17 October 2004 RE: KERRY HERESY CASE – MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
The denunciation and complaint is pending before Archbishop O’Malley of Boston, according to the head of the Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Boston whom I met in person at the Tribunal of Boston at the end of July. He told me explicitly that the case had not been rejected. He also detailed how the Tribunal has been massively overwhelmed by the thousands upon thousands of individual denunciations and complaints. As a result I am asking all of you to, from now on, only to contact Archbishop Sean O’Malley directly, but only UPON SPECIFIC CANONICAL INSTRUCTIONS which I will be sending out over the next few days, as posted on the website and sent to you by e-mail. The Tribunal has sent the case upwards to O’Malley. I went to Rome in late August and met with 10 experts, all of whom confirmed the unprecedented nature and scope of the action in Church history. Moreover, as I had consulted everyone else, I decided in conscience that I had to go and consult the Vatican. I was received by an official of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. We had a detailed meeting. I submitted two doctrinal questions in Latin to the CDF: First, Whether or not the Church’s teaching condemning any and every direct abortion is a dogma of Divine and Catholic Faith, and if the denial and doubt of the same constitutes heresy. The Second: Whether or not the Church’s teaching condemning any and every right to abortion is a dogma of Divine and Catholic Faith, and if the denial and doubt of the same constitutes heresy. Less than ten days later, the Rev. Basil Cole, O.P., an expert theologian called me to inform me that he was “delegated” by the Very Rev. Augustine di Noia, O.P., Undersecretary of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, to fulfill the task of responding to the question. He studied the matter carefully, and has responded “Affirmative” on both counts. The response is extraordinary: It is now posted in full in .pdf format at www.defide.com One may right-click on the document and choose “save as” to obtain the form. Here is the critical excerpt: “Consequently, if a Catholic publicly and obstinately supports the civil right to abortion, knowing that the Church teaches officially against that legislation, he or she commits that heresy envisioned by Can. 751 of the Code. Provided that the presumptions of knowledge of the law and penalty (Can. 15, § 2) and imputability (Can. 1321, § 3) are not rebutted in the external forum, one is automatically excommunicated according to Can. 1364, § 1.”***The “Gordian Knot” of the Cuomo defense, “Personally Opposed but Support the Right to Choose” has now been cut in half: A pro-choice Catholic politician may not be guilty of the heresy denying the grave immorality of the ACT of abortion itself, but falls into the pit of committing the heresy supporting the RIGHT of a third party to freely commit abortion.The fact that the Response was provided 1) under “delegation” of the Undersecretary, 2) in only eleven days; 3) in writing; 4) decisively clarifying the matter and 5) in far greater detail than a typical official reply is wholly unique, from what supporting Bishops have expressed. The Congregation had no obligation to respond by “delegating” this matter to the expert theologian.As a number of Bishops have already told me, if any baptized Catholic denies or doubts the two main conclusions of the Response, after knowing of its existence, he or she commits heresy, since, as the theologian states in the text, the dogmatic force of the two propositions is “manifest.” We are not dealing here with a mere opinion about a “matter of opinion.” The two core teachings of the Response are already defined official teachings of the Ordinary and Universal Magisterium. This easily explains its rapid composition and receipt. For all of the above reasons, I have been encouraged to now finally broaden the action: An amended Denunciation and Complaint against Senator John F. Kerry including the Responsum, and four new Denunciations and Complaints against Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts; Sen. Tom Harkin (D) of Iowa; Mr. Mario Cuomo (D), former Governor of New York; and Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine, will be filed Monday in the five Ecclesiastical Courts of the five separate Dioceses. Please, keep a close watch daily of www.defide.com and your e-mail box for updates on how to proceed. IT IS CRITICAL THAT COORDINATION AND QUICK RESPONSE BETWEEN ALL JOINDERS BE ACHIEVED IN ORDER TO SUCCEED IN THE SUITS. For every one of you with Press contacts, the publicizing of these developments is critical to achieving public awareness of the action. Please send in e-mail requests to have the story treated by the big mainstream newspapers and news programs, not to mention cable. With those of even greater influence, please do what you can. This life-threatening heresy must stop. Your donations are earnestly needed as the plan is being finally broadened in scope: Please consider the following hypertext link: defide.com Please help DE FIDE achieve its mission for the greater glory of God and the greater good of this great Nation. Please keep DE FIDE and me in your prayers. Thank you for your very timely support. Yours truly,Marc Balestrieri, J.C.L. DE FIDE1223 Wilshire Blvd.PMB 346Santa Monica, CA 90403Tel.: (310) 917-2719Fax.: (310 496-2843secretary@defide.com
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