NY cardinal criticizes Giuliani for taking Communion

[OhioChick]

Source: AP

Apr 28, 9:14 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) -- Rudy Giuliani should not have received Holy Communion during the pope's visit because the former presidential candidate supports abortion rights, New York Cardinal Edward Egan said Monday.

Egan says he had "an understanding" with Giuliani that he is not to receive the Eucharist. The Catholic Church teaches "that abortion is a grave offense against the will of God," Egan said.

The cardinal said Monday that Giuliani broke that understanding when he received the Eucharist during Pope Benedict XVI's visit earlier this month. He received Communion during the April 19 service from one of the many clergymen who offered the sacrament.

Egan says he will be seeking a meeting with Giuliani "to insist that he abide by our understanding."



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GIULIANI_ABORTION?SITE=OHCOL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Postman]

1. The Wafer Nazi: No Cracker For You !!!

Gimme a break.

Let him take the eucharist.

If anyone needs the body of Jesus to purify themselves it certainly would be Giuliani.

[Jennicut]

23. Thats hilarious! Giuliani does need to get clean, doesn't he?

That affair, not speaking to his children. He really needs the help of a chuchm any church.

[Skittles]

2. how about denying it to war supporters?

how about that?

[madmax]

3. And he's divorced.

Another 'sin' in the eyes of the Catholic church.

[Stardust]

16. Surely Guiliani's savvy enought buy himself a couple of annulments.

BTW, I heard you can "buy" your way into Heaven now. Great. Just who I want to spend eternity with, a bunch of rich fucks. No, wait, I'm atheist. Nevermind...

[Joe Bacon]

21. Since when do Republicans sin?

They are above the law. They can do anything and because they are Republicans, it's OK. You see the biblethumping freaks on the tube. All of them spew endless bile on the GAWDLESS Democrats. Sickening.

[Alcibiades]

4. It's OK if a Republican does it

Egan apparently didn't get the memo.

[crimsonblue]

5. Where's the ex-communication?

This is a REQUIREMENT for violating the eucharist, especially since Catholics believe they are literally consuming Jesus's body and blood. Giuliani has committed one of the most heinous crimes a Catholic can commit (not the mere act of violating it, but by willingly violating it). You can bet your fucking ass the repugs would be calling for the ex-communication of a democrat.

[kimmylavin]

6. Church could save themselves some money at the bakery.

If they decided to enforce this edict against everyone who did something that the Catholic church deems "a grave offense against the will of God", there'd be very few people receiving communion...

Just look at the numbers of crazy American Catholics who believe that they should be able to have sex - even inside a church-sanctioned marriage - without playing the pregnancy roulette game! :)

And I like how Egan said this because Rudy supports abortion rights - its not like the guy had one!

Jeez, these people make my head hurt...

[customerserviceguy]

7. Pedophiles shaking fingers at adulterers

Hmm, this time, I'm going to root for the adulterer.

[gauguin57]

10. ROFLMAO!!! That bunch of old men in dresses ... WHAT NERVE!

That bunch of old men in dresses, who exclude women from leadership -- in the year 2008!!! ... those pedophile-protectors ... those women-enslavers (no birth control for YOU!) ... who do they think they ARE, telling a divorced man he can't take Communion? I call BULLSHIT on the whole patriarchical bunch of creeps.

Sorry Catholic DUers, but I have major issues with the leadership of my former church. Bunch of misogynistic bastards.

If that damned church would sell some of its expensive art and precious metals, it could feed a whole African country for 10 years!

Oh, and P.S. ... they're tossing old nuns out into the street ... can't afford to keep the convents open; so, after giving the church their chastity and their whole lives, the church can't afford to take care of them. So, the bishops basically say, "Sorry Sister, nothing we can do for ya' ... be a good girl and pack up your habit and hit the pike, willya?" They probably have a bunch of little boys they want to move into those rooms!!

Yeah, I'm nasty ... I don't CARE if I'm going to hell. That church drivers me batshit!

[Wilms]

13. Took me a second to realize WHICH men in dresses you were referring to, LOL!

[gauguin57]

15. OMG, you're quick!

ROFLMAO!

[2Design]

8. they alos teach thou shalt not kill and they let all those polticians

take communion who voted for this war and continue to fund it

[gauguin57]

9. I'm extremely lapsed, but when I go to a funeral Mass, I still take the wafer.

Because, goddammit, I had to put up with the cruelty of Sister James as she trained us for our first communion and first confession. That woman was a menace. I lived through it; therefore, I am entitled to take communion in the Catholic Church for the rest of my born days, even though I ONLY go to that church for funerals and the occasional wedding.

Besides ... when the priest explains to the congregation that only trained, practicing Catholics are allowed to take communion, I love going up there and being the REBEL CATHOLIC GIRL FROM HELL I always wanted to be.

Sister James told us if we chewed the host, we'd have Jesus in our stomachs. I kid you not.

So Rudy Kazootie, go on wit' yer bad self, and TAKE that Communion. It's your RIGHT, dammit!

[aquart]

11. I'm gonna guess and say God is on your side.

Wait a minute. If you don't chew the wafer...what are you supposed to with it? And where does Jesus end up in that case?

[gauguin57]

12. Ask freakin' Sister James!!! She never explained it to my satisfaction.

She never explained a LOT of things to my satisfaction. And she YELLED at us and EMBARRASED us through the whole training process ... "Hey! Regina-Marie ... look at this kid ... he's CHEWING it!!!!"

I'm sure she's long departed from this world ... wonder where she is right now. I hope she's not in charge of the Littlest Angels!!!

[ruby slippers]

19. he ends up in your heart then......when it melts on your pallet

[ruby slippers]

18. as a Eucharistic Minister, we are trained that you cannot deny....

nor judge anyone who comes up. But, it just doesn't count so everytime you take the wafer you are not really receiving Communion anyway in the eyes of the Church. Rudy got no grace that day.

Oh, and you cannot pour the wine down the sink drain because it goes into the sewers. Eucharistic Ministers have to consume all that is left over before they clean the chalices after Communion. We are very happy people when we get back to the pews....

[customerserviceguy]

20. I had some nun

who told us that you shouldn't shake hands with a priest, "because they're consecrated, and are the only ones permitted to touch the Sacred Host." Later on, I got a young priest to laugh his butt off on that one.

[LibertyLover]

24. Heck, I can do you one better -

I am an ordained Wiccan high priestess and a real pagan. Yet, when I go to family funerals and weddings in a Catholic Church I always take communion. Sometimes I do it so the elderly members of the family don't freak, but mostly I do it because it's just one more way to honor deity. Your Sister James sounds like a clone of my Sister Mary Immaculata who prepared us for First Communion - and told us to never, ever chew the host, that it was disrespectful to God.

[woundedkarma]

14. "do this, do that" sheep - baa, baaaaa. n/t

[ruby slippers]

17. forget the abortion part...you can't receive it either if you are divorced and

had been married in the Church and the POPE hasn't given you a dispensation, right?

How many times has Rudy been married and divorced?

[tanyev]

22. Rudy sez, "So?"

[Hardrada]

25. He could try a Lutheran Church (not MO Synod) and ya get

real wine too and not grape juice.

[RedG1]

26. sure...great leader that Cardinal Egan...

In his previous post as bishop in Bridgeport, Conn., he let some priests keep working after they were accused of sexual abuse. In closed testimony in a 1997 lawsuit, he expressed doubt about the veracity of most allegations, saying that "very few have even come close to having anyone prove anything."

One priest he supported was the Rev. Raymond Pcolka, who had been accused as far back as 1966. Father Pcolka's alleged victims included more than a dozen boys and girls - some as young as 7 - who described being spanked and forced into oral and anal sex. Cardinal Egan kept him on the job until 1992, when another accuser came forward and the priest refused orders to remain at a treatment center. The diocese has since settled lawsuits against Father Pcolka, who refused to answer lawyers' questions during the litigation. Another priest protected by Cardinal Egan was the Rev. Laurence Brett, who had first admitted abuse in 1964 - biting a boy's genitals.

After Cardinal Egan became Bridgeport's bishop in the late 1980s, he met Father Brett and endorsed him for continued ministry. "In the course of our conversation," he wrote, "the particulars of his case came out in detail and with grace." Further accusations led to Father Brett's suspension in 1993. In a recent letter to New York parishioners, Cardinal Egan said his policy in Bridgeport was to do a preliminary investigation of accused priests, then send them for psychiatric evaluation and heed doctors' advice. The Connecticut Post later showed that the policy wasn't followed in the case of the Rev. Walter Coleman, who stayed on the job for more than a year after the Bridgeport diocese concluded in early 1994 that he had abused the son of a woman with whom he had an affair and bought a house. In early June, the pope appointed Cardinal Egan to the Vatican's highest court.

In mid-May, the Westchester County district attorney convened a grand jury to investigate New York archdiocesan leaders' handling of sex-abuse allegations.