Posted on 04/11/2004 9:13:49 PM PDT by Coleus
OSTON, April 11 — Rejecting the admonitions of several national Roman Catholic leaders, Senator John Kerry received communion at Easter services today at the Paulist Center here, a kind of New Age church that describes itself as "a worship community of Christians in the Roman Catholic tradition" and that attracts people drawn to its dedication to "family religious education and social justice."
Mr. Kerry's decision to receive communion represented a challenge to several prominent Catholic bishops, who have become increasingly exasperated with politicians who are Catholic but who deviate from Catholic teaching.
Mr. Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, supports abortion rights and stem cell research, both of which are contrary to church teaching. He and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, are regular worshipers at the Paulist Center, which is near their home on Beacon Hill.
Last November, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops organized a task force headed by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington to study how the church should treat Catholic politicians like Mr. Kerry, who say they are personally opposed to abortion, for example, but support abortion rights legislatively. There has been a long line of such politicians, including Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York, and Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 1984.
The task force has not issued any specific recommendations, but some members have discussed a range of penalties, from withholding communion to excommunication.
In a television interview today, Cardinal McCarrick indicated that depriving a Catholic of communion would be a last resort that he, for one, would be reluctant to take.
"I think there are many of us who would feel that there are certain restrictions that we might put on people" he said on the "Fox News Sunday" program. "But I think many of us would not like to use the Eucharist as part of the sanctions."
In February, the archbishop of St. Louis, Raymond Burke, warned Mr. Kerry before the Missouri primary that he would not give him communion because the senator was defying church teaching.
Archbishop Sean O'Malley of Boston has not explicitly said that Mr. Kerry may not receive communion, but he has suggested that Catholic politicians whose political views contradict Catholic teaching should voluntarily abstain, saying they "shouldn't dare come to communion."
There were no protesters at today's services, and it was not clear whether Mr. Kerry's receiving communion would bring a response from the church or affect his campaign as he seeks to become only the second Roman Catholic president of the United States, after John F. Kennedy.
"It was a wonderful service," Mr. Kerry told reporters afterward. As he emerged from the church, he received a sustained ovation. He shook hands with several people and posed for pictures, then ducked back into the vestibule to thank the priest.
Mr. Kerry heads to New Hampshire on Monday and expects to have several Democratic colleagues around the country join in a coordinated attack on President Bush's handling of the economy.
In an ongoing effort to make the economy the central issue in the presidential campaign, Mr. Kerry's campaign issued a so-called "misery index" today that purports to show that under Mr. Bush, the economic power of middle-class families has deteriorated at record levels.
The misery index is based on median family income, private-sector job growth, the rate of home ownership, the increase in the number of personal bankruptcies and the cost of college tuition, health care and gasoline cost.
The Kerry campaign has computed that the "misery index" in the last three years under Mr. Bush has been the worst in in three decades, with the biggest problems being the rise in college tuition (up 13 percent from 2002 to 2003), the loss of private-sector jobs, the rise in health premiums and the decline in family income.
LOL! I'm amazed that even the New York Times recognizes that this is a "New Age" church and not a Catholic church.
Please get this little book for your mom. I've watched it work on a 75+ y/o who was a former labor/union boss aka lifelong 100% D Democrat. Please pass it on.
A Brief Catechism for Catholic Voters is must reading for every Catholic family. It is also very important for high-school students to learn this so that they can be properly informed Christian Voters. By Father Stephen F. Torraco, Ph.D.
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Two great phrases that are hopefully becoming common are "NON-NEGOTIABLE ISSUE" and "disqualifying issue"
From A Brief Catechism for Catholic Voters :
"A disqualifying issue is one which is of such gravity and importance that it allows for no political maneuvering. It is an issue that strikes at the heart of the human person and is non-negotiable. A disqualifying issue is one of such enormity that by itself renders a candidate for office unacceptable regardless of his position on other matters."
The FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLE ISSUES are:
1. Abortion
2. Euthanasia
3. Fetal Stem Cell Research
4. Human Cloning
5. Homosexual "Marriage"
the apostate john kerry disqualifies himself on each of the 5.
As Kerry took communion in a place other than a Catholic Church, the representation of the eucharist wasn't the same by the offerer. Does one's faith alone cause transubstantiation, or is it effected by the priest? If it is the latter, then a case could be made that Kerry really never received Catholic communion, and his soul is in no danger.
Your argument is with the majority of American bishops who say it's OK to be pro-abortion, or who are silent.
There are two American bishops who have said they would refuse Kerry communion.
There are more than two who have said they would not, including Kerry's own bishop. Most are silent. When Kerry is President, that will not be an option.
It's not just Boston.
Confessors can be pretty tough on scared little girls who have abortions.
What about those who make it possible?
also known as RC-lite....
He and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, are regular worshipers at the Paulist Center, which is near their home on Beacon Hill.
The picture is becoming clearer.
Archbishop O'Malley should drive the Paulists out of his diocese like St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland.
Project Rachel is a Catholic program for women who have had abortions. maybe in the olden days confessors would be tough. the Catholic church has very few TOUGH anything anymore. everything is touchy feely now. Our pastor IS one of the tough guys (he spent much of yesterday's sermon commenting on how full the church was of those that show up only on Easter and Christmas) and he is disliked for precisely that reason. People do not want to hear about RIGHT and WRONG, Good and Evil. and the Catholic Church does very little of calling a spade a spade. witness the atrocity of letting Kerry receive communion.
when even the NYTimes calls your church a "new age church", you know they aren't Christian...
Believe it or not, it's not all bad. The Paulists are the worst. They're a group that hasn't left the '60s. They're holed up in a bookstore/church in downtown Boston. I don't know a lot of what goes on at the archdiocesan level, but I know some good people associated with the archdiocese from the pro-life movement. From some friends who were rejected from a couple of seminaries here, it appears that the seminaries are heterodox and have been infiltrated by homosexuals, to a significant degree.
At the lay level, every parish seems to have a good sized group of solid parishioners. As you move toward the Easter/Christmas crowd, orthodoxy diminishes. I suspect that more than half of the parishioners support abortion and homosexual "marriage."
Then you have the city enclaves of greater fidelity to the Church's teachings, like the Irish in Dorchester, the Portugeuse in Fall River and the Italians in the South End, but these neighborhoods appear to be gentrifying.
Bless you.
And I thank God, many times every day, that their biological mothers did not choose to commit the most horrific act I can think of.
It boggles the mind. And then to think that half of the "Catholics" in this country will vote for a guy who won't lift a finger to prevent little children from being dismembered in their mothers' wombs.
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