Editor’s Note: You may appreciate the following letter from one of our readers:
To His Eminence Donald Cardinal Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.
Your Eminence:
With great respect for the blessings and burdens of your sacred office, I earnestly and urgently entreat you to recognize the excommunication of JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., whose words and deeds obdurately traduce the settled teaching of Holy Mother Church, which is to say, the Mind of Christ. He persistently and flagitiously abjures his preeminent baptismal duty to listen to and to obey Christ in and through His Church (Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 87, 144, 1269, 2037, 2039, 2044, 2105).
His being excommunicated will be, one prays, not only medicine for his spiritually imperiled soul, but also balm for all Catholics understandably confused at what appears to be a prevalent lack of willingness to challenge and to chastise scandal and thus “to preserve God’s people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error” (CCC, n. 890).
One understands that excommunication is not a penalty to be assessed except in the face of manifest grave evil. At the same time, lest any of us materially or formally cooperate with such evil, Mr. Biden’s public, obstinate, and iniquitous defections from orthodox Catholic teaching and practice must incur the severe ecclesiastical penalty of excommunication (Matt. 18:15-17, Luke 17:3, 1 Tim. 1:19, Titus 3:10-11), for we must not, by inaction, be perceived as confirming him in evil (CCC, n. 2480). Scripture, after all, tells us not to let our brother stumble (Romans 14:21), but to strengthen him (Luke 22:32).
Is that strengthening not best accomplished, in the Biden case, by his bishop’s prophetic and public excommunication: “Come to your right mind, and sin no more” (1 Cor. 15:34 RSV)?
Q. I read recently that John the Baptist did not have original sin, but I thought this privilege was granted only to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Please comment. — E.M.D., California.
A. What you read is true. The difference in the two cases is that Mary was conceived without original sin in her mother’s womb, while John was conceived with original sin, but was freed from it in the womb when Jesus and Mary visited his mother Elizabeth. The Church has taught that Mary was conceived immaculate because the Angel Gabriel called her “full of grace,” that is, free from all sin, including original sin. When she and Jesus visited Elizabeth shortly after the conception of Jesus, Elizabeth said that “at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44).
The leaping of John is thought to signify the Baptist’s release from original sin. This was foretold by Gabriel when he told Zechariah, John’s father, that John “will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15).
Q. In the Gospel reading at Mass the other day, it said that the people in Capernaum were “astonished” at Jesus’ teaching “because he spoke with authority” while casting out demons (Luke 4:32). What does that mean? — K.R., Connecticut.
A. Here is the explanation from a footnote in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament: “Many popular exorcists during NT times recited long incantations and used odorous roots to expel demons (Wisdom 7:20; Matt. 12:27; Acts 19:13). Jesus, however, merely speaks a word and the spirits depart. Exorcism played a pivotal role in his campaign against Satan’s kingdom (4:41; 8:28-29; 9:42; 11:14-20) (CCC, n. 550).”
The reference from the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “The coming of God’s kingdom means the defeat of Satan’s: ‘If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” [Matt. 12:26, 28]. Jesus’ exorcisms free some individuals from the domination of demons. They anticipate Jesus’ great victory over ‘the ruler of this world’ [John 12:31; cf. Luke 8:26-39]. The kingdom of God will be definitively established through Christ’s cross.”
Q. People sometimes leave Bibles in churches. The problem is some are from Jehovah’s Witnesses, World Language, or other translations that are not accurate. I take them so others will not. How can I dispose of them? Even though they are not accurate, I don’t feel right about ripping them up and putting them in the recycling. — P.S., New Jersey.
A. Are you finding these Bibles in Catholic churches? If so, we don’t see any problem with putting them in recycling bins. After all, the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses are quite different from ours. For example, they believe that the only God is God the Father (they don’t believe in the Trinity), that Jesus is not God, that He became a man and died for our sins on a torture stake (not a cross), and that He is a spirit-creature who serves as God’s executive officer in Heaven, where He is also known as Michael the Archangel.
They even have their own Bible translation, which enables them to render Scripture in such a way as to support their teachings. For example, every Bible translation we know of renders John 1:1 this way: “In the beginning was the Word,/ and the Word was with God,/ and the Word was God.” The Word of course is Jesus. But because the Witnesses do not believe that Jesus is God, they translate the last part of that verse as “and the word was a god.” They incorrectly insert the letter “a” to indicate that Jesus was just one of many gods, and they use a lowercase “g” to show that Jesus was not the one true God.
Q. I have two questions: 1) Do the Catholic bishops really take two billion dollars from the U.S. government per year? It is hard for me to imagine St. Peter and the apostles taking money from the Romans. 2) Why is The Mystical City of God, by Venerable Mary of Agreda, considered to be controversial? — J.M., Pennsylvania.
A. 1) We don’t know how much money the federal government funnels into Catholic charities and institutions, but there are always strings attached, which means that Catholic entities usually wind up supporting causes that are contrary to Catholic teaching. Maybe that’s why so many employees of Catholic Relief Services, for example, contribute to pro-abortion candidates.
A recent study by the Lepanto Institute found that 98 percent (187 of 191 contributions) of CRS employee donations “went to politicians who actively work to serve the abortion and contraceptive industry.” The report said that 50 of 52 CRS employees whose public contributions are known “donated to openly pro-abortion politicians.”
2) Mary of Agreda (1602-1665), a discalced Franciscan mystic and visionary from a wealthy but pious family in Spain, entered religious life in 1618. Her father and brothers became Franciscan brothers, her mother and sister became Franciscan nuns, their castle was converted into a convent, and all the family’s wealth was given to the poor. Sr. Mary was chosen abbess of the convent in 1628 and remained in that position for the rest of her life.
She experienced ecstasies and visions and is best known for her four-volume work entitled The Mystical City of God, which also appeared in an abridged version called The Divine Life of the Most Holy Virgin. Both are available through amazon.com.
While the holiness of Mary’s life is not in question — her cause for canonization was introduced by the Congregation of Rites in 1672, just seven years after her death — there was controversy surrounding The Mystical City and the revelations about the life of the Virgin Mary, including her nine months in the womb of St. Anne.
The book was not published until 1670, five years after Mary’s death, but it was subsequently placed on the Index of Forbidden Books for allegedly exaggerating devotion to the Blessed Virgin and for obscuring the mystery of the Incarnation. There were alternating approvals and condemnations of the book in Spain, France, and Rome, but it has retained its popularity for more than three centuries.
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