Mrs. Kennedy and Bishop McManus

Mrs. Kennedy and Bishop McManus by MSW

My comments: To ben an heir to the apostles simply means they are exercising the apostolic function - which is to witness to the resurrection. In truth, the biblical office of overseer is best translated as Pastor, rather than as bishop. The evolution of the role of pastor of a city Church to feudal lord of the diocese is an entirely human evolution, not something ordained by God. Indeed, if you take the washing of the feet at the Last Supper seriously, current episcopal roles are entirely against what Jesus wanted, turning the ceremony on Holy Thursday into an empty ritual.

As far as abandoning the pro-life poltical cause, I am suspicious of any Cathlic politician who does not, since the movement is based on the fraud that Roe v. Wade can or should be repealed in such a way as to transfer authority over the issue to the states so that abortion can again be regulated as a medical procedure with the equivalent penalty of shooting your neighbor's dog, thereby bringing back the black market for abortions. NO, NO, NO, NO!

To criticize Mrs. Kennedy for resisting using ecclesiatical discipline to force the hand of Catholic politicians in violation of their constitutional oaths is, to a very real extent, not only countenance but require sedition (due to the nature of episcopal appointment by a foreign government). Frankly, it is Bishop McManus who should be disciplined. Sadly, Catholic politicians have never raised this point, nor has our Catholic Vice President. Catholic politicians have never shown much courage in actually telling the bishops when they are wrong on abortion and Christendom and why. The Administration should make it clear to the Nuncio that the bishops should not use ecclesial discipline to pressure Catholic politicians to violate their constitutional oaths (that doing so is seditious).

Speaker Pelosi came close, although was wrong on the facts, relying on her faulty misunderstanding of why birth control used to be considered legitimate by Catholic ethicists because the possibility of twinning showed that pre-gastrulation blastocysts could not be people and extending that doubt to the question of whether abortion can be allowed because prior to the brain being sufficiently developed to allow for a thinking soul to function (which in light of modern neuroscience is a faulty understanding of what a soul is).