Update:Catholic politicians face US church ban over abortion laws

[emad]

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday May 21, 2004
The Guardian

<snip>

America's Catholic church yesterday faced the prospect of a backlash from its congregations against a campaign by hardline bishops to deny the sacrament to politicians who support abortion rights.

In a letter to Washington's Cardinal Theodore McCarrick published yesterday, 48 Catholic Democrats in the House of Representatives, chastised church leaders for seeking to punish politicians who support abortion rights and stem cell research.

"As Catholics, we do not believe it is our role to legislate the teachings of the Catholic church," the letter said. "Because we represent all of our constituents, we must, at times, separate our public actions from our personal beliefs."

It also warned that the church risked provoking anti-Catholic bigotry by creating the perception that its clerics were playing politics.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1221524,00.html

[Loonman]

1. This is asinine

Didn't JFKennedy get a hard time for being "too Catholic"?

If the Church wants to get into politics, they can start paying taxes like everyone else.

[DaveSZ]

2. Exactly

Also Kerry's first Executive Order once in office should be to remove tax exempt status from Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.

[emad]

7. They should start by trying to get legit in the first place: Vatican

is classified by the UN Security Council as an illegitimate state.

Church did a deal with Mussolini to exempt it from taxes, prosecutions and immunity from all Italian state laws, and continued to squat in that part of Rome rent-free until challenged in 1983 with a sub-poena for the arrest of Cardinal Marcinkus for the Banco Ambrosiano scam. Marcinkus subsequently given immunity from prosecution by Poppy.

The current murder trial of God's Banker Roberto Calvi in Italy is examining all the reasons for Poppy's immunity deal.

No wonder they are squeaking in the US....

[noonwitch]

3. Are just pro-choice dems still being singled out?

Or will the groper, Rudy, and the moderate GOPigs also be denied communion. Hell, Rudy's also an adulterer, by their rules.

[Jivenwail]

4. This is why I left the church

Because of the hypocrisy. I was raised a Catholic in a very closely knit Italian family. I remember the respect I had for the church growing up and it was always a big part of our lives.

However, when I was in college, I realized that I could no more follow the teachings of a church that told me I could not practice birth control or have complete choice over my decisions in regard to that.

If the church sees fit to "ban" communion for politicians or parishioners that believe in abortion, then they must do the same for adulterers and those that believe in the death penalty. Where will it end? And most of all, where is the separation of church and state?

[dsc]

5. Rudy is an adulterer by anyone's rules

He started sleeping with his current wife while married to his last wife.

[randr]

6. I guess capitol punishment just doesn't

have the same sex appeal for these pervs.
If all the members of the various religions were punished for not following the edicts of their Sheppard's, we would be living the inquisition all over again. Not a bad idea if they kept it to themselves!
The Methodist church, that *ush once claimed membership in, has a position against capitol punishment. We should be calling on them to either shit or get off the pot.
Lets get on with the neo-inquisition!

[emad]

8. More from the Independent: "Kerry hit by new threat in row..."

Kerry hit by new threat in abortion row with bishops
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
21 May 2004

<snip>

John Kerry's support of abortion rights has dragged the Democratic candidate into an increasingly politicised feud within the Roman Catholic church, with some senior church figures demanding that priests deny communion to him and all other pro-abortion Catholics.

Yesterday, 48 Democratic members of Congress who are Catholics wrote to the Archbishop of Washington DC, complaining that the threats by bishops to withhold communion were counterproductive, and dragging the church into a political quagmire.

The debate threatens to re-open tensions that appeared to have been laid to rest when John F Kennedy won the 1960 election to become the first Catholic president in US history. But that victory was secured only after Mr Kennedy publicly declared his allegiance lay to the US and its constitution, not to a foreign-based church.

Now, 44 years later, another Massachusetts senator with the initials JFK must cope with a similar problem, except that this time the impetus has come not from a sceptical population but from arch-conservatives in the church, egged on by the potent and vociferous anti-abortion movement.
More:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=523320

[cap]

9. the reason there are pro-choice Catholic Democrats is that...

66% of Catholics support abortion and 88% use contraception. They reflect the laity. This is very stupid for the hierarchy to get involved in. I have stopped contributing to the Church until the election is over.

[outinforce]

10. Separation? Church and State? Hello?

What ever happened to the separation between Church and State?

Is no one else bothered by the fact that 48 members of Congress have written to a Cardinal of the RC Church telling him what he should do?

Or, if not telling him what he should do, "chastising" him?

Government just should not do that, in my view.