After sick political stunt, Fr. Pavone’s faculties should be suspended.

s you might have read from Mary Pez­zu­lo, Mark Shea, or Matthew Tyson, Fr. Frank Pavone put the remains of an abort­ed child on an altar, filmed a video, and post­ed a still shot at Priests for Life for the pur­pose, so he said, of defeat­ing Hillary Clin­ton and elect­ing Don­ald Trump. I am not going to link to the Face­book post; you can go find it if you are so inclined (graph­ic image warn­ing). But that is what he said:

I am show­ing [this dead child] to you because in this elec­tion we have to decide whether we will allow this child killing to con­tin­ue or not. Hillary Clin­ton and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic plat­form says yes … Don­ald Trump and the Repub­li­can plat­form says no.

So Fr. Pavone makes no secret that he put that dead child up on the altar and filmed him and plas­tered a still on Face­book in order to lob­by for a par­tic­u­lar pres­i­den­tial can­di­date.

Is that what the altar of sac­ri­fice in a Catholic Church is for?

No. Says Canon 1239:

An altar, whether fixed or mov­able, is to be reserved for divine wor­ship alone, to the exclu­sion of any sec­u­lar usage.

The altar is intend­ed for a sacra­men­tal pur­pose, as the place where the priest cel­e­brates Mass.

I am going to be, excuse the pun, frank: What Fr. Pavone did was a sac­ri­lege. It is a vio­la­tion of canon law, which states that the altar is con­se­crat­ed for one pur­pose and one pur­pose only. It is con­se­crat­ed for the Holy Sac­ri­fice of the Mass, not so that a dead child can be placed there as part of a polit­i­cal stunt to lob­by for a favored pres­i­den­tial can­di­date.

More than that, what Fr. Pavone did is the oppo­site of pro-life. Being pro-life is about respect­ing the dig­ni­ty of the human per­son. It is the antithe­sis of respect for the dig­ni­ty of the human per­son to use a dead child as a polit­i­cal prop to lob­by for your pres­i­den­tial can­di­date the day before an elec­tion. This does no hon­or to the dead.

In con­se­quence, Fr. Pavone’s ordi­nary should sus­pend his faculties–at least his fac­ul­ty to cel­e­brate Mass. There is no oth­er way to put it than that this is a sac­ri­lege and a scan­dal. The human per­son is not a prop for a polit­i­cal stunt. This is an offense to the pur­pose for which priests are ordained to use the altar.

You can con­tact the Dio­cese of Amar­il­lo at 806–383-2243.