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Extremists Pressure Catholic Bishops to Use Communion as Political Weapon
A radical arm of the pro-life movement attacked the Catholic Church this week. As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) gathered in Orlando for its bi-annual meeting, a group called the "Society for Truth and Justice" launched an ad campaign encouraging the bishops to deny Communion to "pro-abortion politicians," and even to condemn Catholics who vote for those same politicians. Others planned a protest outside the bishops' meeting on Friday.
The far right's attempt to use Catholic teaching to malign progressive candidates and drive wedges between voters is nothing new. In 2004, right wing "Catholic" groups worked hand in hand with the Republican Party on a well-funded and well-organized campaign to cast Kerry as a bad Catholic -- an effort that may in fact have made the difference in Ohio. Contrary to conventional wisdom, only a handful of the hundreds of U.S. Catholic bishops subscribed to this theologically inaccurate mode of political engagement.
The experience of the past eight years should be pushing even the most ardent antiabortion political activists to reconsider the wisdom of the far right's scorched earth strategies. How can they continue to stomach direct threats to human life like torture, poverty, the climate crisis, and lack of healthcare -- never mind the economic disaster of the Iraq War Recession, which bears heavily on the decisions of most women who consider an abortion?
Moreover, America seems ready to unify behind practical and effective ways of addressing the abortion issue that validate the concerns of both the pro-life and pro-choice communities. Indeed, while most Americans do have moral concerns with the practice of abortion, most are also not comfortable with a solution that includes criminalization. But Americans will support expanding economic supports for women and families, which -- as a Catholics United study using data from Kansas shows -- are proven effective ways of lowering the abortion rate. (For more on this, see Wednesday's piece by Cristina Page.)
It's likely that most of the individuals who support the Society for Truth and Justice and its affiliated organization Operation Rescue do so because of profound concern for human life -- and these individuals should be commended for their conviction and dedication. But in continuing to use Catholic teaching to strongarm Catholic leaders and voters into supporting a political agenda largely at odds with the common good, the organizations' leadership is doing little to advance its stated goals. Intervening in yet another presidential election contest risks perpetuating the tired policies of the past, which have, by just about every reasonable measure, proven a disaster for our nation.
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Many commentators do not understand Catholic Teaching or have allowed their hatred of the Catholic Church to prevent them from seeing what is going on here.
First, The Catholic Church defends the Natural Law and the Fifth Commandment "Do not kill." Abortion kills an innocent human being. It is therefore an intrinsic evil. It is always wrong. The Church believes persons engaging in abortion are committing Mortal sin; seperating them from God's grace. Cooperating with the performance of abortions is also considered morally grave action.
This is especially true when Catholic public figures and politicians engage in such actions which convey the thought that abortion is optional rather than intrinsically evil. These actions contradict Church Teaching.
Secondly, the Church believes the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Catholics must receive the Eucharist in the proper disposition; be they Democrats or Republicans. Among other requirements, is that recipients be in communion with all that the Church teaches. To receive Eucharist otherwise is to cause one's own condemation.
Hence to deny one communion, the priest is attempting to keep the unprepared recipient from self condemation and to avoid giving scandal to others.
Hey, I'm all for the Catholic Church sanctioning politicians... 'cause they have one hell of a lot of assets that would be handy to tax. I appreciate the church's surrendering their tax exempt status in the effort to reduce our national debt.
You hit the nail on the head. I makes me crazy that we are the ones paying for the religious beliefs of all the crazies out there. Make them pay taxes like the rest of us and see where they turn. I can not tell you how many times a religious leader in our community has come into our business expecting free products because he is a " man of god". It is extortion! The law is that no church should receive tax exempt statis if they try to coerce people into voting a certain way.
I am delighted to see the Catholic Church cement its alliance with the far right. A religion that conveniently ignores many older, wiser, and intellectually honest tenets of belief (Augustine's teachings on Just War, anyone?) to focus on abortion and use it as a political cudgel will undermine its own credibility and find itself reduced to the status of a cult.
See Chris Korzen's Profile
That's definitely the conventional wisdom, emjay. However, I think the Church institution has done a great job pursuing a consistent ethic of life message in recent years. It's taken the lead on fighting for just comprehensive immigration policy, worked to end global poverty, and even started an anti-global climate change campaign. It's also been quite outspoken on the war (Pope Benedict has questioned whether we can even have a 'just' war given the destructiveness of modern weapons), and the U.S. Catholic Bishops have been supportive of practical common ground means of addressing the abortion debate that move beyond using the issue as a political wedge.
What the Church hasn't always done a great job of is getting this message to the market. Couple that with millions of dollars flowing into partisan far right "Catholic" groups, and a lazy mainstream media, and we get the present skewed perception of what it means to be a faithful politically engaged Catholic. Catholics United and a host of other organizations are working to change that perception.
Thanks for your comments.
As a Pro-Choice Catholic, I find the idea of denying people like myself Communion in direct opposition to the entire point behind Communion. Communion and Confession in Catholicism are the two pathways fro sinners to seek redemption and forgiveness before God. If the Catholic Church feels that people such as myself are sinning in our position concerning abortion, I would think that it would be better for them to be encouraging Communion and praying for our wayward souls. But, as is well known, the hypocrisies of the Roman Church know no bounds, I accept this and do not denounce it, I just wish it could be more reasonable
They pulled this crap in 2004. Our archbishop sent out a letter saying that to vote for a pro-choice candidate was a sin. This upset me because I was against the Iraq war from the start, and so was Pope John Paul II, yet Catholics were voting for Bush who was, in my mind, the man who lied to provoke us into invading a soveriegn nation that was no imminent threat to the USA...this made Bush a war criminal as far as I was concerned. So I get this letter from the archbishop telling me I should vote for this war criminal with the blood of thousands on his hands instead of John Kerry simply because John Kerry was pro-choice! I have not been to church since then, and you know what? I don't miss it at all. Upon reflection, it is religion, after all, that exists at the heart of these wars and many of the wars in the past. Religious fundamentalism, be it Islamic or Christian or Jewish or Hindu, is destructive, causes and promotes wars, and has become a plague on mankind.
My understanding of the Church teaching on voting for or against a politician who supports policies at odds with the voter's faith is that they can only refuse Communion in cases where the voter actually chooses to vote for the candidate specifically because they support the policy in question. That is to say, if you vote for someone who is pro-choice purely on the basis of that fact. Most people don't choose a candidate based on a single issue, and I suspect that most Catholics are like most Americans in that they support a public policy towards abortion that seeks to reduce the number of abortions that take place through fundamentally changing the circumstances in our society that lead women to situations that require they face such a dilemma. But is is up to the priest and I'd say that the vast majority of priests would not refuse Communion on such a basis. I'm am sadened as a Catholic to hear that anyone has been refused Communion, and I am very sorry to hear that happened to you.
BTW - per Rick O's question - Catholics believe that the bread and wine are literally transformed into the flesh ("body") and blood of Christ on the alter, truly present in every way except to the human senses unlike Protestants who believe in a "symbolic" presence. Whether you are a believer or not, it is important to understanding the debate.
My mother is a very staunch Catholic and voted for Bush for the very reason that he was anit-abortion and the Catholic church "advised" which candidates were most in line with the church's teachings. My mother sees nothing wrong in denying someone communion because they vote for Obama. I tried to point out to her that this is very short sighted and does not take into consideration the other issues that are equally of concern when it comes to respect for human life. I strongly believe compromise is the only way we will reduce abortion rates and criminalizing it will not help. Hasn't helped with our fight against drugs use, has it?
Agreed - not to mention that a "pro-choice" position does not equate to support for abortion in any way. I feel that a Catholic can be pro-choice and personally opposed to the concept of abortion in general. They are not mutually exclusive as the right wingers would like everyone to believe. It is a matter of what means you advocate to achieving a world in which abortion is less necessary a consideration in any woman's life altogehter. I don't believe that criminalizing abortion will achieve that - in fact, I think it has been shown to make matters even worse. That's just my personal view for what it is worth, and I truly wish that choice on nobody but believe the only person able to make the terrible decision is the woman herself - it's between her and God, and denying Communon to someone faced with such a horrible situation just makes their lives worse and more hopeless. It's cruel to do that to someone who needs the support of her faith, and it si cruel to deny Communion to Catholics who truly are struggling to make a decision that is morally right but believe in their hearts that criminalization would not square with their own faith which at its crux is supportive of the Church's core teaching on the matter.
Maybe Hitchens or some other atheist will do a blog on this. I'll say no more for former RC's often are the most vicious critics of the RC church. I'm a former RC. Besides HP limits comments to 250 words, monitors comments, enforces the stds they outline in FAQ's, today is Fri the 13th & there are more than enough users of HP who are going to make restrained, fair, objective comments on this blog. I'm waiting for Hitchens to blog on this.
larry lynch
When the Pope visited the US recently, Catholic politicians were not refused communion at his mass in Washington, DC. I think the church will either have to put up or tell these extremist groups to shut up.
Worthiness to receive communion is based on the individual's assessment and the vast majority of priests would not refuse the host regardless of who the sinner, repentant or not, might be.
Good. But don't stop with Roman Catholics. Get 'em all to do it. The more they marginalize themselves, the better. So far they're doing a bang-up job of it.
Isn't this interfering in a national election? It's against our constitution....it's just.....all wrong
When Al Smith ran for President, a major reason he lost was that many Protestants feared the the US would be run from Rome--that's what their ministers told them. The same fears, stirred by the same ministers, came very near to defeating JFK. In both cases, the American Catholic Church emphasized its acceptance of the Constitutional separation of Church & State. They condemned the Protestant churches for refusing to accept it and made sure to maintain a strictly hands-off approach to American politics. Now that the national prejudice against Catholics has diminished (not disappeared, of course, v. Hagee) so that being Catholic doesn't damage their political power, they want to do exactly what they once condemned. Maybe the Protestants were right about "Rome Rule."
ANY church that seeks to damage or promote a candidate should lose its tax-empt status retroactively to the start of their political activism. That is the law, and no megachurch, no sect, and certainly not the church of diddling little boys should be spared.
Amen!
Amen with bells on it.
Mighty picky about who's allowed to partake in ritual cannibalism aren't they?
That's not really necessary is it?
Movements become businesses, then rackets. Catholic Church is a prime example. Would Jesus walk around in all the hoo-haw the Pope does? Or live in a palace? It's all a load of crap.
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