Sacraments are for All Believers
From CatholicWikipedia
[NOVEMBER 23, 2009] Thomas Tobin, the Roman Catholic bishop of Rhode Island, has publicly ordered Congressman Patrick Kennedy not to take Holy Communion in any Roman Catholic Church. While it is good to have strong religious convictions and to stand by them, public condemnation should be abhorrent to any member of the clergy.
Sacraments, including Holy Communion, were instituted by Jesus Christ for the spiritual health of people. They were never meant to be wielded as a kind of weapon to enforce a particular belief.
The bishop says he took the action because the congressman supports the pro-choice laws of the United States. This puts the Roman bishop into the inconvenient position of a modern day scribe or Pharisee. In the Gospels, Jesus was teaching inside a crowded house when friends of a lame man lowered him through the roof of the house because they couldn't otherwise get the man near Jesus. Jesus acted but never asked the lame man about his political beliefs. Our Lord did neither quizzed the man about previous actions nor asked him to make any promises about future actions or beliefs. Instead, Jesus merely told the man to get up and walk, and that is what happened.
The Roman sect has become more and more irrelevant over its unusual collection of rules and an inconsistent enforcement of those rules. In a recent "pastoral letter," children in the Roman Catholic Church are told they cannot even date someone who is not an adherent of the Roman sect.
The OLD CATHOLIC CHURCH was formed to protect Christians from over-zealous Roman Catholics, and it continues to offer that protection today. Jesus did nothing to assure the lame man was worthy of being cured. The Old Catholic Church offers our Lord's sacraments to all believers, even sinners!
We pray that Bishop Tobin of Rhode Island will receive the Holy Spirit's gift of humility, returning to his ministry in the footsteps of Jesus Christ instead of the scribes.
from Abp. Winfield Wagner, Dallas TX
