Posted on 05/08/2004 8:37:37 PM PDT by Land of the Irish
Lucy Killea and John Kerry have much in common.
Like Kerry, Killea's a Democratic politician – or used to be.
Like Kerry, Killea's also a Roman Catholic.
And like Kerry, Killea supports abortion rights.
But while the debate continues among Catholic hierarchy over whether Kerry and others like him should be allowed to take Holy Communion, it was a done deal for Killea.
In 1989, the late San Diego Bishop Leo Maher barred her from participating in Communion in local parishes.
She had spoken out for abortion rights in a television campaign ad for a state Senate race, taking a stand that Maher said was "in complete contradiction to the moral teaching of the Catholic Church."
"Consequently," Maher wrote to her in a letter, "I have no other choice but to deny you the right to receive the Eucharist in the Catholic Church."
Killea didn't like it, but she accepted it. "I was disappointed," she remembers.
While she took Communion elsewhere, she honored the local ban until after she retired from the state Senate in 1996.
The issue is back in the news because a top Vatican official last month suggested that Catholic politicians who support abortion rights are "not fit" to take Communion. A task force of U.S. Catholic bishops is currently studying what should be done about politicians in this country who advocate policies contrary to church teaching.
Both of these efforts have raised pointed questions about Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, because he supports at least two issues that are out of sync with his church – abortion rights and stem cell research.
Killea doesn't agree with what Maher did back then – nor does she think the hierarchy ought to deny other church members now.
"It's a question of the separation of church and state," she says. Killea contends her stands were a matter of private conscience and were not the church's business. She also was elected to represent more than just Catholics, she adds.
She worries that religions that cross this line will chase away potential candidates. "I think it's a deterrent to good people getting into public office."
It's been said that the 81-year-old grandmother has become a bit of an institution in San Diego. She began her political career in 1978 on the San Diego City Council and spent 14 years in the state Assembly and Senate. She remains active still. Most recently, the Episcopal bishop drafted her to serve on a task force looking into accusations of misconduct by the social service agency, Episcopal Community Services.
She has a rather unassuming persona and believes that a person's religion is a private matter. Still today, sitting in the living room of her downtown condo, with its view of Petco Park and the burgeoning urban development, she's uncomfortable dwelling on it or putting herself into the spotlight.
Killea does say that the episode didn't shake her faith. "I knew where I stood," is how she puts it. Looking back, she adds, "I think it's strengthened me in my own spirituality."
It also adjusted at least one other attitude. "I'm less dependent on the ritual part of it for any kind of spiritual satisfaction," she concedes.
Over the years, Killea has switched back and forth between being a Democrat and being an independent. "I enjoy being independent," she says. "I find it puzzles people."
Currently, that's her status, though she supports Kerry's candidacy.
She does not support President Bush's public proclamations of faith. It makes her "uncomfortable."
Christianity isn't the only religion in America, Killea notes, and she thinks it's important to respect the diversity of opinions and beliefs here. "This 'you're with us or against us' attitude ignores others."
A newspaper poll taken during the controversy showed that more than 70 percent of respondents disagreed with Maher's decision. However, he did have his defenders. "Those legislators who hold pro-abortion positions may continue to hold them, but they have no right to hold themselves up as good Catholics at the same time," one reader wrote in a letter to the editor.
Maher retired in 1990 and died the year after that. Before he died, Killea says she met briefly with him. She can't remember specifically if the Communion issue came up. "The conversation was more kind of chatting," she says.
She later met with Bishop Robert Brom, who succeeded Maher. "He said, 'Once you're out of office, the ban didn't apply.' " A spokesman for the local diocese said Brom is awaiting the recommendations of the U.S. task force before making any decisions in this new debate of church allegiance versus the public square.
Killea was raised a Catholic, went to Catholic schools and loves singing in the Masses she attends at Immaculate Conception in Old Town. She never considered leaving her faith. "I didn't want to be in any other church," she says.
Brom: another apostate bishop.
Psst! You did!
This statement is so pathetic its laughable.
Tell that to the Just Judge at your particular judgement. Ridiculous!
No better theology than Killea's! According to Evangelium Vitae she has separated herself from communion with the Body of Christ through her obstinate sin of commission. Until she repents and reforms, she remains in a state of grave sin and therefore should not receive the Holy Eucharist.
That's a pretty telling paragraph. To her the faith is a piece of real estate. It has nothing to do with her beliefs. And in this, she speaks for a lot of other "Catholics."
And I'm sure that she also had racists in her district that she was "elected to represent" too. So maybe she shouldn't take any stand on affirmative action? And probably she even had some pro-life constituents who weren't Catholic (Earth to media: there are pro-life voters who aren't Catholic). So what? The issue isn't the Catholicism of her consitutents... it is her own Catholicism. Talk about violating separation of church and state... her position is "I'm exempt from the requirements of my faith because I'm a legislator who represents people with different views." Gee, who is injecting state into church here?
Read scripture much? Try 1 Corinthians 11:
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.
28 A person should examine himself, 13 and so eat the bread and drink the cup.
29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.
30 That is why many among you are ill and infirm, and a considerable number are dying.
31 If we discerned ourselves, we would not be under judgment;
32 but since we are judged by (the) Lord, we are being disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
It is one of the greatest spiritual acts of Mercy a bishop can perform to deny the obstinate manifest grave sinner the Holy Eucharist, because it is the last remedy available to save that politician's eternal soul from perdition.
I always have to shake my head when I see Catholics make such foolish and uncharitable statements as yours, and bishops not caring about the eternal damnation of members of their flock, choosing that which makes themselves "comfortable" over that which might save the soul of a sinner among their flock.
--St. Justin Martyr, 165 A.D.
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