Excommunication Charges Filed Against John Kerry

“Right to Murder” Heresy is the Charge

Yes I am a faithful, practicing Catholic. Very orthodox, pretty traditional. But when I read stuff like this, I have to raise an eyebrow:

On 14 June 2004 DE FIDE filed its first Libellus Litis (Bill of Complaint) in the Ecclesiastical Court of the Archdiocese of Boston. The Criminal Complaint alleges that United States Senator JOHN F. KERRY, as a baptized Catholic, has committed a court-martial offense under Canon Law by professing the Right-to-Murder heresy, commonly known as the ‘Right to Choose’ doctrine.

Here’s my beef:

(1) John Kerry is not promoting dissent within the Catholic Church, and therefore he fails to meet the requirements for scandal.

(2) John Kerry is not guilty of personally holding an entirely new brand of heresy. In fact, he guilty of a very old (and unfortunately among progressives and traditionalists, very common) heresy called Americanism.

(3) Kerry’s political views, while contrary to Catholic doctrine, have yet to qualify as a unique and new heresy.

If anything, Kerry should be charged with Americanism, not some “Right to Murder” nonsense. In any event, I’d be interested to see how far this goes, but bear in mind that American prelates do not smile kindly upon trials such as this being leaked to the faithful, as it creates scandal itself.

That more than likely means that the petitioners expect this to fail. Which is unfortunate, because it now means that Kerry can be ever-so-much-more bold when he bucks the Magisterium in the future, citing the failure of this case.