Posted on 03/31/2004 2:47:28 PM PST by kattracks
More: Senate's 'Deadly Dozen' Fake Catholics,
Pope Says Catholic Pols Must Oppose Abortion
and Bishop Tells Gray Davis: Choose Abortion or Communion.Sen. John Kerry's defiance of his Church's condemnation of abortion and approval of gay marriage is not only a problem for him and Catholic bishops, but for individual Catholics as well, according to a leading Catholic layman and editor.
He says Catholic priests should refuse to give Holy Communion to Kerry even if their bishops have not specifically warned the senator that he is not to receive Communion.
That demand of excommunication for Kerry is made by Deal Hudson, editor of Crisis magazine, the nation's leading intellectual Catholic journal.
Hudson is a respected Catholic layman, and his views are often sought by national media and government officials, including the Bush White House.
In an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, Hudson said that the matter of individual bishops ordering Kerry to refrain from receiving the Eucharist when in their dioceses - in other words, excommunicating him - was between Kerry and America's individual bishops, including his own.
"It's in the hands of his ordinary [bishop] - and when his ordinary has spoken and said that politicians should refrain from communion, he's alluding to the fact that someone like Sen. Kerry should not consider themselves part of the Catholic community."
Photo Opportunity
The issue will arise as Kerry campaigns around the nation and continues to insist on publicly receiving communion under the watchful eyes of the media. As a result, Hudson said, some bishops will have to face the issue head-on.
"Some bishops will be very likely be forced to clarify the Catholic faith in the wake of any campaign stops by Sen. Kerry, especially if the human life issue arises."
Hudson left no doubt that in the absence of action by their bishops, individual Catholic priests should still turn Kerry away from Communion. "Absolutely, they should," he said.
St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has specifically warned Kerry to avoid receiving communion when visiting his archdiocese. In Kerry's home archdiocese, without mentioning him by name, Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley has said that Catholic politicians who do not vote in line with Church teachings "shouldn't dare come to Communion."
Commenting on Archbishop Burke's instruction to Kerry, Hudson noted that Kerry avoided the confrontation by visiting a black Baptist Church when he was there recently.
Asked if he believed that the bishops individually or together should tell renegade Catholic politicians such as Sen. Kerry that they must not receive communion and that they are excommunicating themselves by so doing, Hudson said: "I think that it's what's happening, little by little. When a bishop says that someone should refrain from receiving communion without using the word excommunication, he's implying it. I think they are beginning to speak up, and Kerry's ordinary has spoken up, although he hasn't specifically mentioned Kerry as has Archbishop Burke."
While observing that the problem was a large issue for the Catholic bishops, Hudson said it also was a problem for the laity.
'Pretending to Be a Catholic'
"My view that this is a huge decisive moment for Catholics in the United States. I hope they will rise to the challenge and refuse to endorse another Catholic politician who is pretending to be a Catholic while rejecting the Church's central moral and social teachings.
"I think that the challenge is bigger for the laity than it has been for the bishops. It's an election. The issue is who's going to vote for the guy.
"I agree on one hand that it's an issue for the bishops, but in a very real sense it's even a bigger issue for the laity. If they show massive support for Kerry, that's going to set back the church in this country for at least a generation, just at a time when a significant number of bishops and laity are beginning to get active on this issue. I am keeping my eyes more focused on the laity and hoping they will reject such Catholic politicians," Hudson said.
"It is a problem for the church - the Church's identity is at stake - the church being the bishops and the laity. If they don't respond to the situation now, the Church will lose credibility."
As NewsMax.com has reported in Vatican Worries About Kerry, the Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of the Jesuit magazine America, is quoted in Time magazine as saying, "All you need is a picture of Kerry going up to the Communion rail and being denied, and you've got a story that'll last for weeks."
But Hudson told NewsMax.com he doubted that will happen. "They [Kerry's staff] are checking it very carefully, everywhere he goes to Mass.
"They're not going to let him be embarrassed, as Al Gore was embarrassed in 2000 when he was planning a campaign stop at Catholic hospital in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the bishop canceled the visit. After that I don't believe Gore many any more attempts to visit any Catholic hospitals."
Time on Monday quoted a Vatican official, who is American, as saying: "People in Rome are becoming more and more aware that there's a problem with John Kerry, and a potential scandal with his apparent profession of his Catholic faith and some of his stances, particularly abortion."
Kerry, who likes to think of himself as JFK, has said: "We have a separation of church and state in this country. As John Kennedy said very clearly, I will be a president who happens to be Catholic, not a Catholic President."
A former altar boy, he has described himself as a "believing and practicing Catholic, married to another believing and practicing Catholic."
He insists he will continue to attend Mass and take Communion.
On Tuesday, the largest abortion rights group in the United States endorsed Kerry for president.
Calling the choice "clear," NARAL Pro-Choice America President Kate Michelman called Kerry "a president pro-choice Americans can rely on" to ensure "Roe vs. Wade remains the law of the land."
Only last week, Kerry, in a rare episode of showing up for work, was among the minority of senators voting against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which, when President Bush signs it, will finally make it a crime to harm or kill an unborn child, abortions excluded.
Actually, I believe that their loyalty to their unions outweighs any loyalty to Christian principles. That's just a few we can name. Specter also comes to mind.
Kerry, Kennedy, Clinton and Schumer are individuals who should NEVER be elected by true believers in Jesus.
My grandfather was raised by an impoverished single mother after the untimely death of his father. The one thing his mother had in life was the Church.
When my grandfather married my grandmother (a Lutheran) without a dispensation, his name was read out from the altar of St. Rose's Church as he was declared publically to be excommunicated, and he was asked to leave the building in front of his mother.
This made quite an impression on him.
THAT'S excommunication-no such thing in those days as "person X has really excommunicated themselves, and should be a good boy and not receive the sacraments".
By the way (interesting followup)-my grandfather attended the UCC for his entire life after marriage, every Sunday. Never said a word, never murmured a complaint.
The day he died, he called for a priest, made a confession, and received the sacraments-and died.
THAT'S a Church that leaves an impression.
The Church has the right to define who is or who is not a member of the Catholic Church. If John Kerry wants to be a Catholic, he cannot promote abortion and the culture of death as part of his career. The Church teaches that certain moral issues, such as those of the right to life, are so important and so clearly involve grave matter regarding souls that Catholics have a moral duty and civic responsibility to support the morally sound position and to reject immoral positions. Catholics have a moral responsibility as Catholics to oppose the erosion of the right to life by such things as abortion, euthanasia, fetal tissue harvesting, the use of stem cells from abortions, and the destruction of human embryonic cells in questionable reproductive research or in cloning experiments. This is the clearly stated teaching of the Catholic Church. If John Kerry does not agree with this teaching, he is no longer a Catholic in good standing and may not present himself for Communion.
If he does not understand this, he's a moron. Another casualty of a liberal secular humanist "Ivy League" education. His secret society memberships also raise serious questions of a Catholic moral order.
Someone in high authority in the church needs to point this out to him in very clear terms. Preferably...in public with some admonishing gravity.
In a certain sense, it would be more interesting for some of the bishops to question him about his "culture of death" ideology with reference to his secret society memberships. If Kerry is bound by some strange oath of a secret society to support a weird non-Christian and anti-Catholic ideology, he is no longer any kind of Catholic.
If Skull & Bones is rigging national elections which propel pro-abortion kooks like Kerry into national office, THAT should be of real concern to the bishops of this country. They do NOT honor Christ or His Church if they fail to defend innocent life on this matter.
That is THEIR fault not your candidate's. I would say it the exact same way, and often do.
If I was asked if I supported freedom and liberty I would also say "Of course, I do. I am an American". That some people mis-characterize THEMSELVES doesn't change me, my faith or my allegiances.
Of course. Kennedy and Kerry give Catholics a bad name like Swaggert and Tammy Faye.
Diocese gives nod for Kerry to receive Eucharist
Posted by delacoert
On News/Activism 04/10/2004 10:40:32 AM PDT with 14 comments
The Boston Herald ^ | April 10, 2004 | Eric ConveyChicago cardinal [George] would not withhold Eucharist [Kerry]
Posted by Polycarp IV
On News/Activism 04/10/2004 8:53:44 AM PDT with 63 comments
CWNews.com ^ | Apr. 09 | CWNews.comDiocese gives nod for Kerry to receive Eucharist
Posted by Fifthmark
On Religion 04/10/2004 8:39:21 AM PDT with 6 comments
The Boston Herald ^ | April 10, 2004 | Eric ConveyChicago Cardinal would not withhold Eucharist
Posted by Canticle_of_Deborah
On Religion 04/09/2004 4:15:11 PM PDT with 16 comments
CWNews ^ | April 9, 2003Bishop Bruskewitz will deny Kerry the Eucharist
Posted by johnb2004
On Religion 04/07/2004 10:39:21 AM PDT with 33 comments
www.renewamerica.us ^ | April 6, 2004 | Barbara Kralis
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