The Washington Times gets Medieval (well, Late Antique to be more precise) on John Kerry:
Bishops have been denying Communion to politicians since A.D. 390, when Ambrose, the archbishop of Milan, excommunicated Roman Emperor Theodosius I for killing 7,000 unarmed Greeks during a tax rebellion.
The Times fails to add that Ambrose and Theodosius had earlier clashed over the Emperor’s decree that a synagogue in Callinicum should be rebuilt at Christian expense just because a Christian mob had burnt it down. However, it does note that
Theodosius had to endure a ceremony of public penance before Ambrose agreed to accept him back into the church.
Meanwhile, Archbishop O’Malley told the Boston Globe (quoted via Christianity Today) that
a Catholic politician who holds a public, prochoice position should not be receiving Communion and should on their own volition refrain from doing so. The church presumes that each person is receiving in good faith. It is not our policy to deny Communion. It is up to the individual.
So we won’t be seeing Kerry standing barefoot in the snow for three days outside the Archbishop’s Residence.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Leave a Reply