This is just peachy. Via Pam, we find that a South Carolina priest is telling his parish that folks won't be receiving communion if they voted for Obama:
A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.
"Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein. (Emphasis mine)
This news comes just a few days after U.S. bishops met to discuss the new President-elect's support for choice. It's nice to know that at least others are saying Newman's statement is extreme. Steve Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats, responded:
"He is acting beyond the authority of a parish priest to say what he did. ... Unfortunately, he is doing so in a manner that will be of great cost to those parishioners who did vote for Sens. Obama and Biden. There will be a spiritual cost to them for his words."
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This is where they lose their tax-exempt status, right? Please?
This comes not two weeks after the church bulletin at my local parish said that while complicity with "evil" is sinful, one-issue voting is worse.
Not trying to defend the Church or anything (because boy, do they have issues), but I guess this priest didn't get the memo!
And way to go on the Hussein dogwhistle, when the Vatican's announcing Catholic-Muslim forums. Someone give that priest a newspaper? His diocesan bishop is probably cringing right now (I hope!).
The only thing funnier than him breaking out "souls at risk" is the rejoinder that there will be a "spiritual cost" for his actions. As long as we're talking fake currency, can I buy a Porsche at the local dealership with Monopoly money?
But cooperating with a war that has cost us so many US and Iraqi casualties ISN'T cooperation with evil?
That aside, couldn't his parishioners just lie? I guess that's beside the point, but still...
These people remind me why I have no respect for pro-lifers.
On one hand he writes:
Let us hope and pray that the responsibilities of the presidency and the grace of God will awaken in the conscience of this extraordinarily gifted man an awareness that the unholy slaughter of children in this nation is the greatest threat to the peace and security of the United States and constitutes a clear and present danger to the common good
And on the other:
Newman also wrote, however, that Obama - as the duly-elected next President - will hold legitimate authority over the nation
To me, one can ethically argue that the US government is complicit in an unholy slaughter of children OR they can recognize that the US government is a legitimate authority.
But to claim both simultaneously puts him in the same moral ethical category as people who knew about the holocaust and wholeheartedly supported the Nazis anyway.
Dear Rev. Newman,
Bad theology makes Baby Jesus cry.
I've only had one course in Moral Theology, and I can see the multiple flaws in his statement from that standpoint.
So...nothing cancels out legal abortion? NOTHING in the world is as bad or worse than legal abortion? REALLY?!
I suppose that separation of church and state means nothing to this priest. Well it seems as though someone is looking to have their tax exempt status revoked. Funny when Wright was preaching politics everyone is up in arms...right wing ministers speak and nothing happens..
I am so sick of these people! And there are a few people on Facebook I see who keep posting this stuff about Obama's "extreme pro-abortion status." Why are they so obsessed!?!!? Are there not other issues that they care about? I don't. Get. It. I'm sorry, I'm ranting. But I feel like we always get to hear the "pro-life" side of these arguments. These people have been heard - DAMN, have they been heard! It's not about them and their "morals." They have no place judging people on their abortion views, and they have no business imposing their sin-obsessed morality on other people!
i believe he's urging people to go to confession to 'confess the sin of voting for obama' prior to receiving communion, but i don't believe he's refusing communion to those who vote, just urging them not to seek out communion.
doesn't make it any better, obviously, just wanted to point out the stories i read have stated that.
I wonder how many of the Catholic priests and Bishops that take these positions are diocesan ones versus belonging to a religious order, like the Jesuits or Franciscans. It has been my experience that priests that belong to religious orders show much more openness to a wide range of political views, even when those views contradict official church doctrine. Some of the Jesuits I know advocated for the ordination of women priests and said special masses for GLBT Catholics and their families. Conversely, the couple of times I've gone to a church with diocesan priest, I've had to endure sermons on why divorce is evil or their "right to life" speech they gave on the Roe v. Wade anniversary. If I ever did become a practicing Catholic again, it would be at a Jesuit or Franciscan parish.
Steve C, interesting point about those belonging to an order. I worked at a large Jesuit university and their health insurance plans refused to cover birth control unless you produced a note from your doctor saying it was medically necessary, which I have to say kinda pissed me off...I was sort of like, I know they're Catholic, but I totally wasn't expecting that from the Jesuits! They're supposed to be the "liberal" Catholics! For the most part though they are more open, at least compared to other Catholic sects or dioceses or whatever (I'm a bit confused with Catholic terminology!) :)
I almost forgot about Jesuit universities and their institutional policies regarding contraception. I went to a Jesuit school for undergrad and began working for Planned Parenthood while I was there. I couldn't do any outreach, dissemination of reproductive health information and barrier methods, on-campus due to the university's policies. I could go to off-campus houses to do my outreach. The campus health center didn't offer any contraceptives instead offering a "progressive abstinence based curriculum". However, these policies could have been due more to conservative lay people in the university's hierarchy than the priests.
As far as the difference between dioceses and orders, dioceses are more regional branches of the Roman Catholic's bureaucratic hierarchy (Pope--> Cardnials--> Bishops--> monseigneurs-->pastors-->priests). Orders are semi-autonomous units of the church that focus on living in community and abiding to their own community's rules and vows (like of personal poverty and/or silence). They run their own parishes, universities, and other institutions that have some autonomy from the diocesan hierarchy. Orders are still technically under the Pope's jurisdiction, but there seems room to deviate from his doctrines.
I've found this to be true as well. I belonged to a parish run by Paulists, and they were awesome. Can't find such a place where I currently live, so I've stopped going to church altogether. I miss Masses with homilies that preach acceptance of gays and lesbians.
The greatest thing about the Catholic hierarchy's vehemently pro-life stance is that most American Catholics don't agree with it. Most of them voted for Obama, and about 3/4 believe in comprehensive sex ed, and 86% think we should try to reduce unwanted pregnancy by providing low-income women with contraception and educating teens about sex. (I got the stats here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cecile-richards/catholics-vote-for-womens_b_143586.html ). Yet another way in which the old creaky Catholic hierarchy is completely out of step with not only society but their own congregations.
I'm glad the Catholic church I grew up in was nothing like this - I never heard mention of abortion, or gays (they even did gay outreach, and not in the scary "pray the gay away" way), or even "sins". It was all social justice stuff, which is really what the church should be about - and why they should support Obama and the democrats, since we're the ones who actually care about carrying out Jesus' message of helping others.
That's how my old parish was. They examined ALL the social justice issues. When you look at the whole enchilada, it's very clear that the Church teachings are anti-war, pro-environment, pro-labor union, anti-death penalty, pro-equal access to health care, etc., etc., etc.
How that priest made it out of seminary thinking Catholics should be single-issue voters/thinkers/believers is beyond me. Over and above the fact that he doesn't have the authority to refuse communion to Obama supporters in the first place.
If all the Catholics who voted for pro-choice politicians weren't allowed to get communion, most parishes, possibly including his, would look like ghost towns. Plus, war=murder, so shouldn't everyone who voted for pro-war politician be excluded from communion according to his logic? Why isn't that idea coming out of his mouth?
Methinks this dude is doing it for attention.
I already ranted a bit about this twit on my blog, but I hope someone reminded him that his "plausible pro-life alternative" was actually pro-choice the first time he ran for President. Because I think it might make his head explode, "Scanners"-style.
I am from that town and attended that church when I was younger. I luckily now live in Chicago and am no longer Catholic.
However, my mother and sister still attend and both voted for Obama. And they are extremely angry. I could tell from the first time Father Newman came to the church he was bad news. His ignorance has now been shown on the national level and hopefully he receives backlash. To think pro-life seems to have nothing to do with the innocent people in the Middle East who are being killed and tortured by our government, the innocent people who can't get health care and the innocent people working in horrible conditions throughout the world for the benefit of our capitalist nation.
No, the only life that matters is that which is unborn and that which would take away a right from a woman and not a right from a government or corporation.
I guess Canadian Catholics shouldn't receive communion if they voted for, um, anybody. All of our major parties run on platforms that are significantly more pro-choice than Obama's.
As a liberal, pro-choice Catholic, I find this sort of situation heartening in a perverse kind of way. Partly because it has highlighted the fact that there are Catholics who aren't (shock!) super conservative and uptight and all about denying women their rights, as we often seem to get painted with the same broad brushstrokes (and egads, articles thinking that people in, say, the Catholic League speak for us, rather than being the wacko fringe group they are).
And the fact that some numbnuts would have the audacity to deny some of his churchmembers communion because of who they voted for shows just how scared some of the old guard is, and that they feel this is the only way to keep the church from going ahead with the modern world.
This election has shown people, among other things, that many Catholics can break away from a single issue (abortion bad! hulk smash!) and focus on true, larger pro-life issues, like quality of life beyond birth and the human dignity inherent in us all which, to my understanding, is what that wacky Jesus fellow taught. Remember how many passages there were where he speaks out against abortions? Oh wait, THERE WERE NONE! Most of them were about compassion and welcoming the outcasts, and this misguided church leader's blinders won't allow him to see beyond the narrow margins of a single word: abortion.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1209986/priest_in_south_carolinas_judgement.html?cat=49
PETITION!!
This article has a petition in it to try and get their tax exemption status taken away!
The priest spoke without having the authority to do so, so I doubt the Catholic Church will lose its tax-exempt status over this incident. Highly, highly, highly doubt it.
It might garner some negative attention, but I suspect attention of any kind is exactly what this guy wants.
IF, and it's a BIG if, some kind of brouhaha results, they'll probably just transfer him to another parish. That seems to be the preferred way to deal with troublemakers.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1209986/priest_in_south_carolinas_judgement.html?cat=49
PETITION!!
This article has a petition in it to try and get their tax exemption status taken away!
It's funny that that priest said that, because back when I was Catholic (I'm not anymore)I had a youth group leader who emphasized that the RCC focused on more than one issue. Sure, they are anti-choice and they still don't allow women into the priesthood, but they do do some good in the world. They're anti-death penalty, against most wars with the exception of those that fit the Just War Theory, and pro-environment. They're all for helping the poor. Why does abortion take precidence? The greater evil was voting for a man who vowed to continue an unjust war.
As a very Catholic latina I think Obama was the "most" christian candidate out there in the true definition of what that means. I will not surrender God to people who as Jesus said "honor me with the words but their hearts are far from me".
I'm coming in somewhat late in the game here.
Growing up I attended a church run by Augustinians (another order like the Jesuits, but way way on the conservative side) and the priest said stuff like this all th time. They never went so far as to explicitly say this, but it was an understanding that voting for a pro-choice candidate is a mortal sin and therefore makes you ineligible for eucharest until you confessed it. (Receiving communion while having a mortal sin unforgiven in confession is like having a gun when robbing a store. You get a harsher punishment for the combined crimes than just the single one.)
Yes, abortion is seen as the worst evil by the official Catholic Church. Yes, priest do say that you should only vote for the pro-life candidates or not at all. Yes, the catholic Church has been harping on this for a while. However, there are a number of orthodox Catholics who believe that the Church should cover more of the "seamless garnment of Christ" issues such as banning the death penalty, going against war, helping the poor, etc.
But abortions such an easy way to get people riled up. It's not ambiguous like the idea of a just war or the death penalty. These are innocent, cute babies, something that is emotional, cuddlable, cute. Not like homeless people. Babies are innocent, which automatically sets up the dichotomy that you only kill people who are guilty.
So yes I do hate the Catholic Church (as a recovering Catholic myself) for making abortion the be-all end-all of Christian politics.