http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1344604?eng=y

My friend Tim Hester caught between two funny guys and with a Gadsden flag folded atop his baby stroller at Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally. (Copyright 2010, Karla Kuykendall Hester)

Yours truly reported from Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally on August 28. It was ENORMOUS – probably 500,000 people.

Al Sharpton had announced he would lead “progressive” protesters to the Lincoln Memorial and “reclaim the dream” of Martin Luther King. To the best of my knowledge, no one spotted him there.

After all, Alveda King, daughter of Rev. A.D. King and niece of  Rev. Martin Luther King, spoke at Beck’s rally. Click on the second or third link for her best line.

Anyway, here’s my eyewitness account to WND weekend editor Drew Zahn: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=196633

August 29, my analytical piece with insightful interviews: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=197029.

Update Monday, August 30 - thanks Matt Drudge for linking to the story: Crowd at Beck rally was racially diverse…

Were you there? Share your experience via comments

Pax Christi, the peace of Christ to you!

CONTACT: Jay Collins
Libertas Global Partners
Jay@libertasglobal.com

What would you do if you realized that what you believe and what you practice don’t line up?

This was the question facing Ron Miller, author of the new book SELLOUT: Musings from Uncle Tom’s Porch, once he left home and began to ponder the values with which he was raised and the political allegiances he inherited from his parents. Miller says, “Once I left my parents’ home, I concluded I couldn’t practice my faith and support liberal policies.

“That epiphany was the beginning of a journey that brought me personal peace but pitted me against the overwhelming majority of my own race,” says Miller. “When my mother asks me why I align myself with conservatives, my reply is, ‘Because you raised me that way.’”

“In SELLOUT: Musings from Uncle Tom’s Porch, I take on the volatile mix of politics, race and faith, and I do so with complete openness and vulnerability, using my personal story as the jumping off point for a wide-ranging discussion on the role of the black church, the active practice of faith in the public square, the disintegration of the black family brought about by the rejection of God’s Word and the replacement of God with government,” explains Miller.

Regarding the disproportionate impact of abortion on the black community and the black church’s blind eye to the slaughter, Miller declares, “There will be an accounting one day, not just for the millions of babies murdered, but also for all the people led astray from obedience to God for political purposes.”

From beginning to end, the author’s faith is the catalyst for his personal transformation, struggles and eventual peace, and his public political activism. SELLOUT: Musings from Uncle Tom’s Porch is a provocative and revealing portrait of a black conservative who ultimately sold out to Christ alone.

Join Ron Miller for His Official Book Launch
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

The Army and Navy Club
901 17th Street Northwest
Washington, DC

What Others Are Saying
“African Americans have been told for two generations that they are supposed to be liberal. Ron Miller’s journey serves as an affirmation that it is okay to be both black and conservative.” ~Niger Innis, national spokesperson, Congress On Racial Equality

“Ron offers a personal, poignant and spiritual account of a journey through the quagmire of race in America, a journey that leads to redemption for all. Challenging and conciliatory, Americans of all races will be stirred by this book.” ~Ken Blackwell, co-author of the No. 1 bestselling book The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency

Black conservative Ron Miller’s gutsy new book Sellout: Musings from Uncle Tom’s Porch couldn’t be more timely as the NAACP and other liberals are charging the Tea Parties with racism and – in the wake of President Obama’s election, no less – Shirley Sherrod’s husband Charles claims that black people can no longer let “the white man steal elections” and they must oust  “Uncle Toms.”

Ron Miller says that now we have millions of good and decent Americans who oppose the Obama Administration being called racists, as if half of all the people who at first approved of his performance donned white robes and hoods overnight. Disagree with the biggest spendthrift in presidential history? Racist. Hold two veteran lawmakers (Reps. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and Maxine Waters (D-CA)) accountable for abusing the public trust? Racist. We are more divided by race than we’ve been in decades.

Thus, Ron takes on all the players of the race card in his new book, “SELLOUT: Musings from Uncle Tom’s Porch.” This personal, candid and compelling account of one black conservative’s journey leaves no stone unturned and lets no race baiters off the hook. He exposes the real sellouts, the black liberals and their white sponsors who’ve treated the black community like lab rats for 45 years. The experiment must end, people are dying or living without hope while black preachers and politicians line their pockets and keep the lie of racism alive.

To order a signed copy of Sellout for yourself, family, friends or neighbors as pre-election Christmas gifts, here’s the direct link: http://www.teamronmiller.com/sellout.php and it’s also on Amazon.

As Ron’s editor and contributor, I echo bestselling author Ken Blackwell in saying, “Ron offers a personal, poignant and spiritual account of a journey through the quagmire of race in America, a journey that leads to redemption for all. Challenging and conciliatory, Americans of all races will be stirred by this book.”

Sellout isn’t some dry political narrative. It’s very personal on every count because Ron Miller exposes the failed liberal experiment, he speaks to the dignity of his fellow Americans and he shares his deeply moving memoir.

Chapter 9, “Trials of Many Kinds,” is my favorite because Ron reveals what it meant to be FEMA’s chief information officer during the 9/11 crisis, the consequences of working for then-Director Joe Allbaugh, and the sometimes comical weirdness of Washington. I dare anyone to keep a dry eye while reading about Ron’s run for the Maryland legislature, his son’s love, the agony of defeat and the answer Ron received when he wailed to God asking, “Why?”

At this time in history as so many Americans fear losing everything from their rights to their businesses or jobs and homes, Ron’s faith, courage and intelligence are inspiring.

In Sellout, Ron Miller boldly discusses these topics:
-Are we truly “a nation of cowards” on race?
-How and why he became a conservative Republican
-The damage done by the liberal ‘experiment’  on the black community
-The sellout of the black church to liberal politics over God’s Word
-The chances for reconciliation between blacks and the GOP
-The black community’s defense of scoundrels
-His personal experiences with the civil rights movement and racism
-Interracial dating and marriage
-Seeking God’s will in life and politics
-Should blacks love America?
-Is the Tea Party movement racist?
-Where do we go from here?

Ron Miller is a conservative commentator who writes extensively about identity politics and the repercussions of placing race above values, emphasizing the harmful effects of liberal policies on the black community.

Ron is executive director of Regular Folks United, an organization dedicated to the advancement of liberty and our nation’s founding principles. The nine-year plus veteran of the U.S. Air Force and married father of three writes columns for RegularFolksUnited.com and other publications.

He is an outspoken advocate for free enterprise, low taxes and reasonable regulation, limited and effective government focused on national security, public safety and administering justice, traditional two-parent families and the sanctity of human life.

From 2001 to 2004, Ron Miller served in the federal government as a senior executive with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, then the Department of Homeland Security, and finally with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

See more here: http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=975

My shoddy shot of Father Hardon and Mother Teresa. Still, I like the way it emphasizes a beautiful Christian paradox: Two physically frail people who were spiritual giants. ©1992 all rights reserved by Anita Crane

Father John Hardon lived a glorious earthly life from 1914-2000. Because Father practiced what he preached, His Grace, Archbishop Raymond Burke, now Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, initiated Father Hardon’s cause for canonization and the Catholic Church has declared Father a Servant of God. For more about the cause, visit  HardonSJ.org. This interview was published by Crisis magazine in December 1997 and it’s online with a treasury of Father Hardon’s work at TheRealPresence.org.

John A. Hardon, S.J. has fought the good fight for some time. He has published more than 25 books (some translated into Japanese, German, and Spanish), written innumerable articles, founded several Catholic organizations, and contributed to six encyclopedias. Recently, he spoke at the Call to Holiness Conference in Michigan. He has been a leader in Catholic media and a shining light for faithful Catholics in the U.S. and around the world – all of this with great humility and generosity of spirit. In this interview with Crisis, Fr. Hardon speaks on Catholics in the media, millennial suffering, his spiritual regimen and the Catholic call to live, faithfully and courageously, the Gospel.

First of all Father, thank you for interviewing with Crisis and congratulations on the 50th anniversary of your ordination. You mentioned in your homily today that suffering was a great part of the priesthood and that your fidelity to the Magisterium and to the Holy Father had provoked persecution. Would you tell us something about that?

I would say that I define suffering as the rational experience of pain. Notice rational experience of pain. Animals, strictly speaking, don’t suffer. They have pain but they don’t have minds to reflect on the pain that they experience. We define pain as whatever is contrary to the created will. And of course that can be physical pain, it can be emotional pain, or it can be a spiritual pain. The deepest kind of pain is, needless to say, spiritual pain. I said that suffering is the rational experience of pain. Consequently, it is important not just to experience pain, but I even dare to say enjoy – enjoy – suffering. Behind that strange statement is the deepest mystery of our faith: namely, that God, as St. Paul tells us, became man having joy set before him and He chose the Cross. That’s the deepest mystery of our existence. Clearly, when the Second Person of the Holy Trinity became man, He resigned Himself to pain. He chose it. He chose to experience what is contrary to the human will so that He might teach us the most difficult mystery of life. And we ought to accept it – accept what is contrary to our wills in order to experience the satisfaction of doing the will of God.

You also said that this is the century of the most martyrs, but that the Holy Father predicts that the next century will be the greatest so far for the Church.

Yes, and there is a logic behind that for the Holy Father. As I said during my homily, I don’t think that anyone should question that the 20th century has been the most sin-laden in human history. There have been more abortions since 1900 than there were in all the previous centuries put together.

And you consider abortion part of the martyrdom?

Yes, of course. Martyrdom is witnessing to the truth and paying for the witness. In other words, we’re living in the age of martyrs in two senses. First, on the level of suffering and pain. For many, suffering due to physical pain has been reduced by advances in science; thus, the deepest pain is not in the body, but in the soul. In the souls of the just, there has been an ocean of suffering. One sees so much evil in the world and often it is very close to home. It is a deep suffering. When we see evil perpetrated, committed by people whom we dearly love, it causes us deep suffering. And so that’s martyrdom you might say. But when we accept such suffering as a witness to our love for Jesus Christ, we are practicing martyrdom and, with His grace, we can even enjoy the experience.

The Holy Father’s prediction that the 21st century will bring the greatest spiritual renaissance in human history follows on the suffering of the believing people who will be rewarded for their witness. The more they adhere to Christ’s teachings, the more they will pay for it.

Suffering is, for many of us, a living or white martyrdom. The other martyrdom is the red, for bloodshed. From the first century, from the beginning of Christianity, Christ and his followers have been opposed. What a mild verb, opposed. Christ and his followers have been opposed, persecuted, hated and crucified. The event on Calvary has been going on now for almost 2000 years. When I was doing my studies in Rome for my doctorate in theology, I often took visitors, tourists, to the ruins in Pompeii. I’ll never forget it. Etched in the soft stone of one of the buildings which survived the volcano was written in Latin, Christiani delendi sunt: “Christians must be eradicated.” For the first 300 years the Church was the church of red martyrs and that inscription has been there for almost 2000 years. But there is another saying, Sanguis martyrum, semen Christianum: “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.” Christianity was born on the Cross. Christianity flourishes in and through the Cross. In other words, the Church grows in numbers, in her love of Christ and in her loyalty to Him because she is living a martyr’s life and because she is ready to die a martyr’s death. Because Christians have suffered so much in this century, we are sowing the seeds of phenomenal growth, both in numbers and in sanctity, for the Catholic Church of the 21st century.

So the Church is growing more than we know?

Yes.

But you wouldn’t know it from the media. A person would not know that from the way that the media cover things.

Let us pick up on the word “media,” a force so prevalent in our society today. In 1971, Ugo Modotti, a Camaldolese abbot, was sent to America by Pope Paul VI to summon a group of ten, both clergy and laity, including myself, to establish a Catholic media organization. We all met with the abbot three times in the next year. We spent two or three days in meetings. And the Holy Father’s mission was very clear: American Catholics must get some control of the media of social communication; otherwise, the pope feared for the survival of the Church in our country.

About a year later, Abbot Modotti and I were having dinner at the residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Palatine, Illinois. Toward the end of the meal he said, “Father, I have a strange request to make of you. Would you take over my mission from the Holy Father?” I said, “Thanks for the compliment,” (for I knew that the pope trusted the abbot), “but I am no Modotti, the pope doesn’t know me.” He said, “Too late, I already told the Holy Father to appoint you to the Holy See and if anything should happen to me, then you should take over my mission.” Two weeks later he was found dead in bed. Since his death I have done everything I possibly can to encourage Catholics to evangelize and catechize through the use of the media in teaching the one, true faith.

Tell us more about your commission from the Holy See. You want more good Catholics in media. You want media reform as the Holy Father, as the Vatican, has said. That’s a very difficult thing to achieve.

Most zealous Catholics are not as well organized or cooperative as those in the world. One of the hardest things is to get orthodox Catholics to cooperate. For their own projects, God will bless them, but they are no match for the organized efforts of those on the other side. This is a weakness. Catholics must enter the media on all levels, they must provide sound doctrine and authentic Catholics must cooperate with each other. Catholics must evangelize through print, film, radio, television, and now the internet. The first medium is print. It is not necessarily the most influential, but it is the most lasting, and so it has the most lasting influence.

Crisis. The word “crisis” is Greek for choice, decision. It is a good name for your magazine, because we are called to choose truth, we are called to decide for Christ. I read Crisis because it is authentic. These can be days of great grace. These are days when the media have great control of our culture. Let me tell you something that I will never forget. For six winters I taught at the University of Ottawa in Canada. My confessor there was an Oblate priest named John Mole. I was with him there in 1972 on the happy anniversary of his ordination. On that day, he had received a letter from Marshall McLuhan, whom Father Mole had received into the Church. Does that name ring a bell?

Absolutely. He wrote the famous phrase, “The medium is the message.”

Well, on that day when my confessor and I were in conversation, Father Mole showed me the letter which he had just received from McLuhan and in the postscript of that letter McLuhan wrote this statement, “The modern media are engaged in a Luciferian conspiracy against the truth.” Certain statements you never forget. And that was prophetic. Since I’ve been with the Holy See, from Pope Paul VI to the present pope, John Paul II, the popes have wanted Catholics to change that. Imagine the alternative: “The modern media are engaged in a Christlike, shall I use the word, conspiracy, for the truth.”

As you well know, dissident movements are getting bolder and bolder. In addition to reforming the media so that the public has a truer knowledge of the Church, what is the best thing that Catholics can do to combat heresy and dissidence?

The Catholic method has three parts. Everything in imitation of the Holy Trinity! And this is what I’ve been told by the Holy See for 28 years. Part one: find the believing Catholics. Part two: train them. Part three: organize them. There are all kinds of training, but this is my own sacred responsibility. After finding the believers, I have trained them, again in three parts. They are the Marian Catechists, who have been required first to make the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius for 30 days. That discipline prepares them to consult God in making decisions, to learn the Catechism and to teach it. Then they are trained in doctrine by taking a home study course based on the Catechism. Years ago, the Marian Catechesis was based on the forthcoming Catechism, before it was published, because I was on the commission and I knew what was going to be in it. The third part of the catechists’ training is a certain structured life, including prayer and worship. Most people do not live an organized life. The only structure in their lives is what they have to do to show up on time for work. Or, if they have a family, they might say what the family duties require. Finally, the organization of these catechists must involve the Church hierarchy; which means that they should be organized under the authority of their bishops united with the Vicar of Christ, the Bishop of Rome.

A rough calculation indicates that your own personal prayer regimen takes three hours a day. To most people that would seem insurmountable. What do you recommend for the beginner?

The latest statistics show that the average American watches 28 hours of television a week – four hours a day. What I recommend for the beginner is based, in part, on what I require of the Marian Catechists. Daily Mass and Holy Communion, daily rosary, daily spiritual reading and daily examination of conscience. The daily examination has, of course, three parts. First, thanksgiving for everything which has happened throughout the day, including pain, because some of the most choice blessings that we receive from God are painful. Second, examination of conscience for failure in doing His will and telling Him, “Lord, I’m sorry for my laziness or my pride or for controlling not my sinful thoughts.” Thirdly, and this is the most important part, is anticipation of the next day; ask the Lord what to do next and how to do it. Don’t ask Him if He wants you to do something, of course He does, ask Him what. Our natural tendency is to do that which is pleasant first, that which is useful second and that which is necessary last. Remember that in Latin, agenda means “things that must be done.” And so we should ask for the light to do what He wants us to do and do it generously.

©1992 all rights reserved by Anita Crane

Now this is where Mother Teresa’s sisters come in. Fourteen years ago Pope John Paul II called Mother Teresa to the Vatican and said what she was shocked to hear. He said, “Mother,” (he called her “Mother”), “I want your nuns to become catechists.” She said that her sisters were not trained for that. The pope said, “I knew you’d say that. I’m telling you to train them.” Then Mother asked, “Where do we start?” And the pope answered, “I told Cardinal Ratzinger to expect you after our meeting here.” She met with the cardinal and I got a call. Cardinal Ratzinger said, “We’ve got a job for you.” And so the Marian Catechists were commissioned to train Mother Teresa’s nuns, which are now 4000 Missionaries of Charity. Today there are 265 Marian Catechists in this country and more in 100 countries throughout the world. We could not have done it unless the Marian Catechists lived the structured life.

So it came back to you. It makes me think of your saying “There’s no rest until eternal rest.”

No, and there shouldn’t be. Otherwise we should confess it as laziness!

Father, many people contact us at Crisis because they are frustrated. They witness violations of doctrine and liturgy in their parishes and when they bring it to their pastor’s attention and then to their bishop’s, nothing is done. To whom shall they go? To whom in the Holy See shall they present evidence of aberration?

That’s an important question because so often people write to the Holy Father, which is wonderful. But He’s flooded with mail. A Vatican official told me that He doesn’t even have enough secretaries to open the mail, let alone answer it. So be judicious.

For any aberration, there is an official. The officials head up congregations. For example, there is the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Ratzinger. There is the Congregation of Bishops, the Congregation of the Clergy, of the Apostolate, of the Family, and so on. There are councils too. All are commissions which the Holy Father uses. To know whom to contact, Americans can acquire the Official Catholic Directory, which lists the data of the U.S. dioceses, but also has a listing of the congregation officials, etc., under the section of the Church hierarchy. For more details, one could acquire the Annuario Pontificio, the annual pontifical directory, which is in Italian.

What would you like to say in closing, Father?

I strongly recommend that the faithful are trained to understand and share their faith with others: mothers with their children, grandparents with their grandchildren, husbands with their in-laws, wives too. In other words, there’s not a single believing Catholic who does not have wide-open apostolic potential. However, let me make it very clear. We cannot be ordinary followers of Christ. Only those who are holy and heroic Catholics will even survive, not to say thrive, in today’s society.

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, D.D.

President Obama’s nomination of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as Health and Human Services secretary is highly controversial and this interview entitled ”Restoring Catholic Integrity” from the Oct. 2008 print edition of Catholic World Report explains why.

His Excellency, Joseph F. Naumann, D.D., was ordained the archbishop of Kansas City, Kansas on January 15, 2005. On that day, he said, “I ask for your prayers that I might be a good and wise shepherd of the Catholic community of northeast Kansas. I believe that it is my responsibility to lead by example. I pray that I might live my life as a bishop with integrity, zeal and joy so that you will strive to live your Catholic faith with integrity, zeal and joy.”

Since then, he has indeed sought to lead by example, especially on the issue of Catholic politicians. Earlier this year he publicly told Kathleen Sebelius, the pro-abortion Catholic governor of Kansas, why she should refrain from receiving Holy Communion.

I interviewed him recently on this issue and others. For instance, we talked about Pope Benedict XVI’s April 16 address to all Catholic bishops of the United States.

Pope Benedict had told the bishops, “…it cannot be assumed that all Catholic citizens think in harmony with the Church’s teaching on today’s key ethical questions. Once again, it falls to you to ensure that the moral formation provided at every level of ecclesial life reflects the authentic teaching of the Gospel of life.”

Archbishop Naumann welcomes the message. He said, “I think it was a very challenging and very instructively helpful teaching to the bishops. I think [Pope Benedict] showed a great understanding of the challenges that we face within the Church in the United States.”

The archbishop agreed that many American Catholics live as individualists and discussed how he has been confronting the problem.

“What the Church teaches is counter to some of the prevailing winds in our culture. So, I think as a bishop, a big part of my responsibility is to work with the leadership—and certainly the priests are key among that leadership—to make sure that we give them the best information, the clearest understanding and articulation of what the Church teaches in these matters.”

Thus, Archbishop Naumann’s teaching extends beyond sermons and homilies. “I try to use every vehicle,” he said. “I try in my weekly column to put out what I consider the strongest presentation that I can make on these difficult issues. I try to address issues like contraception, embryonic stem cell research, homosexuality—and I think as a teacher in the Church, I’ve got to use all available means to articulate to my people the understanding of Church teaching and the why of it, the rationale.”

He has held seminars for his priests on preaching Humanae Vitae through the prism of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. In keeping with this theology, Archbishop Naumann started My House: The Archdiocesan Peace Through Purity Initiative, to protect men, women and families from the widespread pitfalls of pornography and other sexual temptations.

Archbishop Naumann was horrified by neighboring Missouri’s constitutional Amendment 2, the 2006 ballot initiative that authorized the cloning and killing of human beings for stem cell research. This prompted him to provide classes on stem cell science for his priests so that they can teach Kansas Catholics to prevent a similar disaster in their state. He also worked on a document released in June entitled On Embryonic Stem Cell Research, the first comprehensive ESCR policy statement issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“I need to do everything I can in my teaching, in my preaching, writing. But again, if I’m going to be effective in this, a big part of this is working with our priests, our lay leaders and our teachers in our Catholic schools,” he said. “And I try to make sure that they’re formed as best as they can be because they can take that message to a much broader audience than I can. Eventually, we want every person in the pews to feel strong enough in their faith to evangelize with the truth and take that to their jobs and their communities.”

On May 9, Archbishop Naumann used his newspaper column in The Leaven to challenge Kathleen Sebelius, spelling out the reasons why she should refrain from Holy Communion.

He wrote, “Since becoming archbishop, I have met with Governor Sebelius several times over many months to discuss with her the grave spiritual and moral consequences of her public actions by which she has cooperated in the procurement of abortions performed in Kansas.” He urged her to make a worthy sacramental confession, publicly repudiate her transgressions and develop public policies extending the maximum legal protection possible to the unborn children of Kansas. He also revealed that despite his previous private discussions with her, she went on to receive Holy Communion.

Did she respond to him after that column? He said, “No. She has not responded at this point. I know that at least two of my predecessors had communications with her about her positions way back to the very beginning of her political career….I felt that, with her personally, I had done everything I could to try and make sure that she was aware of the seriousness of what she was doing.

“As I told her at one point, someday she was going to have to present herself to God, as we all are. So, it was my hope that she was going to give an account of herself as something better than her political career to this point—in terms of protecting the sanctity of human life, especially that of the unborn.”

Archbishop Naumann was troubled that the governor had misled other Catholics, possibly even young people who dream of political careers.

His May 9 column generated a strong public response, so he followed up with another in-depth explanation to answer lingering questions.

In the second article, Archbishop Naumann cited the USCCB document, Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper, as an authoritative teaching on Holy Communion. This particular document places responsibility solely on the communicant to determine his or her fitness to receive Communion.

Why had he cited it instead of canon law or other magisterial documents? Archbishop Naumann said, “Because I think in quoting that document, it was showing solidarity with the bishops throughout the United States. Obviously, the magisterial documents show solidarity with the universal Church, but I was trying the lay the groundwork that the pastoral action I was taking was consistent with what the bishops here in the United States have laid as the foundation. And of course that document of the bishops was consistent with the teaching of the universal Church.”

In the second column, he wrote, “I have, at this moment, not asked the ministers of the Eucharist not to give Holy Communion to the governor.”

However, according to Church law, communicants and ministers of the Eucharist have equal responsibility in protecting the Blessed Sacrament from sacrilege, as emphasized to US bishops by the then-prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in his memo, “Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion.”

Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis also explained it in “Canon 915: The Discipline Regarding the Denial of Holy Communion to Those Obstinately Persevering in Manifest Grave Sin,” a canonical treatise issued last October in the Periodica De Re Canonica.

Archbishop Naumann had read the Ratzinger and Burke documents. Therefore, I asked why he had placed total responsibility on the recipient.

He said, “My point was that the first line of protecting the Eucharist is the responsibility of the individual [in a state of mortal sin] to not present themselves. I think pastorally, for the good of everyone, the minister should not have to be preoccupied….The reality is that the minister isn’t focused on the person in line.

“To my knowledge, since my second request, [Gov. Sebelius] has not presented herself. But if she would choose to defy that request, then I would have to exercise the other pastoral options which might include telling the priests not to give her Communion.”

He approves of Kansas City ministers enforcing canon law, if they recognize Gov. Sebelius or some other person in manifest grave sin approaching the Blessed Sacrament.

He also said, “I’m sure I would be aware if she tried to go to Communion. In that respect, I think the public announcement is having the desired effect—not the most desired effect—the most desired effect would be for her to have contrition and reconciliation. But short of that, not for her to give scandal by receiving the Eucharist and to the burden of her soul.

“Because our governor holds the highest office in the state, it made sense for me to give special attention to her. But my intention is to dialogue with others—always with hope to bring about a change of heart.”

He noted that when he was growing up, some people may have been too scrupulous in refraining from Holy Communion. “But,” he said, “today’s pastoral issue is the reverse of that; where everybody in the congregation thinks they should receive the Eucharist, regardless of whether there’s serious sin in their lives and they must reconcile themselves with the sacrament of confession.

“At this point—at this moment—we really need to emphasize the consistent teaching of the Church on what the minimal requirements are—even the keeping of the fast, the minimal fast. [Because of] the lack of seriousness that people give today, I feel an obligation to catechize my people on this. I think this is serious,” he said.

Archbishop Naumann concluded our interview by reflecting on the reaction to his dealings with Gov. Sebelius and asking Catholics to pray for their bishops.

“I’ve gotten a lot of commuications since I did this. Most of it has been very favorable. Of course, there are people upset by it or passionate in their criticism of what I’ve requested of the governor…Some of the communications I’ve gotten were very critical of their own bishops while praising me. The only thing I would say is that same criticism could have been leveled at me six months ago because of the governor—and you never know what dialogues are going on.”

“I would just say to your readers that I appreciate their support, but I think they need to pray for their bishops and their priests. I think that the bishops of this country take their responsibilities very seriously and I think they’re trying to care for the souls entrusted to them—and among those are politicians.”

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