S.C. priest: No communion for Obama supporters
Friday, November 14, 2008 12:27 PM
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."
The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.
"Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein.
"Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."
During the 2008 presidential campaign, many bishops spoke out on abortion more boldly than four years earlier, telling Catholic politicians and voters that the issue should be the most important consideration in setting policy and deciding which candidate to back. A few church leaders said parishioners risked their immortal soul by voting for candidates who support abortion rights.
But bishops differ on whether Catholic lawmakers - and voters - should refrain from receiving Communion if they diverge from church teaching on abortion. Each bishop sets policy in his own diocese. In their annual fall meeting, the nation's Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights.
According to national exit polls, 54 percent of Catholics chose Obama, who is Protestant. In South Carolina, which McCain carried, voters in Greenville County - traditionally seen as among the state's most conservative areas - went 61 percent for the Republican, and 37 percent for Obama.
"It was not an attempt to make a partisan point," Newman said in a telephone interview Thursday. "In fact, in this election, for the sake of argument, if the Republican candidate had been pro-abortion, and the Democratic candidate had been pro-life, everything that I wrote would have been exactly the same."
Conservative Catholics criticized Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 for supporting abortion rights, with a few Catholic bishops saying Kerry should refrain from receiving Holy Communion because his views were contrary to church teachings.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said she had not heard of other churches taking this position in reaction to Obama's win. A Boston-based group that supports Catholic Democrats questioned the move, saying it was too extreme.
"Father Newman is off base," said Steve Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats. "He is acting beyond the authority of a parish priest to say what he did. ... Unfortunately, he is doing so in a manner that will be of great cost to those parishioners who did vote for Sens. Obama and Biden. There will be a spiritual cost to them for his words."
A man who has attended St. Mary's for 18 years said he welcomed Newman's message and anticipated it would inspire further discussion at the church.
"I don't understand anyone who would call themselves a Christian, let alone a Catholic, and could vote for someone who's a pro-abortion candidate," said Ted Kelly, 64, who volunteers his time as lector for the church. "You're talking about the murder of innocent beings."
Ridiculous. That's all I am going to say, anything else will get me in trouble.
14 comments:
As I said on my blog a few minutes ago....this is how good Catholics find themselves evolving into good Episcopalians
Julie---GRRR--- many people are under the impression that pro-choice is pro-abortion. I am pretty sure that no one (and while I can't officially speak for President Elect Obama--I am fairly certain) is really pro-abortion. I believe that people are against the government telling you what you can or cannot choose.
I do attend church regularly (so I guess I am a fan of organized religion) and I believe that everyone, someday will have to answer for their choices in life, and honestly I am worried about this. I am not sure what the questions will be, but there are going to be things that we are all going to have to answer for. Those that chose this route, I can only guess, will have to answer for them. It certainly isn't my right to ask for those answers.
Thanks for posting this because I have been thinking about this a lot lately.
Kathy
How is Obama the most pro-abortion candidate ever? I don't even remember them talking much about abortion during the campaign... isn't Obama's position regarding abortion just the status quo? I guess maybe the stem cell thing... but still.
Being a Catholic living in SC, I feel safe in saying this is why I stopped going to the Catholic church. I could only take the generally, backasswards way of thinking so long. I decided that it was ok for me to talk to God, pray to God and still have my own beliefs about things. I do not think God thinks any less of me for it.
Now for all the sins I HAVE committed, he and I will have to talk about that later....I'm not sure that I'm done yet.
Let the record show that I am pro-abortion IN CERTAIN CASES.
Do I think abortion should be used as a method of birth control? Hell no.
Are there special circumstances that warrant it, such as rape, danger to the mother's health, non-viable fetus...you betcha.
I am pro-choice because as you said, Kathy, I do not want the government telling me what I can or cannot do with my body or anything in it.
But I'm sorry, for a priest to basically say you are going to hell for voting for our President...that to me is far scarier than PE Obama's middle name being Hussein.
I do not mean to offend any of my readers who attend church regularly. We all have our ways of worshipping whatever God we believe in, and I will never, ever intentionally offend anybody for their religion.
I just found this particular situation to be, at the very least, absurd.
Don't get me started, DO NOT get me started.
Doesn't surprise me in the least. I was bought up a Catholic and went to girls' schools run by nuns. Thats why I am full of guilt, anxiety, insecurites and what ever else you can think of that I can't. I live in fear I am sure of fire and damnation. Organised religion is all about instilling fear into people and keeping it that way to keep the numbers up. No better than organised governments. Look at what they do in third world countries in respect of birth control - dont get me started either.....grrrrrr!!!
Julie--honestly I am never pro-abortion I am ALWAYS pro-choice. It is ALWAYS the woman's choice of what can be done with her body. She gets to decide if being pregnant from a rape should end in abortion or if her life is at stake.
That is where the priest has taken on the role of judge. Wrong wrong wrong.
That's why church and state should be separate.
Secret ballot should mean it's your business and no one elses.
I believe in God, it's the ground crew I have a problem with.
Cassie
I read this too and was mortified.
And that's all I'll say because I know I'll get in trouble!
that is terrible, who does that priest think he is? Catholicism states that only Christ can judge... this guy is a quack, and should get booted!
"I believe in God, it's the ground crew I have a problem with."
Anon said it best.
"I believe in God, it's the ground crew I have a problem with."
BEST line in a comment I've read. Thanks Cassie!
Post a Comment