Priest/Catholic U President: "Abortion is Not an Infallible Teaching"

[Michie]

WINDSOR, Ontario, February 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -

The President of the Catholic Assumption University of Windsor told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) in an interview today that the Catholic Church's position on abortion "is not an infallible teaching."

Fr. Paul Rennick, who is also Vice Chancellor of the school, gave the remarks when LSN sought comment regarding the school's decision to invite Cokie Roberts, a pro-abortion Catholic news analyst who has criticized the Church for preaching against homosexuality and contraception, to address the school as part of the "Christian Culture" lecture series.

Fr. Rennick told LSN that he had "personally vetted" the selection of Roberts and chose her because she was "a woman of faith," a "well known Catholic" and "successful as an individual Christian."

LSN asked Fr. Rennick, "Do you think there is a possibility of scandal from the fact that she has professed very pro-abortion views and has criticized Catholic bishops for teaching Church doctrine on homosexuality and contraception?" The President of the Catholic University replied, "No, I don't."

Asked to elaborate, Fr. Rennick said: "If you look at the catholic population, you'll find a whole variety of positions on all of those topics. It seems to me that disagreement on a particular position doesn't disqualify one from being a Catholic. Unless, of course, that position is whether Jesus is the Christ."

"Abortion is not an infallible teaching. It never has been proclaimed infallibly," he said. "This attempt to put everything that the Church teaches in this one set of categories, it seems to me, is not a proper Catholic position, not according to the history of our church," he added.

LSN sought comment about Fr. Rennick's remarks from London Bishop Ronald Fabbro who is Chancellor of Assumption University. Mark Adkinson, Director of Communications for the diocese, told LifeSiteNews.com he would not be able to have the bishop comment. Asked if there would be a better time to contact the bishop, Adkinson replied, "No, because I don't view LifeSite as a legitimate news source."

LSN then sought clarification from the Canadian Catholic Conference of Bishops (CCCB), who referred to the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF). COLF Assistant Director Lea Singh noted that the Catechism reads: "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every produced abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable." (CCC 2271).

"As an 'unchangeable' teaching, it does indeed seem to be an infallible teaching," said Singh. "Over the years the CCCB has repeatedly spoken out strongly against abortion." She quoted a 1990 CCCB document which stated: "Catholic teaching on abortion is clear and unequivocal. Abortion is a moral evil because it involves the destruction of human life. Direct killing of an unborn child is never justified."

Cokie Roberts, a political commentator for ABC News and a senior news analyst for National Public Radio, has characterized the federal ban on partial-birth abortion as "off the track" and "cynical game-playing" by pro-life activists, and found the Supreme Court decision to uphold the ban "offensive as a woman."

Roberts also publicly attacked Pope Benedict XVI as "really lacking in the theological virtue of charity," and accused bishops who refuse to open adoption agencies to homosexual couples of "using the remnants of their clout to go after the weak."

The Christian Culture Series has previously invited other public dissidents, including pro-abortion Catholic Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin Jr., and radical feminist nun Sr. Sandra Schneiders, all of whom were given a Christian Culture medal for being "outstanding exponents of Christian ideals."

Schneiders, who was awarded in 1994, wrote that "every aspect" of the Catholic faith "is not just tainted but perverted by the evil of patriarchy. It is not that the tradition has some problems; the tradition is the problem."

Ms. Roberts' address will be delivered tonight at 8 p.m.

To contact Bishop Fabbro:
Diocese of London Chancery Office
1070 Waterloo Street
London, Ontario N6A 3Y2
Phone: 519-433-0658 ext. 224
Fax: 519-433-0011

To contact Assumption University:
Rev. Paul J. Rennick, C.S.B.
2629 Riverside Drive West
Windsor, Ontario, N9B 1B4
Phone: 519-973-7033
Fax: 519-973-7089
general email: cbertrand@assumptionu.ca

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09021205.html

 

[Fish and Bread]

Mark Adkinson, Director of Communications for the diocese, told LifeSiteNews.com he would not be able to have the bishop comment. Asked if there would be a better time to contact the bishop, Adkinson replied, "No, because I don't view LifeSite as a legitimate news source."

This guy rules.

 

[Fish and Bread]

That is not to excuse the comments of the President of this university (Which were theologically inaccurate). It's just nice to see someone prominent speak the truth about LifeSiteNews -- that it's a partisan hackish yellow journalism site that's, frankly, an embarrassment to me as a pro-lifer.

 

[Rhamiel]

hmmm, he might have a point about the adoption thing... I dunno
but the rest of what he is saying is trash, who would we have to talk to to get him removed from being the President of the school?

 

[Michie]

Theres contacts at the end of the article.

 

[Rhamiel]

thanks

 

[Foundthelight]

Oust him! Off with his head!

 

[CreedIsChrist]

WINDSOR, Ontario, February 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -

[URL]http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09021205.html[/URL]

Cokie Roberts and that nun don't sound like Catholics at all. By defintion they are heretics and schimatics. The feminist nun denies tradition in itself even. How can you be a Catholic when you deny its oral tradition even.

Why do people even give these dissenters a platform to talk on even? considering all they will do is spread they're evil error all the more. What about the people who are weak in faith and will fall for this error and put they're souls in jeopardy?

I really hope one day we will get a Pope(not to put down our current Pope at all) who will vanquish all heresy, corruption and impurity in the Church and bring it back. If only people like St. Robert Bellarmine and St Thomas More were here to confront these people

 

[Xpycoctomos]

I couldn't help but think... without any hatred.... what an idiot. i mean... sincerely. WHat an idiot.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

I really hope one day we will get a Pope(not to put down our current Pope at all) who will vanquish all heresy, corruption and impurity in the Church and bring it back.

There are too many heretics in the world for the Pope to go after them all, so he has to pick his battles wisely. Only God can completely separate the sheep from the goats in the world. Until then, the Popes can lead us to water, but it's up to us to drink.
.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

Church Infallibility

I. & II. Defining and Non-Defining Acts
The Magisterium teaches doctrine to be I. divinely revealed, or II. to be held definitively, by acts which are either defining or non-defining.

·Defining Acts teach infallibly by solemn papal definitions ex cathedra and actions of an Ecumenicam Council

·Non-Defining Acts teach infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Bishops dispersed throughout the world who are in communion with the Successor of Peter. Such doctrine can be confirmed or reaffirmed by the Roman Pontiff, even without recourse to a solemn definition, by declaring explicitly that it belongs to the teaching of the ordinary and universal Magisterium as a truth that is I. divinely revealed or II. of Catholic doctrine. "Consequently, when there has not been a judgment on a doctrine in the solemn form of a definition, but this doctrine, belonging to the inheritance of the depositum fidei, is taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium, which necessarily includes the Pope, such a doctrine is to be understood as having been set forth infallibly. The declaration of confirmation or reaffirmation by the Roman Pontiff in this case is not a new dogmatic definition, but a formal attestation of a truth already possessed and infallibly transmitted by the Church."
Source:
http://www.ewtn.com/library/Theology/SUMMARY.HTM

1. Those things are to be believed by divine and catholic faith which are contained in the word of God as it has been written or handed down by tradition, that is, in the single deposit of faith entrusted to the Church, and which are at the same time proposed as divinely revealed either by the solemn Magisterium of the Church, or by its ordinary and universal Magisterium, which in fact is manifested by the common adherence of Christ's faithful under the guidance of the sacred Magisterium. All are therefore bound to avoid any contrary doctrines.
2. Furthermore, each and everything set forth definitively by the Magisterium of the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals must be firmly accepted and held; namely those things required for the holy keeping and faithful exposition of the deposit of faith; therefore, anyone who rejects propositions which are to be held definitively sets himself against the teaching of the Catholic Church. - Canon 750

Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, and in communion with the Bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral. This doctrine, based upon that unwritten law which man, in the light of reason, finds in his own heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15), is reaffirmed by Sacred Scripture, transmitted by the Tradition of the Church and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.-Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, par. 57

 

[YourBrotherInChrist]

I guess it depends which teaching on abortion he is talking about.

The teaching that abortion is intrinsically evil is infallible.

The teaching that abortion must be prohibited by civil law (i.e., made illegal) is prudential in nature, and is therefore not capable of being infallibly proclaimed.

 

[D'Ann]

I love it how people think they can pick and choose what to embrace and what to reject and still call themselves Catholic. Abortion is a grave sin.

It doesn't matter what public opinion is, whether here in the USA or in Europe or where ever... abortion is a grave/mortal sin. These type of statements bring out the worse in me especially when it's coming from a high profile Catholic. This kind of statement is despeccable as far as I'm concerned.

 

[katholikos]

The President of the Catholic Assumption University of Windsor told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) in an interview today that the Catholic Church's position on abortion "is not an infallible teaching." ......

He should be excommunicated, as should Nancy Peloisi for saying basically the same thing

 

[Maggie893]

If only people like St. Robert Bellarmine and St Thomas More were here to confront these people

Makes me think of a poem......



Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
-Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

 

[MrJim]

Puts a whole new spin on Catholic Assumption University