American Life League Asks Vatican to Declare Planned Parenthood "Enemy of the Church"

August that they were planning on asking Pope Francis to declare Planned Parenthood an "enemy of the Church." This designation would mean that Catholics who worked for, volunteer at, or otherwise support the organization would be automatically excommunicated. On Wednesday, ALL put in a formal request for the bishops present at the Synod on the Family discuss the issue.

From ALL's statement in August:

Michael Hichborn, ALL’s director of Defend the Faith, stated, “An official declaration of Planned Parenthood as an enemy of the Church will be a real game changer. Such a declaration will prevent Planned Parenthood employees and volunteers from serving in positions of responsibility in our parishes. Simply put, Catholics could no longer hide behind an uninformed conscience in order to assist or promote Planned Parenthood or its agenda and be able to continue calling themselves Catholics in good standing.”

Jim Sedlak, vice president of ALL, added, “Some people have told us this campaign has an impossible goal. But with God, nothing is impossible. In addition to being a massive educational effort, this campaign has a large spiritual dimension.”

ALL's request isn't without precedent In 1949, the Vatican issued a similar document, The Decree Against Communism, which stated that Catholics who associated with or defended communism would be excommunicated, and a papal bull issued in 1738 prohibits Catholics from joining the Freemasonry.

While I agree that no faithful Catholic has any business being involved with America's largest abortion business, I'm not sure if I would support something that results in automatic excommunication. Excommunication effectively ends any chance of that person quitting the abortion business and returning to the Church--which does happen. I sincerely hope that Pope Francis does something similar to his online support of the March for Life and condemns the work of Planned Parenthood and those who support abortion.