The American Spectator

“I don’t think it’s for me to decide. I can’t decide when life begins. All that I can decide is, you know, what are the constitutional issues? What are the legal issues? How do you deal with these things?”

br> So spoke Rudy Giuliani this past weekend as he tried to clarify his positions on abortion, embryonic stem cell research and other issues of concern to those who value innocent human life from the moment of conception to natural death. He seemed confused about when life begins and wondered how to deal with “these things.” p>Luckily for him, a self-professed Catholic, there happens to be age-old and specific teaching on these issues from some fellows in Rome who might be inclined to help him out. One of these is named Pope Benedict XVI, and he and his predecessors have had much to say on these subjects. When asked last week whether he agreed with Mexican bishops who threatened pro-abortion lawmakers with excommunication, he replied that such penalties are incurred automatically ( latae sententiae ) under Church law : br> /p>

“Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ. They did nothing new, surprising or arbitrary. They simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the Church… which expresses our appreciation for life and that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment.”

br> As in civil law, the Church extends the penalty to those who aid and abet the offense. And, lest some Catholic politicians insist that they have never voted to keep abortion legal since our secular gods on the U.S. Supreme Court have made that decision for us, they should realize that the charge of heresy carries the same penalty.