Monday, November 17, 2008

UNDERSTANDING FATHER JAY SCOTT NEWMAN

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UNDERSTANDING
FATHER JAY SCOTT NEWMAN

By Leo Rugiens

November 17, 2008


“Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation.”

[From the letter of Father Newman to his Parish on November 9, 2008]

Leo Rugiens says:

Voting is a human act and therefore it, like all human acts has a moral character.

While voting, in and of itself, is not sinful, since voting is a human act with a moral character it can be sinful.

Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods; it has been defined as “an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law; it is an offense against God.”

Sins can be distinguished according to their objects or according to the virtues they oppose, by excess or defect, or according to the commandments they violate. They can be classed according to whether they concern God, neighbor or oneself; they can be divided into spiritual and carnal sins, or again as sins in thought,, word, deed, or omission.

Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity.

Serious sins (mortal sins) destroy charity (the love of God) in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law; they turn man away from God by preferring an inferior good to him.

Less serious sins (venial sins) allow charity (the love of God) to subsist even though they offend it and wound (hence “venial”) it.
Sins can be material (objective) or formal (subjective).

Example of a material (objective) sin: a person accidentally pulls the trigger of a gun and kills someone, without intending to do so.
Civil law would call that (depending on the circumstances) manslaughter or homicide.

Example of a formal (subjective) sin: a person intentionally pulls the trigger of a gun and kills someone. Civil law would call that murder.

Father Newman said: “Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law.”

Material cooperation with intrinsic evil is a material sin.

To the extent that a Catholic voted for Barack Hussein Obama knowing that he intends to sign the Freedom of Choice Act which will remove all restrictions on abortion-on-demand, to that extent the material sin becomes a formal or subjective sin.

All sin, regardless of whether it is serious or less serious, places the sinner outside the FULL communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law. Communion is understood here as meaning membership in the Mystical Body of Christ, not Holy Communion.

To the extent that anyone who is not in full membership in the Mystical Body of Christ, whether through serious or less serious sin, it is good spiritiual advice to be told to go to confession before next receiving Holy Communion.

It is in the confessional that a penitent can discuss the act of voting for Barack Hussein Obama with the confessor and together they can attempt to determine the seriousness of the sin; whether it was merely material or whether it was formal.

Going to confession does not imply that a penitent is conscious of serious sin. It is utilizing an aid given by Christ to his Church to help an individual determine whether his/her sins are serious or less serious, and, in any event to ask for forgiveness and to be reconciled to God through the Sacrament of Penance.

Father Newman DID NOT tell his parishoners that they should not receive Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Hussein Obama.

Father Newman DID TELL his parishoners, as all good pastors should regularly do, that they should go to confession before receiving Holy Communion as a regular practice and as they MUST DO if they have any suspicion that their sins may be more serious than they choose to admit to themselves.

God bless Father Jay Scott Newman!
May his tribe increase!
May he be chosen as the next Ordinary of his Diocese!

- Leo Rugiens





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