Archbishop Chaput Oct. 17 ENDOW keynote address

Click here for the link to the text of a speech Archbishop Chaput gave tonight at the ENDOW national conference dinner in Denver.

As stated in his speech, he is giving these remarks "as an author and private citizen" and not officialy for the Archdiocese of Denver.

Voting: 'Proportionate Reasons'

In 2004, then-Cardinal Ratzinger sent a memo to Cardinal McCarrick regarding a question about when Communion should be denied to a politician who is intentionally ignoring key teachings of the Catholic Church. In a now-famous postscript to the main text of the letter, Cardinal Ratzinger addressed the culpability of the faithful who vote for pro-abortion candidates:

A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate’s stand in favour of abortion and/or euthanasia, but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons.

On Nov. 12 at the USCCB fall meeting, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput was asked for his interpretation of the key phrase "proportionate reasons" by John Allen, National Catholic Reporter's Vatican reporter (thanks to Amy Welborn's blog for highlighting this).

As you know, I have written a book [on faith and politics], and in it I write that it means a reason we could confidently explain to the Lord Jesus and the victims of abortion when we meet them at the end of our lives, and we will meet them. I think there are legitimate reasons you could vote in favor of someone who wouldn’t be where the church is on abortion, but it would have to be a reason that you could confidently explain to Jesus and the victims of abortion when you meet them at the Judgment. That’s the only criterion. It can’t be that we favor a particular party, or that we’re hostile to the war, or so on.

This is a very interesting interpretation of that phrase. Do you agree with him?

[NOTE: Archbishop Chaput's book is coming out just in time for the Democratic National Convention and should cause quite a stir. We'll give details on the release date when we hear of them.]

Bishop Sheridan in Newsweek

Bishop Sheridan was interviewed for an article in the next Newsweek magazine about the bishops' stance on politicians and the reception of Communion. Here is the part about Bishop Sheridan, who was asked a question about whether or not he would give holy Communion to Catholic presidential candidate and limited abortion rights supporter Rudy Giuliani:

"If I were assured, and I think we are, that he's been properly counseled in this regard, then I would have to deny, because [the canon] directs me to do that," said Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs. "That's what I'm bound to do by church law."

If anyone wants to discuss the article, please keep the comments to the issue of politicians and Communion and not critiques/support of any particular candidates.