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Grave Concerns Over Las Cruces Diocese Attempt To Influence Votes By Legislators

Senator Joseph Cervantes

 Commentary: When I was 13, Jack Kennedy was running for President. As a fan, I didn’t understand why his Catholicism was a big deal; but many U.S. citizens feared that their Commander-in-Chief would be secretly taking orders from the Pope.

We are the U.S., not Iran. Separation of church and state is essential to our form of government.

Some religions are unkind to women: Catholics oppose women’s freedom of choice, but also would deny women contraceptives. (Go figure!) Islamic states often won’t let women drive, show their faces, or be educated. Some societies even mutilate girls’ genitals in childhood. In the U.S., public decision-makers should act for the public good, not obey priests’ or mullahs’ orders.

Pope Francis appears to understand this, as do most clergy. But some U.S. bishops (who insist popes are infallible except when they disagree with a pope) are punishing politicians who honor their oaths of office. Joe Biden (in South Carolina) and our own State Senator Joe Cervantes (by the local Catholic diocese) were recently denied communion. These Catholic prelates are attacking not just Joe and Joe, but our system of government.

Bishop Peter Baldacchino’s account is close to a confession of criminal behavior. New Mexico law defines extortion as “communication or transmission of any threat . . . to wrongfully compel the person threatened to do or refrain from doing any act against his will.” I don’t say the Bishop committed extortionbut extortion isn’t just “Pay me or I’ll break your legs!” For example, threatening criminal prosecution when trying to settle a civil dispute can qualify. To a devout Catholic, receiving communion might matter more than avoiding jail.

The Diocese says it repeatedly warned Cervantes that he could be denied communion.

Cervantes says he’s being refused communion because of his office. (The Church says the denial is punishment for Joe’s vote; but logic supports the Senator.) As chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, Cervantes can singlehandedly kill a bill. On a bill passing with a comfortable margin, his vote means little; but using his power to veto a bill is huge. (Note that devout Catholic and committed progressive Micaela Lara Cadena reportedly has received no such threat). The Diocese’s official statement may be masking the seriousness of this incident, if the Diocese told Cervantes to do all he could to stop the bill. (And did the threat concern only the abortion criminal law or also the bill allowing terminally ill patients to end their lives?)

The Church complains that Cervantes didn’t call back. Given the relevant laws, I wonder if that failure kept the Diocese from stumbling into some clearer criminal conduct.

I hope the Bishop rethinks this. Consults the Church’s lawyer and ensures his conduct conforms to the law; consults the Bible, which never mentions abortion but does say that if you accidentally cause a woman to miscarry, you can be made to pay damages – to her husband; and, for some local perspective, consults other New Mexico Catholics, who’ve been here long enough to know and understand this place.

Even if having or performing an abortion is a mortal sin, Cervantes did neither. He merely allowed this state, as a majority wished, to avoid jailing women for abortions.

The Bishop ain’t answering my questions, but I wonder what Baldacchino would have done if Joe had done something really anti-Catholic, like claiming (as did Galileo) that the Earth went round the Sun.