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Vatican Adviser: Cuomo Lives In Sin, Shouldn't Take Communion
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 23, 2011
Modified Feb 23, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 23, 2011
Modified Feb 23, 2011
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It's not new news that Governor Andrew Cuomo shares a home with his Semi-Homemade lifestyle guru girlfriend Sandra Lee. But now the Vatican is getting involved by talking about Cuomo is disrespecting his Roman Catholic faith by taking Holy Communion—due to his "public concubinage" situation—and saying it "produces grave scandal."
Professor Edward Peters, at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, is an expert in Catholic Church law and an adviser to the Vatican. He told CNS News, "The governor, with complete freedom, is publicly acting in violation of a fundamental moral expectation of the church" and "if he approaches for Holy Communion, he should be denied the august sacrament in accord with Canon 915." Guess that's a problem for the priests who gave Cuomo Communion after he was sworn in as Governor. And Cuomo is more like Rudy Giuliani than he probably wants to admit!
Cuomo is also a supporter of gay marriage and a woman's right to choose, so CNS News, a conservative website, asked Peters, “Does Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s public policy of supporting abortion and passage of the Reproductive Rights Act constitute -- in the objective order - ‘persevering in manifest grave sin’ and should Cuomo therefore not ‘be admitted to holy communion?’” to which Peters answers, “I would want experts on New York law and politics to verify a few facts here, but based on what is widely reported about the governor’s consistent support for abortionism in New York, I see no other way to interpret his abortion-related conduct except as sufficient to warrant withholding of holy Communion from him under Canon 915.”
As for Cuomo's pro-gay marriage stance and Holy Communion, Peters said, "Canon 915 requires the demonstration of certain facts in order for the obligation to withhold holy Communion from a member of the faithful to apply. Among the facts that need demonstration are that the action be objectively ‘gravely sinful’ and that the conduct be ‘obstinate.’.. As for the objective wrongness of policies that treat homosexual unions as if they were the same thing as “marriage” (whether natural or sacramental marriage, it doesn’t matter), that depends on the actual wording of the policies of course, but, in general, such polices tend to distort the character of a basic human institution and therefore damage society. It is, of course, wrong for public officials to lend support to programs that damage the foundations of the very societies they govern."
Tagged
andrew cuomo
Catholic Church
gay marriage
governor cuomo
pro choice
roman catholic
vatican
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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