Obama and Catholicism: Still Incompatible?
Most of the sources I cite as inspiration for this column come from a handful of websites. This one, however, came to me quite organically as an American friend was lamenting on Twitter how she felt:
I’m seriously so sick over that. That one article could reach people all over the world who think that ALL catholics agree with that bullshit and I just don’t. And the church wonders why so many people hate catholics??
(The more astute of you will realise this was more than 140 characters and actually is the combination of two separate tweets.)
While clearly a lot of people felt deeply engaged in the political process for the recent US Presidential elections, I was astonished to discover some Catholics who felt deeply anguished when presented with the apparent dilemma of McCain versus Obama. For the most part it seemed they felt war was a sin and expected McCain as president would lead to a continuance of war; yet there was an uneasy feeling that when it came to abortion Obama was at best Pro-Choice and perhaps, at worst, Pro-Abortion.
According to Boston.com:
The pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church in Greenville, SC, is urging parishioners who voted for Barack Obama not to present themselves for Communion unless they go to confession first because they have cooperated with “intrinsic evil” by voting for a candidate who supports abortion rights over a candidate who does not. The Rev. Jay Scott Newman told the Greenville News that he doesn’t intend to deny anyone Communion, but made it clear that his view is that Obama voters should not present themselves without seeking penance first “lest they eat and drink their own condemnation.”
The Boston.com article goes on to quote a letter penned by Newman originally posted on the parish website explaining his rationale. In this letter he makes two observations, so I feel it is only appropriate that I do the same.
Firstly – and this should be a ‘no brainer’ – Barack Obama was voted in as America’s next president. According to US Census information in 2001, 50,873 members of the Adult Population (207,980) identified themselves as being ‘Catholic.’ That’s a pretty sizable chunk of the population. I put to you that a lot of Catholics must’ve voted for Obama. Whether they felt conflicted like the woman described in an earlier version of this column but voted for him anyway, or whether they didn’t share the opinions of Newman is difficult to determine. However, anecdotally, through my own interactions with Catholic Americans – as well as many of the comments on the Boston.com article – I am inclined to think there must be a considerable quantity who fall in to the latter category.
Secondly, all references to the remarks about Obama on the Saint Mary’s Catholic Church website have been removed. All the links to the site from the Boston.com article produce “Page Not Found” errors. Eventually I found a page titled To Those Responding to the AP Story. It contained only one line:
Please see the website of the Diocese of Charleston at
www.catholic-doc.org
And this, dear readers, is where it gets really interesting! Whether or not the opinion was shared by voters, it doesn’t appear to have gone down well with Church hierarchy. Monsignor Martin T. Laughlin, Administrator of the Diocese of Charleston, has gone into damage control. In his statement, he explains:
As Administrator of the Diocese of Charleston, let me state with clarity that Father Newman’s statements do not adequately reflect the Catholic Church’s teachings. Any comments or statements to the contrary are repudiated.
[...]
Christ gives us freedom to explore our own conscience and to make our own decisions while adhering to the law of God and the teachings of the faith. Therefore, if a person has formed his or her conscience well, he or she should not be denied Communion, nor be told to go to confession before receiving Communion.
Perhaps Newman needs to reacquaint himself with that dubious publication the Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics.
In Other News…
According to Physorg.com:
Pope Benedict XVI called on the scientific community Friday to find a new consensus for determining when someone’s life ends that takes into account technological advances.
Now many people will insist there are very important reasons relating to moral issues such as ‘when a coma patient is actually dead’ and things like organ transplants. However I prefer to think it is motivated by the wonderful Weekend At Bernies type performances Pope John Paul II used to pull…
Happy Sunday!
I think one of the more interesting fallout pieces from this election will be the investigations into Churches that have violated the stipulations of their 501C3 status. While I certainly understand that an individual may vote according to their religious beliefs, the statutes are pretty clear on what Churches can and cannot do regarding their tax status.