Massachusetts Catholic joins calls for governor’s excommunication after abortion law signing: ‘Lives are at stake’
The Massachusetts-based Catholic argued in a recent op-ed that while the Catholic bishops of the state have rightly denounced the new abortion law as “gravely immoral,” their response must entail decisive action in their capacity as ecclesial shepherds.
A Catholic convert based in Massachusetts spoke out in an op-ed this week decrying Democratic Gov. Maura Healey’s signing of a radical abortion bill into law Aug. 10, adding his voice to those urging the local bishops to declare that Healey has incurred automatic excommunication.
“Healey should be nauseous over what she has done. Given how morally serious the problem is, the Roman Catholic Church is forced not only to speak but to act,” Max Root wrote in the Aug. 25 Crisis Magazine op-ed. “Given that Ms. Healey still proclaims that she is in communion with the Church, the necessary response is excommunication.”
The law allowing abortion up to birth goes into effect in November. Root described the law as “barbaric” and one that will gravely harm innocent people. The outcry from Catholics following Healey’s signing of H.B. 5595 has been ongoing, marked by organizations such as CatholicVote urging the bishops to clarify whether Healey incurred automatic excommunication by enabling more abortions to be committed in the state.
“The banner swaying in the breeze above Ms. Healey reads ‘Love is love.’ With the wholesale destruction of innocent life now guaranteed, one wonders whatever does she mean?” Root wrote in the op-ed. “The Catholic community needs to stand tall against such blasphemous suggestions of horror, let alone their actual implementation.”
According to his author bio, Root converted to Catholicism in 2018. In the op-ed, he emphasized that abortion is not just an issue for health care workers, but also for priests, stressing that it reaches beyond the political realm and into that of ecclesial concern.
He noted that her office issued the statement describing the governor — particularly in this context — is a “proud Catholic.”
“The claim is not private eccentricity; it’s a public scandal,” he wrote. “Moloch has been born again, something that should greatly alarm the Church. It is only through strong protection of the order of the sacred that peace can be restored.”
Root applauded that Archbishop Richard Henning denounced the law as a “grave offense against the sanctity and dignity of every person” and that all four bishops of the state have spoken out against the law’s immorality but stressed that more must be done.
“These men spoke the truth. They understood and proclaimed the gravity of what had been done. But a lack of decisive action is making silence now a part of the scandal,” he wrote. “No public declaration followed concerning the communion of a baptized Catholic who used the full power of her office to desecrate souls. This is the liberation about which she speaks. The Church has made peace with this terrible crime. The tragedy has been cast. If this isn’t the time to apply excommunication, what is? Lives are at stake.”
