Fr. Dwight Longenecker (Screenshot)

Father Dwight Longenecker is calling on bishops to publicly inform the 14 senators claiming to be Catholic who voted against a bill to ban late-term abortion that they’ve excommunicated themselves.

Those 14 senators ensured that the “barbaric practice” of late-term abortion is still legal, when they could have guaranteed the passage of a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, Fr. Longenecker wrote in an online post:

“I’m absolutely shocked this morning to learn that the bill to outlaw abortions past twenty weeks has been defeated in the US Senate. “Even more shocking is the fact that fourteen senators who identify as Catholics voted against the bill–in effect giving the nod to late term abortions. Even worse is the realization that if these men and women had voted for the bill it would have passed. Therefore, these fourteen have ensured that this barbaric procedure is still legal in America.”

Thus, their respective bishops should take immediate action against these senators – including denying them the sacraments of the Church – Fr. Longenecker writes:

“Today is the day for their bishops to issue a formal statement acknowledging that these men and women have publicly denied their Catholic faith, and if not formally, then have informally excommunicated themselves.” …. “Their pastors should publicly rebuke them and deny them access to the sacraments. “If the bishops and priests do not do this, the faithful in their parishes and dioceses should rise up and blizzard them with letters, emails and the one thing that will really make them sit up and take notice: with holding their contributions.”

Fr. Longenecker also calls on anyone who is able to publish the senators’ names and “publish the horror they have enabled by their vote.”

The 14 heretical, professed Catholic senators identified by Fr. Longenecker are:

Maria Cantwell – Washington

Susan Collins -Maine

Dick Durbin – Illinois

Kirsten Gillibrand – New York

Heidi Heitkamp – North Dakota

Tim Kaine – Virginia

Patrick Leahy – Vermont

Ed Markey – Massachussetts

Catherine Cortez Masto – Nevada

Claire McCaskill – Missouri

Bob Menendez – New Jersey

Lisa Murkowski – Alaska

Patty Murray – Washington

Jack Reed – Rhode Island

Father Longenecker is an Oxford-educated cleric who was originally ordained as an Anglican priest, but then joined the Catholic Church in 1995. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2006 and currently serves as Pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville, South Carolina.