Obama voters told to repent or stay away from Communion
A Catholic priest in South Carolina has told his parishioners to stay away from Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama, because of the president-elect's pro-choice stance.
In a letter to parish of St Mary's in Greenville, SC, Fr Jay Scott Newman (pictured) says: 'Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits 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.'
Theologically, the priest is not in a position to deny communion to any member of the parish who voted for Barack Obama. All he can do, within church laws, is encourage those voters to repent and make penance for the 'sin' of cooperating with 'intrinsic evil' in casting their vote for a pro-life candidate. Fr Newman's comments may seem a little curious to outsiders; in fact, he is merely echoing the views of the American Catholic hierarchy who called on pro-choice Catholic politicians, during the presidential campaign, to exclude themselves from communion. They plainly had Joe Biden, America's first Catholic vice-president-elect in their liturgical sites. If anything, Pope Benedict has taken an even stronger position on this; the pope's opposition to pro-choice Catholic positions was so vocal in 2007 that the Vatican had to release a statement making it clear that he was not tightening up church laws.
Excommunication is not only a religious concept. Christopher Buckley has resigned from the National Review, the conservative political journal founded by his father William F Buckley in 1955. Christopher Buckley says he was 'effectively fatwahed by the conservative movement' after endorsing Barack Obama in a blog posting.
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The story moves on. Monsignor Martin T. Laughlin the adminstrator of the Diocese of Charleston has issued a letter repudiating Father Newman's staement.
`As Administrator of the Diocese of Charleston, let me state with clarity that Father Newman?s statements do not adequately reflect the Catholic Church?s teachings. Any comments or statements to the contrary are repudiated... The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, ?Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions... Christ gives us freedom to explore our own conscience and to make our own decisions while adhering to the law of God and the teachings of the faith. Therefore, if a person has formed his or her conscience well, he or she should not be denied Communion, nor be told to go to confession before receiving Communion.`
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0805820.htm
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Thanks for that update jayfurneaux. I've read some of the press accounts and it looks like the Monsignor may be missing the point. The priest has not banned people from communnion, he has RECOMMENDED that people repent and seek penance before going to communion if they supported a pro-choice candidate.
I dont incidentally agree with the priest, I am pro-choice myself, but i think the priest has merely done what the pope and the hierarchy have been doing for years now on this issue in the US.
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My fellow Americans claim to cherish the constitutional guarantee of "freedom of religion," but too many fail to see that this also means freedom FROM religion. In fact, this country has a long legacy of trying to force religion onto people. Religious freedom seems to actually mean "your freedom to pick from a variety of religions, preferably mine, and join it. And don't pick Islam."
From the early Puritan preachers to modern Televangelists to local yokal village priests to creationism advocates, we have always endured persistent, chronic religious authoritarianism. It's getting worse, I think. Are any European countries taking citizenship applications? I'm too old to master a new language, so I'd need to live around English speakers, even if they don't "talk American." I'll do windows and rugs.
Ron in Iowa
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Here's a perfect way to drive more Catholics out of the Church and into other religions. Seems like there's no connection between the collection plate and what spews from these people's mouths. Perhaps one day people like Newman will talk himself right out of a job.
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What does "effectively fatwahed" mean?
What, like, they called for his execution?
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I sent a letter to St. Mary's Church but have yet to receive a response. Please read it and my position at: http://www.examiner.com/x-948-Miami-Law--Politics-Examiner~y2008m11d13-An-open-letter-to-Pastor-Newman
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I didn't realize the news had traveled this far. (Greenville is my hometown.) Oddly enough, the other major religious institution in Greenville (Bob Jones University would be on the same side as Father Newman...if not harsher.
Want me to try and get you his contact info? (I can also get you the junior priest there, who I went to High School with...)
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