More on the New "Boston Heresy" Case:
As regular readers of Rerum Novarum are aware, Mark Balestrieri (a canonist and founder of De Fide) filed a libellus against Senator John Kerry in the Ecclesiastical Court of the Archdiocese of Boston for professing as a baptized Catholic the belief in abortion. There has been an update to report since that time and that is the purpose of this post. While the Archdioceses of Boston reviews the case, Mr. Balestrieri filed a two question dubia with the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the matter. The dubia was sent on August 30, 2004. A response was received by him on September 11, 2004 authored by Fr. Basil Cole OP, STD.
The request for an unofficial response by Fr. Cole was made by the Very Reverend Augustine de Noia OP - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's undersecretary at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Vatican City. Here is the full text of Fr. Cole's response to Mr. Balestrieri's inquiry. It is to be hoped that this will weigh heavily on a positive decision by the Archdioceses of Boston to try this case and call Senator Kerry to answer these accusations. As this case is historically and procedurally unprecedented under the 1983 Code of Canon Law, any support you can provide for Mr. Balestrieri in this endeavour would be beneficial in setting a precedent for future trials of "Catholic" politicians under the laws of the Catholic Church.
[Update: As part of the text at the above PDF file is in Latin, it seems appropriate to post a translation of the two questions of the dubia which Mr. Balestrieri submitted to the CDF. The article posted HERE has that and some additional material that the reader may find of interest. - ISM 10/18/04 7:31pm]
