An emerging Catholic concept: the thought police go to church

November 9, 1:44 PMTucson Liberal Christian ExaminerMargot Fernandez

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The second potentially-huge confrontation that is brewing amongst Catholic clergy--at the level of bishops, no less--is the concept that one's thoughts are one's deeds. I know it sounds stupid, and I had to research this, but it's true.

In St. Louis there was an Archbishop Raymond Burke. He seems to think that you are as guilty for things you think, as for things that you do. Before he was whisked away to the Vatican (for re-education?) he took a very hard stand on abortion rules and regulations. He held that not only would you be responsible for having an abortion (a position that exonerates all men by default), but you would be  in a state of sin if you agreed with the rights of others to have an abortion. Thus he objected vociferously to the Catholic funeral of the late Senator Ted Kennedy. His opinion is that Kennedy was equally sinful for supporting women's choice, as though he had approved of his wife or daughter's abortion or, had he been born a woman, had an abortion him(her)self.

Let's think about this. "Well, Jane, I would never have an abortion myself, you know, but you have a right to one if you think it's best under the circumstances." For this, Archbishop Burke says you stand condemned if you are a Catholic man or woman. It's quite a leap from having a hospital procedure that ends the life of a developing human being, to saying that it's their own decision for some other woman.

I can tell you one thing for sure: Ted Kennedy never had an abortion. He was a man. The abortion issue was purely theoretical for him, as it is for all male human beings. Archbishop Burke, a male human being himself, not only objected to Kennedy's church funeral, but recommends refusing Holy Communion to Catholics who support the right of women to have an abortion. I'd call that a pretty hard-line position, and Archbishop Burke has staked it out and now we will see how many Catholic lay persons and clergy go there.

Now, as a non-Caholic I don't consider myself bound to follow their rules, no more than I would observe Judaism's kosher laws. Archbishop Burke may not believe it, but he has no authority over the lives of non-Catholics. This is why we separate church and state in America. Catholics do not govern this country, nor do evangelical fundamentalists, Jews or atheists. Our government is secular.

So if you are a Catholic woman, don't you have an abortion--that's the church rule. But for anybody else it's theoretical and a matter of personal opinion. Non-Catholic Christians have a moral frame of reference through which they arrive at their life decisions, and it is not dictated by Rome. Catholics are used to being dictated to and discouraged when they want to ask questions. Let the Catholic hierarchy enforce their rule with the utmost scrupulosity, it's their affair.

According to Yahoo! religious news, Archbishop Burke, "led an unsuccessful drive to bar Communion for politicians who support abortion rights. And as Election Day approached in 2004, Burke issued a warning to Catholics in the key swing state of Missouri that they should not present themselves for Communion if they voted for pro-choice candidates."

So we have Archbishop Burke holding that Catholics can be threatened and punished for thinking that other people don't have to live like Catholics. Does this seem amazing to you? I'm guessing that it doesn't; unfortunately we are accustomed to hearing such claptrap from priests and ministers all the time, such as the "God hates fags" minister who is picketing the school attended by the Obama children as I write this.

If I were talking to Archbishop Burke I would ask him, "How strong is your desire to harm your church? How far will you go, not only to alienate non-Catholics, but to give Catholics a good reason to stop going to Mass?" I'm guessing that his answer would be that he's gotta do what he's gotta do--the same answer you'd get if you asked that minister in Washington why he wants to crucify Jesus again in the flesh of gay men.

Now Catholics have an official thought police. Sin is now not only what you do, but what you think. Many Catholics will simply ignore this, chalking it up to an extremist--until they hear it from their priest one Sunday during the homily. Then they may just join the rest of the Believers in Exile and go looking for somebody who can combine religion with respect and intellectual freedom. There are a lot of them out there, and their numbers are growing all the time, because of Church officials and spokespersons like this.