Posted on 11/13/2008 4:43:36 PM PST by upchuck
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - 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 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.
"Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."
During the 2008 campaign, many bishops spoke out on abortion more boldly than four years earlier, telling Catholic politicians and voters that the issue should be the most important consideration in setting policy and deciding which candidate to back. A few church leaders said parishioners risked their immortal soul by voting for candidates who support abortion rights.
But bishops differ on whether Catholic lawmakers—and voters—should refrain from receiving Communion if they diverge from church teaching on abortion. Each bishop sets policy in his own diocese. In their annual fall meeting, the nation's Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
We will suffer together. It has gone on long enough. Little pain compared to what the little ones have gone through.
My pastor until I moved from SC. Fearless and smart as a whip.
If you’re a Catholic, you know that most priests are pretty lame homilists - if you get a good sermon, it’s the exception, not the rule. You just don’t generally get the lively, fiery preaching you see in a lot of Protestant churches.
Newman didn’t have a Billy Graham style, but he was an excellent public speaker, and his sermons were always well-thought-out and very incisive. And amazingly enough - given his background - very old school Roman Catholic - you would have thought he was a pre-Vatican II Catholic.
In fact, Newman grew up in a conventional Southern Protestant household (I’ve forgotten the denomination), became an atheist in high school, went to an Ivy League school (Princeton?), and in college returned to Christianity as an orthodox Catholic.
Having lived a good portion of my life in the heart of the Southern Baptist Bible belt, I have no doubt that those Southern Protestants who’ve made the move to Rome have been a real benefit to the Catholic Church - Newman’s a prime example. And I have nothing but admiration for those Protestants who’ve made common cause with Catholics against the corrosive secular influences eating away at our culture, abortion being the worst.
We must obey the law of God before the law of man. Simple as that.
Some of the strongest Catholics I know are those who have come from other faiths.
He must endeavor to get it through to their thick skulls why a Christian can never support the culture of death. That there are no “proportionate” reasons to make voting for a pro-abort acceptable.
There are NO collection of positive attributes that outweigh being a supporter and promoter of genocide, which is what the abortionists are guilty of--genocide.
He also has to be prepared to loose half his flock or more.
Sadly most bishops would stop him.
Pro-Life PING
Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
Awesome. I hope he is ready for the firestorm to follow and doesn’t back down.
Wow I know many people think the Catholic Church is too powerful but even I never suspected they knew who one voted for.
I want to move to SC. I want to leave this putrid blue state and wishy washy Catholics that live here.
LOL! I know quite a few lay Catholics who have incredible mind-reading powers, so I figured anything was possible at the priest and bishop levels!
He won’t cave, and his fellow pastors are just as tough as he is.
The biblical writing is on the wall, and they know it. They will do what is necessary.
His replacement will cave. This is what the church has done historically and it isn’t going to change now. Sorry. Too many cafeteria Catholics with too much money disagree for the church to make a firm stand. Imagine the US Catholic Church with 25% of the current membership or less. That is what is at stake. The church will flinch at dumping the majority of US Catholics, and the majority of US Catholics are not in agreement with the Holy See. Like it or not.
I agree, but better late than never.
And I’m not bullshitting.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/04/03/pope.poll/index.html
My thoughts too...along with alot of other groups of people!
This should not be unusual. I think it is, but it shouldn’t be. In our church, for example, the priest rarely mentions abortion, though we often hear him lament about war and urge us to pray for peace.
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