Politics and the papacy

Re “Teaching the pope,” editorial, Nov. 14

This editorial assumes that the Catholic Church is a political organization that is more interested in popularity than in teaching God’s law. The church has no need to force “pro-choice” Catholics to choose between their faith and convenience; they already made that choice. It is, however, the duty of the pope, as well as all the other bishops, clergy and other faithful Catholics, to teach the law of God as handed down from Jesus through his apostles. If that means making it clear that abortion is a mortal sin, then so be it.

Thomas F. Brands

Los Angeles

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Your editorial sees the penalty of excommunication exclusively in secular terms. In fact, the church uses excommunication, which is a spiritual penalty, to punish Catholics who continue to persist in grave sin.

From the church’s point of view, the question that needs to be addressed is if Catholic politicians who adamantly support legalized abortion are cooperating with evil and thus persisting in grave sin. Your editorial fails to address this question.

Many will ask if Catholics who disagree with the pope on the death penalty and the war in Iraq should also be excommunicated. In his July 2004 letter to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, explained that abortion and euthanasia, which are grave sins and moral evils, do not have the same moral weight as the death penalty and war. “There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not, however, with regard to abortion and euthanasia,” he wrote.

Finally, allow me to point out that when Archbishop Joseph Rummel of New Orleans excommunicated segregationist Leander Perez in 1962, many liberals applauded and hailed Rummel for his courage. By contrast, Perez’s defenders argued that Rummel ignored the separation of church and state, public opinion and personal conscience. Sound familiar?

Dimitri Cavalli

Bronx, N.Y.