Vatican Says Anti-Kerry Lawyer Hoodwinked Them
12 minutes ago
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By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A conservative U.S. lawyer's attempt to enlist the Vatican (news - web sites) in his drive to declare Senator John Kerry (news - web sites) a heretic over his abortion views backfired Wednesday when the Holy See said it had been hoodwinked.
Marc Balestrieri, head of a conservative Catholic group called De Fide, has been pushing for the Church to rule that the Democratic presidential candidate has inflicted excommunication on himself because he supports a woman's right to an abortion.
Balestrieri caused a stir in the United States this week when he asserted in interviews and on his Web site that he had won an unofficial and indirect green light from the Vatican.
But Wednesday, the Vatican denied his assertions, which received widespread coverage in major U.S. media.
The controversy emerges less than two weeks before an election in which abortion has become a hot-button issue.
Kerry, a Roman Catholic, says he is "pro-choice but not pro-abortion" and that he cannot impose his views on those who do not share his faith. Bush, a Methodist, is against abortion except in certain circumstances.
Balestrieri told Reuters he wanted to point out "the growing misunderstanding by Catholics that they can publicly call themselves Catholics and support the right to choose abortion."
He said U.S. Catholic leaders were afraid of strictly applying doctrine for "fear of reprisals from politicians, loss of donations from pro-choice Catholics and lack of backbone."
Father Augustine Di Noia, third-ranking official in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's doctrinal office, told Reuters that Balestrieri had hoodwinked the Church by misrepresenting himself.
AUTOMATIC EXCOMMUNICATION?
Balestrieri submitted a query to the Congregation several months ago, asking if someone who publicly supported abortion rights would be guilty of heresy and incur what the Church calls "automatic excommunication."
Di Noia, the Congregation's undersecretary, referred the request to Father Basil Cole, a canon lawyer in Washington.
Cole provided a response which said that if a Catholic "publicly and obstinately" supports the civil right to abortion despite knowledge of the Church's teaching, that person commits heresy and "is automatically excommunicated."
Balestrieri asserted that Cole's letter was proof that the Vatican was on his side. But Di Noia said: "His claim that the private letter he received from Father Basil Cole is a Vatican response has no merit whatsoever."
"I thought I was advising a student who was working on a project. I referred him to a reliable theologian on the matter. I was acting in my capacity as a theologian trying to be helpful to a young person," he told Reuters.
"I had no idea his aim was actually to build a heresy case against John Kerry or against anyone else. I feel that we have been instrumentalized," Di Noia told Reuters.
Di Noia told Reuters that Balestrieri did not identify himself as head of De Fide and did not disclose that he had already filed a heresy suit against the Massachusetts senator with the Archdiocese of Boston.
Balestrieri called on U.S. Catholic bishops to petition the Vatican for an official clarification of the abortion-heresy issue as specifically applied to Kerry. |
