On May 5, 1988 an agreement was finally reached reconciling the SSPX to Rome, signed then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Archbishop Lefebvre. Nevertheless, a few days afterwards, Archbishop Lefebvre retracted his signature and announced his intention to consecrate bishops without Rome’s permission.

On June 30, 1988, Archbishop Lefebvre proceeded with the consecration of bishops in violation of canon law, incurring an automatic excommunication under the law. In a papal motu proprio on July 2, 1988, the Holy Father John Paul II also confirmed Lefebvre’s excommunication for schism and for having consecrated bishops despite the Holy See’s warnings not to do so.

However, actually the more puzzling dissent from the Catholic Church comes from liberal Catholics, who see Rome as "oppressive, stodgy and caught in a time-warp of traditionalism, blind to the practicalities of the modern era."

The political form of Liberal Catholicism, wishes to regulate the relations of the Church to the State and modern society in accordance with the Liberal principles as expounded by Benjamin Constant from its predecessors and patterns in Gallicanism,

Febronianism, and Josephinism.

The theological and religious form of Liberal Catholicism aims for reforms in ecclesiastical doctrine and discipline in accordance with the anti-ecclesiastical liberal Protestant theory and atheistical "science and enlightenment" prevailing at the time.

The newest phases of this Liberalism were condemned by Pius X as Modernism. In general it advocates latitude in interpreting dogma; oversight or disregard of the disciplinary and doctrinal decrees of the Roman Congregations; sympathy with the State even in its enactments against the liberty of the Church, in the action of her bishops, clergy, religious orders and congregations; and a disposition to regard as clericalism the efforts of the Church to protect the rights of the family and of individuals to the free exercise of religion.

It seems to me that by moral, theological or ideological definition, Catholicism and Liberalism are mutually exclusive. For example, although it is conceivable that a Catholic can support and believe in capital punishment, it is against Church teaching to support abortion. (#62)

"The Church's canonical discipline, from the earliest centuries, has inflicted penal sanctions on those guilty of abortion. This practice, with more or less severe penalties, has been confirmed in various periods of history. The 1917 Code of Canon Law punished abortion with excommunication. [Canon 2350, §1] The revised canonical legislation continues this tradition when it decrees that "a person who actually procures an abortion incurs automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication". [Code of Canon Law, canon 1398; cf. Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 1450, §2] The excommunication affects all those who commit this crime with knowledge of the penalty attached, and thus includes those accomplices without whose help the crime would not have been committed. [Cf. ibid., canon 1329; also Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 1417] By this reiterated sanction, the Church makes clear that abortion is a most serious and dangerous crime, thereby encouraging those who commit it to seek without delay the path of conversion. In the Church the purpose of the penalty of excommunication is to make an individual fully aware of the gravity of a certain sin and then to foster genuine conversion and repentance."

So there! Now tell me. Can you support abortion and still be Catholic?

• ¹What Catholics Really Believe-Setting the Record Straight: 52 Answers to Common Misconceptions About the Catholic Faith, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1992, by Karl Keating, director Catholic Answers, a lay-run apologetics and evangelization organization, and editor of the magazine, This Rock. He is also the author of the best-seller, Catholicism and Fundamentalism.

• 2Nuts & Bolts: A Practical Guide for Explaining and Defending the Catholic Faith, Basilica Press, San Diego, 1999, by Tim Staples, a former Assemblies of God youth pastor who converted to the Catholic Church.

• ³Catholic Source Book, Harcourt Religion Publishers, 2000, by Rev. Peter Klein. Rev Peter Klein is a priest of the Diocese of Winona in Minnesota.
• ⁴Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic Encyclopedia, Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Huntington, Indiana, 1998, by Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas, editor. Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas is the author of eleven books and more than 500 articles. He is the founding editor of Catholic Answer and the administrator of St. John the Baptist Church of Bayonne, New Jersey. He likewise serves as adjunct professor of education at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.

To read the rest of the series on Catholic Apologetics, please select one of the links below.

Apologetics Part 1: Catholic Practices and Traditions - Be Proud of Them

Apologetics Part 2: Catholic Devotion To the Virgin Mary

Apologetics Part 3: Bible Catholics?

Apologetics Part 4: The Catholic Beliefs Are Not Found in the Bible

Apologetics Part 5: Everything the Pope Says is Infallible

Apologetics Part 6: Catholics Are Not Born-Again - So They Are Not Saved

Apologetics Part 7: Catholics Worship Saints, Icons and Statues

Apologetics Part 8: Anointing the Sick with Holy Oil

Did You Know? Priestly Celibacy Is A Disciplinary Rule and not a Doctrine

Did You Know? That criticism of the Catholic Church comes from both the right and the left

Non-Catholic Criticism: Indulgences: A Catholic Can Buy Salvation

Non-Catholic Criticism: Communion of Saints - Why Catholics believe in Saints

Non-Catholic Criticism: Call No One on Earth Your Father

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