Rev. Dwight Longenecker
An outspoken Roman Catholic priest is drawing attention to 14 confessing Catholics in the U.S. Senate who helped reject a bill that would have outlawed abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, calling on their bishops and parish priests to rebuke the lawmakers.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.
Father Dwight Longenecker wrote on his blog that he was “absolutely shocked” when the bill to ban “barbaric, inhumane” late-term abortions was rejected Jan. 29. And he found it “even more shocking” that the legislation would have proceeded to a vote and likely passed if not for the fact that 14 Catholic senators voted to block it, including Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, by a 51-46 vote, fell short of the 60 votes required for the Senate to break a Democratic filibuster. The premise of the bill was that the fetus is capable of feeling pain during an abortion at 20 weeks.
“Today is the day for their bishops to issue a formal statement acknowledging that these men and women have publicly denied their Catholic faith, and if not formally, then have informally excommunicated themselves,” Longenecker said, as LifeNews.com was first to report.
“Since their offense is public it should be acknowledged publicly and their pastors should publicly rebuke them and ask them not to receive the sacraments.”
Longenecker said that if the bishops and priests “do not do this, the faithful in their parishes and dioceses should rise up and blizzard them with letters, emails and the one thing that will really make them sit up and take notice: with holding their contributions.”
“This hideous crime against humanity, this hidden holocaust will not stop until those in authority stand against it publicly and vehemently,” he declared.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
Along with Durbin, Kaine and Collins, the Catholics who voted to block the bill to ban late-term abortions were Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Patty Murray of Washington and Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
Longenecker said he is calling for “a nationwide, total Catholic publicity effort” to call out the senators.
“It doesn’t matter if you are a ‘liberal’ or a ‘conservative.’”
See Fr. Longenecker’s list:
Longenecker says on his blog he was reared in an evangelical Christian home in Pennsylvania and graduated from the fundamentalist Bob Jones University. He went on to study theology at Oxford University in England and was ordained as an Anglican priest. In 1995, “realizing that the Anglican Church and I were on divergent paths, he and his family were received into the Catholic Church. He now serves as pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville, South Carolina.
He said “every Catholic college, university, institute of learning, newspaper and website should publish the names of the Catholic senators who voted for late term abortion, and circulate their names as widely as possible.”
Longenecker posted a video showing what a late-term abortion looks like, “in case anyone is under any misapprehension.”
See the video describing late-term abortion:
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jwplayer(‘jwplayer_utjrqPyK_pszPfxYQ_div’).setup(
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The priest asked his readers to consider the case of Rudolph Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz, who was a Catholic.
“At the time, if you knew what was happening and you had a voice would you speak out against Hoess?” he asked.
“I know it is a cliche to scream ‘Nazi!’ at anybody you disagree with, but in this case, are not the crimes of abortion our own hidden holocaust, and are not the politically and financially motivated eugenicists in our day just as evil, and are not the politicians who back them under the flimsy excuse of ‘women’s right to choose’ not guilty of aiding and abetting these crimes?”
Pelosi: ‘Perhaps I should bring my rosary’
In the House, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is among the Catholic lawmakers who have consistently supported abortion.
Deacon Keith Fournier, a Catholic writer and constitutional lawyer, wrote in 2015 that Pelosi’s “public views and actions on abortion contradict twenty centuries of unbroken teaching of her own Church, which has condemned all procured abortion.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi during marathon monologue on House floor Feb. 7, 2018.
“She has been corrected by Bishops and reminded of the true teaching of the Church by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI,” Fournier said.
“Yet she has claimed for years that what she is doing is consistent with her Catholic faith. In fact, she is in open and public dissent from the teaching of her own Church. That not only puts her own soul in jeopardy but requires a public challenge.”
In a closed-door meeting with Pope Benedict at the Vatican in 2009, Pelosi heard the pontiff reaffirm the teachings of the Catholic Church on the right to life and the duty to protect the unborn, the Catholic News Agency reported at the time.
On Wednesday, during an eight-hour monologue on the House floor protesting the lack of protection for “Dreamer” illegal aliens in the current spending bill, Pelosi made a reference to her Catholic faith.
Apparently running out of material, she said: “Perhaps I should bring my rosary, blessed by the pope.”
The rosary was a gift from President Obama, who had met with Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis, at the Vatican in 2014.
At the time, Pelosi said the rosary “meant a great deal to me,” and she praised Francis, who, as the Hill reported, “has earned traction among liberals for his statements on income inequality and gay rights.”
In an interview with CNN in 2013, Pelosi joked Francis was “starting to sound like a nun.”
“His Holiness is obviously a very revered figure,” said Pelosi. “I was there for his inauguration. And I, being Catholic, believed that he was chosen pope by the intercession of the Holy Spirit, so I pay attention to what he says.
“And I can tell you that there is great joy among Catholics and friends of Catholics as to [the] respect that his Holiness pays to all of God’s creation and members of the church and then beyond that. It’s really quite remarkable. It’s a source of joy to us all.”
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