COLUMBIA, S.C. \u2013 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 \u201cconstitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cOur 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,\u201d Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein.<\/p>\n
\u201cVoting 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nDuring 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.<\/p>\n
But bishops differ on whether Catholic lawmakers \u2014 and voters \u2014 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\u2019s Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights.<\/p>\n
According to national exit polls, 54 percent of Catholics chose Obama, who is Protestant. In South Carolina, which McCain carried, voters in Greenville County \u2014 traditionally seen as among the state\u2019s most conservative areas \u2014 went 61 percent for the Republican, and 37 percent for Obama.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was not an attempt to make a partisan point,\u201d Newman said in a telephone interview Thursday. \u201cIn 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s win. A Boston-based group that supports Catholic Democrats questioned the move, saying it was too extreme.<\/p>\n
\u201cFather Newman is off base,\u201d said Steve Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats. \u201cHe is acting beyond the authority of a parish priest to say what he did. \u2026 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.\u201d
<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n (No sir! There will be a great cost to them for their actions! That\u2019s the way it works. Do bad stuff and you have to pay for it.)<\/p>\n
A man who has attended St. Mary\u2019s for 18 years said he welcomed Newman\u2019s message and anticipated it would inspire further discussion at the church.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand anyone who would call themselves a Christian, let alone a Catholic, and could vote for someone who\u2019s a pro-abortion candidate,\u201d said Ted Kelly, 64, who volunteers his time as lector for the church. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about the murder of innocent beings.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Amen, my brother!
Someone call the Vatican! There\u2019s a priest with a spine in South Carolina. I thought they were a dying breed.<\/p>\n
Guess what?! He has a blog! Here <\/a>it is.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s beginning to look that way! (Emphasis mine) SC priest: No communion for Obama supporters COLUMBIA, S.C. \u2013 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 \u201cconstitutes material cooperation with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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