Posted on 06/17/2004 7:01:28 AM PDT by NYer
It made only the faintest blip on John Kerry's campaign radar screen— or anyone else's—when an Archbishop from St. Louis, Mo., told a local television station four months ago that the Massachusetts Senator with a staunchly pro-choice voting record should "not present himself for Communion" in that archdiocese. In the frenzied days when Kerry strategists were gearing up for their first nationwide round of primaries, they were far more preoccupied with introducing Kerry to voters as a decorated Vietnam veteran, untangling him from the contradictions of his Senate voting record and figuring out how to dodge the inevitable "Massachusetts liberal" label. In all their internal discussions of the candidate's personal strengths and liabilities, a top adviser recalls, nobody ever even raised what was perhaps the most personal one of all: Kerry's Catholicism and the fact that he could become the first person of his faith since John F. Kennedy to run as the nominee of a major political party.
If that didn't seem like such a big deal then, it does now. A handful of other church leaders have since echoed Archbishop Raymond Burke's declaration that Catholic politicians who vote against church teachings are unfit for the sacrament that more than any other symbolizes a Catholic's ongoing connection to the faith. At least one of those leaders—Colorado Springs, Colo., Bishop Michael Sheridan—has even suggested that unrepentant Catholics who so much as vote for a pro-choice politician should stay away from the Communion rail. Kerry meanwhile insists that he will continue to practice both his faith and his politics as always, and so the watch is on. Can the Democratic nominee travel the country throughout the next five months of Sundays without a priest turning him away? As Kerry campaigns this week in Colorado—a state his strategists have designated one of their top targets in November—more than 250 American Catholic bishops and several Cardinals will be there too, discussing, among other things, how to deal with the increasingly tense relationship between the church and many Catholic politicians.
The bishops will hear from a task force, led by Washington Archbishop Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, that is supposed to give them a set of guidelines on the issue shortly after the election. McCarrick has said he has "not gotten comfortable" with the idea of confronting anyone at the altar, even as he has asserted that Catholics conscious of grave sin should not take Communion. The antiabortion group American Life League responded in early May with full-page newspaper ads in the Washington Times featuring a picture of the crucified Christ and asking, Cardinal McCarrick: are you comfortable now?
That kind of recrimination is also bearing down for the first time on many pro-choice politicians around the country. The pastor of Democratic Senator Dick Durbin's hometown parish in Springfield, Ill.—where Durbin's children attended Catholic school and his daughter was married—announced in April that the Senator could not receive Communion there. Although Durbin had not attended the church regularly for seven years, since he began worshipping near his condo in Chicago, the resulting debate has put him in a difficult spot. He recently declined to give the eulogy at a close friend's funeral for fear that his presence on the altar with the local bishop would create an embarrassing scene. "It's very painful," Durbin told TIME. "It's one of the most painful experiences I've had in public life. You can't really put into words how tough this is to deal with."
It is proving painful as well for the American Catholic hierarchy, which is still trying to re-establish its credibility after the sexual-abuse scandal that shook it in 2002. A deep divide has opened between a vast majority of Catholics and the newly vocal minority of bishops and priests who are publicly advocating a hard line with Catholic politicians—and even voters—who stray from church teachings. In a TIME poll conducted two weeks ago, three-quarters of Catholics said they disagree with the bishops who would deny the Eucharist to politicians who disagree with the church on abortion, and nearly 70% said the Catholic Church should not be trying to influence either the positions that Catholic politicians take on the issues or the way that Catholics vote. That held true even among majorities of Catholics who consider themselves very religious and who attend Mass at least once a week.
None of that has been lost on the Kerry campaign. "It's one thing for a bishop to tell Catholic politicians to refrain from taking Communion but quite a different thing when the church hierarchy begins to bring that pressure to all Catholics," says Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. President Bush's campaign also sees the issue as producing a potential upside for Kerry. A top Bush strategist is concerned that it unsettles the moderate slice of the Catholic electorate that both parties are courting, puts Kerry in the sympathetic position of being a victim and—worst of all, as far as the Bush campaign is concerned—makes people aware that he is a Catholic. Indeed, one of the more striking findings of the TIME poll is that fully a third of Americans know Kerry's religion, which is slightly higher than the percentage who named some version of Protestantism when asked the religion of Bush.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Several U.S. bishops have recently voiced their opposition and ersatz reasoning why no one should be denied the Eucharist according to Code of Canon Law n. 915.
Those in the pews are perplexed. Which bishop is correct? Why would some bishops teach that the laws are binding and other bishops teach that they are not? [i]
Quizzically, people are asking ten questions:
Puhlease!!
Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
Would you please add me to your Ping list? Thanks!
The following headline says it all: Kerry`s Religion Outreach Director Reinforces His Weakness Among Religious Voters
His hiring of this left-wing activist who has affiliated herself with vile anti-Catholic homosexual activist groups is another slap in the face to true Catholics everywhere. The worst offense, however, is his sacrilege of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, of Jesus Christ, present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
The Catholic French/Irish man who served in Vietman?
As someone once said of John Kennedy, "His faith is so private he won't even impose it on himself."
Well that's your problem right there. Eulogies don't belong at a Catholic funeral Mass.
The question itself show its left-wing radical roots!
Is kerry Catholic enough? as if there can be anything but either you are a Catholic (or a Baptist, a Presbyterian, etc) and you follow the teachings of the Church - or you are NOT.
There are no grey areas. only the left-wing radical extremists that want to destroy us wish to change all religion into their secular filth.
Notice that TIME is shlling for this guy by deliberately clouding the issue. Largely owing to the slackness of the bishops, Catholic politicians have taken on themselves the right to act as though abortion on demand were no big deal. Ditto homosexuality; ditto stem cell research using harvested embryos. The comparison with the pre-civil war debate on slavery is perfect. We had politicians like Daniel Webster who said they were "personally" opposed to slavery but then voted for its expansion.
This controversy is not complex. John Kerry (and other politicians) see it clearly.
The church has standards of belief and practice that one adhers to if one believes the teachings of the church. In this case the teachings, beliefs and practices of the church are that abortion is the taking of an infant human's life.
One cannot be completely commited to the church's principles if one believes otherwise, and should leave the church.
The Democrat Party has standards of belief and practices to which one must adhere to become a leader of the party.
A principle that is central to the Democrat Party's beliefs is that one must support the taking of an infant's life in order to participate in the the rituals of the party.
If one does not believe in abortion, they are forbidden to run for office as a Democrat, or be appointed to important positions in government.
This is their way of denying "communion" within the Party...and the Party is their religion. Therefore (just as with the Catholic Church) anyone with beliefs that conflict with the Democrat religion should leave the Democrat church.
I don't know if we should go as far as telling someone no as they approach for Communion. We need to be firm and uncompromising with our faith, yet be compassionate enough to where we can attract the most amount of people to the Truth of the Church.
And abortion is just a minor point, right? As for the other "issues" that she cites... I didn't realize President Bush was running on an anti-social justice and abandon the poor platform. And if the Catholic bishops would speak out against abortion with half the vigor they use to speak out against the death penalty, it would be a refreshing change.
And some say there is even a double standard at work. For all the attention that has been given Kerry's problems with the clergy of his church, "there have not been an equal number of stories about the way Bush has ignored his own faith group, the United Methodist Church, by declining to accept a delegation of bishops that wanted to talk to him about the war," says Philip Amerson, president of the Claremont School of Theology, a United Methodist seminary in Claremont, Calif.
I don't know what the Methodist equivalent of a catechism or church law would be, but I'm guessing that a prerequisite of the faith isn't agreeing to any meeting(s) with "a delegation of bishops that [want] to talk... about the war." So if a Catholic priest or group of priests calls Kerry up and says they want to meet with him to discuss abortion, and Kerry declines the meeting, that also would be "ignoring his faith"? I'll believe that when I see it. Time magazine clearly grasps the issues here, don't they?
This statement take a rather broad brush. A Catholic politician can vote for capital punishment even though the Church is against it, because capital punishment is not intrinsically evil. Ditto the war in Iraq. It is only a vote in support of things like abortion on demand, which the Church has declared intrinsically evil, which makes a politician as for Communion.
which makes a politician as for Communion = which makes a politician unfit for Communion.
Kinda hard to reconcile that quote, with this one isn't it?
Indeed, one of the more striking findings of the TIME poll is that fully a third of Americans know Kerry's religion...
A lay person is not permitted to give a eulogy at a funeral under any circumstances, despite the popularity of these things in the post-V2 era.
ping
In other words, it is one thing to publicly disgrace the sacrament; but quite a different thing to privately disgrace the sacrament.
Compassion? Yes!
Compromise? Never!
Jesus never compromised his ethics and beliefs - why should we?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.