Informal Excommunication

The case today involving those who have been restricted to community service because of diocesan/parish screening policies is a sad one. These people, who under an all encompassing discriminatory Church law to select out those accused of sexual offenses, as taken liberties to extend the restriction to anyone regardless of severity and date of occurance of a civil crime.

This practice is reprehensible, and unbecoming a religious Institution who's mandate is mercy, and given the difficulty the Church(Mater et Magistra) has with dealing with truant nations in issues of capital punishment and abortion. The Church sees the disposition of the civil entity, and we would expect it to conduct itself accordingly in it's selection of information made available to it by an entity clearly at odds with Divine morality. Instead of narrowing it's focus to records that it told the Faithful it had interest in, it now includes everyone under the same restriction.

But with this post, I wish to address just three of many consequences of this discriminatory and broadly applied practice. The impact is to restrict the faithful from certain community service. Intentionally or not, the policy carries out the same consequences an excommunication by delict would, and in doing so, negates the portion of the vows of many of them in orders which state they are to do community service. We have now a state of individuals, the greater proportion who have paid their debt to society 20-40 years ago, who are in a limbo. They can relate with those who are formerly excommunicated, but are left with no formality. This assists the Church's position of delving in corrupt practices, because then it knows these cannot press for a hearing where no excommunication as been officially incurred through bans,etc.

Secondly, ministering to the vulnerable imprisoned carries a new policy, where now the pastors need to pass on the good news which every promulgation demands. They need to inform the imprisoned that on exit there is a good probability that they will meet discrimination in their requests for community employment, and that they are unofficially excommunicated.

The Church's new policy of partnering with corrupt entities, rather than dealing with it has a student, must past on this new morality to grade school children, where it is now permissible to associate with evil, and adopt a 'no tolerance, no forgiveness' policy. They can also apply non condign perpetual sentencing emulating the example of their Church.  

The worst is the creation through good intention of a common evil. Through not thinking over clearly the consequences of this promulgation, it creates a bonum apparens, as it uses a means(records) born out of evil created by a corrupt entity plagued with unregulated due process systems, and the official use of the practices frowned on in 2 Cor 2,6.
 
The vulnerable today are those whom the Church has betrayed. If it's dogma applies to itself, it will be held accountable for lacking in trust of the Holy Spirit, and going beyond it's allowable policies.

Indeed bring on the traditional Church. Show us the maximum extent of it's mercy as displayed in it's Benefit of Clergy. Pass a law that will place a one time only forgiveness of offense in these deserving years where crime is at all time low, and restrict screening to those you say are a risk. Ask yourself,"How is it the Church did not fail without the screening methods for 2000 years".