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Abortion-Loving British Media Furious Over Catholic Bishops’ Intensified Opposition

Bishops call publicly pro-abort Catholics who receive communion “a cause of great scandal”

By Hilary White

CARDIFF, Wales, June 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic bishops of England and Wales are on a pro-life roll that has infuriated pro-abortion media pundits. The Archbishop of Cardiff in Wales is the latest to enter the fray, in conjunction with the upcoming 40th anniversary of legalized abortion in Britain, with what amounts in British Church circles to stern words for political supporters of a “woman’s right to choose.”

Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, told BBC Radio that people who have publicly repudiated the Church’s teaching “ought to remove themselves from receiving communion because it would be a cause of great scandal.”

Archbishop Smith said, “A priest or bishop is not permitted to refuse communion unless it is quite clear that the person has been excommunicated or there is a very public rejection of church teaching.”

Smith’s comments follow those last week by Keith Cardinal O’Brien or Edinburgh, who called abortion “an unspeakable crime,” and the chief prelate of England and Wales, Cormac Cardinal Murphy O’Connor who told Catholic abortion proponents in Parliament to rethink whether their support is compatible with continuing to receive Holy Communion.

“The pastoral reality is,” Smith continued, “that if a Catholic politician manifestly, clearly goes against the church's teaching, then they ought to remove themselves from receiving Communion, because it would be a cause of great scandal.”

English Catholics, accustomed as they have been historically to persecution and diminished legal and social status, have traditionally kept a low religious profile in political life. But increasing pressure on religious freedom by the homosexual lobby, the growth of public sentiment in Britain against unfettered abortion and an increase in political activity by British Evangelicals has emboldened Catholic leaders.

The apparent ending of the bishops’ 40 year long reticence on abortion has touched off a storm of editorial rage in the overwhelmingly pro-abortion British press, accustomed to more diffident language from English Catholics.

Jackie Ashley railed in the Guardian today, calling the bishops’ defence of life “an assault on women’s right to abortion.” She predicted a “return to the dark ages...of the horrors of backstreet abortion.”

Ashley said Bishop Smith’s comments were important because of the “ferocity” of the tone and issued a threat against any further public opposition by Catholics. The  bishops’ statements, she said, are “language and thinking wholly against our constitution and tradition. What they have done is perilous for their religion, never mind for women who have decided to have an abortion.”

In the Scotsman, columnist Dani Garavelli, who claims to be a Catholic “at odds” with the Church, called the Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life and sexuality, “dogmatic, intemperate and ultimately self-defeating.” While she admitted that Cardinal O’Brien had a democratic right to dissent, Garavelli called his homily “at best emotional blackmail and at worst a threat to the political system.”

“The Church is swapping its role as lobbyist for something altogether more sinister,” Garavelli writes. “If it gets away with this, how long before the threat of ‘excommunication’ is extended to the position of Catholic MPs and MSPs on other issues such as civil partnerships or sex education?”

Set against this, Jemima Lewis, a self-proclaimed “pro-choice liberal” and “lapsed Catholic” columnist in the Independent, wonders what has sent the “liberal establishment into conniptions.” “I should have thought the freedom to voice one's beliefs was a central feature of any democracy,” Lewis remarked. “As if we liberals would never dream of imposing our ideas about, say, gay adoption upon a doubtful public.”

“You can't win a debate by shouting down your opponent. It makes you look as though you've got something to hide,” Lewis concludes.

Read Jemima Lewis’ column:
The Case for Abortion is Riddled with Dishonesty
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2606416.ece

Read Jackie Ashley in the Guardian:
Cardinals, back off from this war with women and state
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2094774,00.html

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