Kerry the Heretic

Including my own "translation" of the canonical petition.

More on the denunciation of John Forbes Kerry as a heretic.

Canonist Pete Vere — surely known by now to you, Faithful Reader — says that the action by Marc Balestrieri is well-founded: "He spent six months researching this petition, and his research, presentation, and handling of the facts and of the law is solid".

Pete is also considering joining Balestrieri in the battle:

.... Earlier today, Marc Balestrieri invited me and a handful of other gen-x lay canonists to join his canonical petition to the Archdiocese of Boston concerning John Kerry's heretical views vis-a-vis abortion. I had already committed to publicly defending him in the media as well as raising money to help the cause, because it is the right thing to do. But getting involved with the procedural end of things requires a whole other level of committment that those of us invited to join must carefully weigh. In for a penny, in for a pound as the old saying goes.

Having spoken to a mutual friend of ours who is also a lay canonist that has fought some of the battles against pro-abort Catholic politicians — I will call him Anselmo for the moment — we recognize that we need to stand by Marc. Even before Marc extended the invitation, Anselmo expressed his eagerness to get in on the procedural action and is just looking for the best means to do so. I'm hoping he can come up with something in the next week, since Anselmo is noted for his careful preparation and meticulous canonical research before going into battle, so it will be a lot easier if I can just add my name to whatever he comes up with.

On the other hand, with my canon law books presently in boxes, I'm in no position at the moment to go it alone in supporting Marc right now. In short, I'm just not properly prepared at the moment to fight the procedural end of this battle. On the other hand, given the grave scandal involved and the great number of innocent children in the womb whose blood is being shed, I cannot in good conscience allow Marc to go it alone as is the case right now....

All praise to Oswald Sobrino — whose weblog you should not fail to visit daily — who will be donating book royalties to the cause:

Royalties from the newly revised version of the Catholic Analysis book Unpopular Catholic Truths will be donated to support the canonical petition filed by Los Angeles canon lawyer Marc Balestrieri against Sen. Kerry for heresy on the abortion issue. Author royalties from orders placed between today, July 8, 2004, and Election Day, November 2, 2004, will be donated to support the efforts of Balestrieri, whose website is DeFide.com.

The revisions to the Catholic Analysis book make some stylistic improvements to the book plus add new references to John Paul II's book Love and Responsibility, which the Pope wrote as a young Polish bishop in 1960. On the sometimes thorny and confusing issue of whether the primary aim of marriage is procreation or conjugal love, I found that some of the sources I consulted did not satisfactorily address the matter. Then, I came across some passages in Love and Responsibility that hit the nail on the head. This small experience is further evidence that our current Pope was and is a prophet well ahead of his time.

I will attempt a translation of the canonical petition; keep in mind that it extends to 18 pages, so in certain important respects one can hardly do it justice in a few words:

John Forbes Kerry is a damn heretic. By word and deed, he espouses the heresy that The Blog from the Core will call The Right to Murder Unborn Children. The Church has dogmatically defined that the deliberate taking of innocent human life is intrinsically evil, and that procured abortion is included in this definition. John Forbes Kerry is a damn heretic. Though he says that he personally believes what the Church teaches about abortion, he nonetheless espouses heresy by what he does: he pro-actively, even vigorously, does whatever he can to assure that an intrinsically evil act is legal and will remain legal, and to advance its status in society to the point that it will be understood as an everyday human right and acknowledged by mainline churches as such.

John Forbes Kerry is a damn heretic. His heresy is demonstrated and proven by his actions — his verbal protestations to the contrary notwithstanding — because he clearly, even proudly, promotes a belief that is clean contrary to beliefs dogmatically defined, in a multitude of ways — namely, The Right to Murder Unborn Children. John Forbes Kerry is a damn heretic. By Kerry's own admission, he knows that the Church's teaching concerning abortion is "an article of faith", so he has no excuse, and is in fact already excommunicated ipso facto by his own actions.

He nonetheless continues to receive Holy Communion, in defiance of the stated instructions of numerous Catholic authorities, and he even attempts to intimidate ecclesiastical authorities by making the Sacred Rites into a spectacle before the world. By all this, he openly and brazenly demonstrates contempt towards the Sacred Species, and for this too he is already excommunicated ipso facto by his own actions — an excommunication the absolution of which is reserved to the Holy See. (This point, if I may say so, is the crux of the petition, for it certainly takes the matter out of the hands of any ecclesiastical authority outside Rome.)

John Forbes Kerry is a damn heretic. He has caused and continues to cause great harm to the Catholic Church and to individual Catholics by stirring up doubt among Catholics and others about the Church's teaching and the Church's authority to teach, and by other scandals — even to the point of leading innumerable others, including Catholics, into believing The Right to Murder Unborn Children heresy — not by what he professes to believe but by what actions he takes and does not take, which is all that really matters.

Because of this harm — which Kerry has inflicted for many years, which he clearly shows no intention of stopping, and which no ecclesiastical authority has yet actually done anything to stop — and though he would much rather have Kerry repent, the petitioner has no choice but to demand that the Church must formally declare Kerry to be the excommunicate he already is. So, get to it! John Forbes Kerry is a damn heretic.

Here's hoping that one of the lawyerly types around St. Blog's will correct any error in translation.

P.S. I made some minor changes, Jul. 11, to the text of the "translation", mostly for the sake of more precise reference by way of pronouns and the like. John Forbes Kerry is a damn heretic. I also broke it up into paragraphs. Pete Vere has kindly taken note of this here translation. :-)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 07/09/04 09:45:33 PM
Categorized as John Kerry & Most Notable & Religious.