We’re told all the time by politicians how irrelevant the Church is to people’s lives but then why do those same politicians attack the Church all the time.
A Polish government minister has accused the Church of using excommunication as blackmail.
TheNews.pl reports:
A government minister has said the threat by some bishops to excommunicate MPs who vote for state funding of IVF treatment in Poland is the equivalent of “blackmail” – though the ruling Civic Platform is not united on the legislation.
“It’s a pity that the Church does not assist [in creating legislation] but threatens and blackmails,” said minister without portfolio Pawel Gras.
Of course this is a wrongheaded view of excommunication.
In a public letter the bishops called IVF the “younger sister of eugenics.”
Stefan Niesiolowski, a deputy speaker in the lower house of parliament, said he didn’t fear excommunication. He said, “I wouldn’t have enough courage to tell a married couple who suffer because they can’t have children that I can’t help them,” said the deputy speaker of parliament.
For4 some reason this love Niesiolowski has for others doesn’t pertain to the little human beings who will exist in a frozen limbo in perpetuity.
But I think many politicians believe that their public life should have no relevance at all to their standing in the Church. Does that even make sense to you? As a corollary, do they also believe their votes have any bearing on their soul?
Would they not agree that there are sins worthy of excommunication? Would they not agree that just maybe funding the creation of human beings and storing them in a freezer in perpetuity might just qualify?
We saw a similar debate with Obamacare in America recently. When the bishops stood up against the plan mainly because of its funding of abortion some politicians and media types said the church was bullying and threatening their way into the debate.
The debate eventually settles on whether the state simply says what is legal and illegal while the Church can only offer what it thinks is right and wrong. The much argued about separation of church and state is really just an argument that some people don’t accept certain morals and therefore they can’t be deemed illegal. The state poses as a neutral observer, there only to ensure that nobody’s rights are infringed upon. I think that formulation is wrongheaded and illogical because it falls apart under scrutiny. (What are all laws based on but widely accepted morality after all? When immorality gains popularity it eventually becomes legal.)
But the funding of certain acts like abortion and IVF is a different subject altogether. When the state funds something it promotes it. The state can no longer pretend to be a neutral or impartial observer. It’s taken a side. And when that side is immoral I thank God the Church is there to point it out and stand strong against it.
October 19, 2010 at 6:06 pm
The old sphagetti in the wall trick – just throw some ludicrous position on the wall and see what sticks. Pols are the same everywhere.
October 19, 2010 at 7:05 pm
With you, I thank God, as a Polish resident, for the Polish catholic Church.
October 19, 2010 at 11:03 pm
This was a disappointment.
I was excited when I saw the title and thought "finally". Then the big let-down, this isn't about US politicians.
October 20, 2010 at 3:24 am
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE AND GOD
Faith in God is a gift from God. Religion is man’s response to the gift of Faith from God. Religion may be separated from state as the state may not impose anyone’s way of praising God unless the other PERSONS request to know how a particular individual responds to God’s gift of Faith as did St. Francis, Saint Ignatius, Saint Anthony. Religion is to be separated from the state. GOD IS TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE STATE. The state is constituted by each and every sovereign person, citizens, who are endowed by “OUR CR EATOR WITH UNALIENABLE RIGHT AND THAT AMONG THESE RIGHTS ARE LIFE LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.” (The Declaration of Independence). God, the Supreme Sovereign Being, informs the state with authority through the sovereign personhood of every human being created.
As Jesus Christ, standing before Pontius Pilate said: “You would have not power except that it is given to you from above”
When the state refuses to acknowledge God, the sovereign person is denied all endowed, unalienable civil rights set forth in The Declaration of Independence and in our Constitution’s First Amendment. FREEDOM to acknowledge God, to speak and write about God, and free association with God IS NOT ENDOWED BY THE STATE. When one PERSON is denied civil rights, all PERSONS are denied civil rights. THE SOVEREIGN PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST IS DENIED THE MENTION OF HIS NAME IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE. The sovereign person may not express his belief in God, may not write or speak about his belief in God and may not assemble peaceably to exercise his belief in God.
The SUPREME SOVEREIGN BEING, GOD, CREATES THE SOVEREIGN PERSON, THE HUMAN BEING, WHOSE SOVEREIGN PERSONHOOD CONSTITUTES THE STATE, LITERALLY AUTHORIZES THE STATE TO BE. The state must acknowledge God’s creation to authorize citizenship and civil law.
There is only ONE SUPREME SOVEREIGN BEING as two would preempt each other and the necessity of two is irrational.
October 20, 2010 at 3:28 am
We believe and the Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal. All men are endowed with sovereign personhood at conception by “Our Creator”. The state can only endow a person with citizenship at birth. The child conceived as a sovereign person constitutes our nation, as equally as other men already born. Morally and legally innocent the newly conceived and endowed person is the standard of Justice. As a person, the individual is in possession of his own body, one cell, because personhood takes no space. He does not belong to the mother’s body. Abortion to save the life of the mother intends to save the mother and baby. Abortion on demand intends to end the life in the womb.
There is no reply. We have murdered 157 million persons in the womb, because evil has overtaken our nation and we as a people have succumbed to evil, narcissism, pretending to be God, procreating life and destroying life. Who will protect us unless we protect each other? One cannot live without life.