitors in Detroit

Karl Schudt and Amy Welborn have taken up the issue, too.

From Summa Contra Mundum:

A few words about the Gang of Four in Detroit (see my previous post). I was going to go through a point by point refutation of the idiocy of their letter, but Amy Welborn and Kevin Miller have done my work for me. But I want to add something. It is my contention that these men must be removed from the active ministry. I don't know if canon law allows them to be laicized or excommunicated for this evil act, but they can certainly be removed from their positions as pastors. There are two reasons why this must happen:

1: For the sake of the souls of their parishioners. Consider if a young couple went in to talk with one of these priests. "Father, we've got a problem: my wife is pregnant, but we don't have enough money to support the child. What should we do?" The priest then gives a highly nuanced, precisioned, and completely bogus answer: "Church teaching is ambiguous on this topic [it isn't], and reasonable people have the right to follow their consciences when they disagrees with Church teaching [they don't--disagreeing with Church teaching is evidence that one's conscience is incorrectly formed]. So you do what you think is right." The couple then goes out and aborts the child, putting their souls at risk, since abortion is a mortal sin incurring automatic excommunication.

2. For the sake of the souls of the priests themselves: Jesus says "whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." (Matt 18:6) If the priest through his teaching contributes to the fall of any of his parishioners, he is responsible. Ezekiel 33:6 is equally clear: the pastor who fails to warn the people of the wickedness of deeds will be guilty of the act himself. If these priests cause anyone to choose to sin by their squishy and evil teaching, the priests are responsible. They are digging themselves holes straight down to Hell.

A good shepherd (Note to Cardinal Maida) would quickly remove these men for the sake of the faithful, and for the sake of the men themselves.

And from In Between Naps:

Four Detroit-area priests have written a letter to the Detroit Free Press in opposition to the letter written by three scholars, including Janet Smith, regarding Jennifer Granholm’s abortion stance and her Catholic faith.

I’ll go into some details refuting their points in a moment, but I want to say first, right up front, that the fact that these guys are Catholic pastors and seminary professors is scary.

Scary because they have so little concern for the weak and the voiceless.

Scary because abortion is evidently nothing more than an “issue” for them, and not actual events in which actual preborn human beings are crushed, evacuated, and disposed of as so much trash. Once you face that fact, you can no longer employ the cool language of politics and choice. You’re talking about real kids who are being killed. You can’t stand back any longer and parse.

Scary because these fellows are counseling women and girls under their charge with evidently no sense of the weight of a decision like this.

Finally, scary because Catholic parishes are being led and Catholic seminarians are being taught by ...dare we say it… idiots?

Now to the points, well-worn, and often refuted....

Amy has a follow-up blog, too, in which she makes some very good points related to a point that I have also raised when dealing with the alleged "conscience" clause: the Subversive Traitors who appeal to "conscience" when it comes to abortion, divorce & remarriage, and artificial birth control, would be horrified if asked to apply the same standard to, say, racism and unjust treatment of laborers.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 10/21/02 03:21:50 PM
Categorized as Religious.