Should Rock be excommunicated?

Allan Rock's possible excommunication by the Catholic Church was broached by retired law professor Ian Hunter in a Globe & Mail article on Saturday, January 27. Rock, Canada's Minister of Health, has threatened four provinces with financial penalties unless they pay for abortion in private clinics.

After noting that Health Minister Rock is a Catholic, Professor Hunter, who is not a Catholic, writes, "According to the 1994 Roman Catholic Catechism, abortion is 'a grave offence--a crime against human life,' justifying the canonical penalty of excommunication." He continues, "Allan Rock does not just advocate abortion; he insists, with the power of the government at his back, that all Canadians, including conscientious Roman Catholics, pay for it. And what is the Church's response? Silence, as far as I can tell."

Prof. Hunter thinks it understandable that bishops are reluctant "to engage in a messy public controversy with a senior politician." Yet he goes on to say, "when the Church subordinates truth, and its own canon law, to the dictates of political expediency, what message does it send--first to Roman Catholics, then to all Canadians? Is not the message that the Church prefers "peace in our time" to confronting what it considers a sin?"

As one can see, Prof. Hunter thinks we are dealing here with abject surrender a la Chamberlain facing Hitler in 1939.

Without his overtones, we see an increasing number of Catholics asking his question. How long will our bishops put up with Catholic politicians who boldly declare they are Catholics but support "choice" on abortion? In the last election, party leaders Chretien and Clark put themselves in that category. On November 9, Chretien had his party declare that it officially supported "a woman's right to choose." Catholic politicians are publicly defying their own Church. This has not gone unnoticed. Chretien's declaration was questioned in a sermon by Archbishop Marcel Gervais of Ottawa ("Does this mean the Liberals are now pro-abortion?") and in another sermon the Archbishop said that Rock "made his blood boil."

By way of background to excommunication, let me make some observations.

1. When Canon Law speaks of excommunication in relation to abortion, it reserves it for Catholics who participate in an actual abortion. In that case it is latae sententiae, that is, automatic, following the fact. That is why some ten years ago Archbishop Adam Exner, then of Winnipeg (now of Vancouver), publicly warned a Catholic nurse that if she worked for Morgentaler in Winnipeg she would automatically be excommunicated.

2. What about everyone else? The builders of the clinic? Its guards? Its waste removers? Those who frame or vote for abortion laws? All of them are involved in what is called material cooperation in abortion; the greater the offence, the greater the harm to society and the greater God's wrath.

3. Although there have been exceptions, Canadian bishops in general have not interested themselves in the positions of political candidates. The NDP has been publicly committed to legal abortions since 1965 and yet Catholics, even Catholic priests with the approval of their bishops, have offered themselves as candidates for this party. The Liberals have been pro-abortion, unofficially, since 1968.

4. Pope John Paul, on the other hand, without speaking of penalties, has reflected on the role of legislators with increasing frequency and insistence. For example:

February 24, 2000: "The value of a democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes." (To academy of social sciences)

November 5, 2000: "Hence a law which does not respect the right to life--from conception to natural death-- of every human being ... is not a law in harmony with the divine plan. Consequently, Christian legislators may neither contribute to the formulation of such a law nor approve it in parliamentary assembly." (To political leaders from all over the world)

January 31, 2001: You must defend life. Pastors "must be ready to speak on every occasion, opportune or not" (To bishops of Hungary).

5. Any excommunication other than latae sententiae would involve the bishop of the offender's place of residence. Allan Rock's riding is Etobicoke Centre, part of Toronto. Personal warnings from the bishop to the person involved--whether public or private--would appear to be a prerequisite for action.

6. The purpose of excommunication is to bring the person back to the Church. It is a judgment call. That's why Napoleon was excommunicated and Hitler wasn't. Although Napoleon was outrageously defiant, he repented on his deathbed. But Hitler had no bonds to the Church in which he was baptized as a baby. He hated her.

Other excommunications are for the common good. For example, Archbishop Ritter of Louisiana, USA, excommunicated Catholic racist politicians there in 1947, because they mocked Church teaching against racism. Rock would seem to fall into this category.