Friday, September 30, 2005

Church politics again. Yawn

So apparently the Catholic church is considering denying communion to politicians who support laws that are contrary to Church doctrine. (I like this article from the Star better, but CTV has one you can access without a log-in/bugmenot.

I think the Church is shooting itself in the foot with this proposal, because it will ultimately lead to a complete absence of practising Catholics in the political sphere.

Why? Because of conflict of interest rules. After all, if it's a conflict of interest for a politician to work on an issue from which they may stand to gain financially, it's certainly a conflict of interest for a politician to work on an issue where they could ultimately be condemned to hell if they don't do what the pope wants them to. Even if a politican is perfectly capable of not being influenced by this, there will still be a perceived conflict of interest - not only for practising Catholics, but for the many people who were baptized Catholic but don't practise any more.

Practising Catholics will have to report this as a real/perceived conflict of interest, and then they will likely be instructed to recuse themselves from working on any issue that's associated with Church doctrine. Since Church doctrine can be interpreted as being rather broad, they might even be forced to resign. The result will be that there are few or no practising Catholics in politics, ultimately because the teachings of their church is preventing them from acting in accordance with general ethical principles.

Non-practising Catholics will also have a perceived conflict of interest that they'll have to report, although they may be able to satisfy the ethics authorities by formally and/or publically dissociating themselves from the Catholic church. I wonder if Catholicism actually has a mechanism to do this with? I know that just anyone can search the baptismal records of my hometown church and find that I was baptized and even had a first communion, so they might conclude from that that I'm Catholic. But there's no written record of the fact that I haven't attended church in almost 10 years except for my grandfather's funeral, and the only public record of my atheism comes from this anonymous blog and other people's testimony. Is there some way that I can get myself stricken from church records, or have them amend my file to show that I'm no longer Catholic?

This also raises another question I've been wondering about for some time: what are the theological consequences of taking communion if it's forbidden to you? I'd assume you're going to hell anyway, because being forbidden communion means you'll die without last rites. So really, what they gonna do about it?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

My stance is that the Church is overstepping its authority to deny communion to anyone.

Doctrine is certainly not black and white. In many cases (such as the gay marriage and abortion issues), I see a conflict between 'hating the sin' (which the Church essentially advises) and 'loving the sinner' (which it also supposedly supports).

If the Church is to survive, it must strive to maintain its base and/or persuade non- (or barely) practicing Catholics like me to return as active members.

Denying Communion to conflicted politicians (or anyone else) will only drive them and others away. How that serves the Church's broader and longer-term interests is baffling to me.

Anonymous said...

101 Heresies of Antipope Benedict XVI exposes the Modernist errors of Joseph Ratzinger and in communion with him:

http://www.patrickpollock.com/101heresiesofbenedictxvi.html

Anonymous said...

Bloggers,

Read up on why the Holy See is Vacant:

101 Heresies of Antipope Benedict XVI exposes the Modernist errors of Joseph Ratzinger and in communion with him:

http://www.patrickpollock.com/101heresiesofbenedictxvi.html

+JMJ
CatholicCrusader

Anonymous said...

You've made some good points there. I checked on the web to find out more about the issue and found most individuals will go along with your views on this site.

My web-site ... loans for bad credit
My web site > loans for bad credit

Anonymous said...

Just want to ѕay yοur aгtіclе is
as suгpгiѕing. The сlearneѕs οn your submit is juѕt great and
that i cаn thinκ you're knowledgeable in this subject. Well along with your permission allow me to grasp your RSS feed to keep up to date with imminent post. Thanks one million and please keep up the rewarding work.

Here is my weblog ... payday loans no credit check
Look at my homepage :: payday loans no credit check

Anonymous said...

Holа! I've been reading your web site for a while now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Lubbock Tx! Just wanted to tell you keep up the excellent job!

my blog post :: quick loans
My web page > quick loans