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Priests Should Refuse Communion to Kerry, Leading Catholic Says
EFLSen. John Kerryâs defiance of his Churchâs 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 nationâs leading intellectual Catholic journal. 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 Americaâs individual bishops, including his own. "Itâs in the hands of his ordinary [bishop] - and when his ordinary has spoken and said that politicians should refrain from communion, heâs alluding to the fact that someone like Sen. Kerry should not consider themselves part of the Catholic community." 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. 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 Kerryâs home archdiocese, without mentioning him by name, Boston Archbishop Sean OâMalley has said that Catholic politicians who do not vote in line with Church teachings "shouldnât dare come to Communion." Guess he wont be attending mass in those places... Commenting on Archbishop Burkeâs instruction to Kerry, Hudson noted that Kerry avoided the confrontation by visiting a black Baptist Church when he was there recently. And we thought he was visiting his homies.... Iâm so disappointed :^( "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 Churchâs central moral and social teachings. 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 youâve got a story thatâll last for weeks." But Hudson told NewsMax.com he doubted that will happen. "They [Kerryâs staff] are checking it very carefully, everywhere he goes to Mass. Time on Monday quoted a Vatican official, who is American, as saying: "People in Rome are becoming more and more aware that thereâs a problem with John Kerry, and a potential scandal with his apparent profession of his Catholic faith and some of his stances, particularly abortion." But of course they wonât actually do anything about it. 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 You misspelled âPretendingâ again John..... He insists he will continue to attend Mass and take Communion. Unless he would be refused then heâll pretend he is part of a black church..... 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. Proof that John Kerry is a liar.... Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-04-01 |
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