Catholic Bishop: Lawmakers Who Support Abortion Not to Receive Communion
State and federal legislators who are Roman Catholics and support abortion rights can no longer receive communion, Bishop Raymond Burke of the Diocese of La Crosse has ordered.
Priests of parishes where such legislators attend mass must withhold communion from them until they "publicly renounce" their support of abortion rights, Burke said in the decree.
At least one state senator affected by the decree called it contrary to democratic principles.
Get the rest of the story from the Star Tribune (Associated Press).
Matt's Chat
From a religious standpoint, this is the correct move for the bishop. Quite frankly I'm surprised this hasn't happened before. The bishop is responsible for "enforcing" the view of the Church upon the diocese. The lawmakers who will claim that this isn't fair should step away from the Church if they don't believe in those teachings.The only argument that I can come up with that might change my opinion is that if the lawmaker believes in the Church's teachings and says so, but still supports abortion because the public official is representing the interests of a constituency that supports abortion.
Seperation of Church and State isn't an argument here because the Church isn't telling the lawmaker what they have to support. The bishop is saying that if the lawmaker wants to receive Communion, the lawmaker must support the teachings of the Church. It is a Church issue, not a State issue.
Mark's Remarks
One senator said that it is undemocratic....why should the church care about that, as it is supposed to be separate, right? Therefore it can be as undemocratic as it wants, right? I mean, you liberal advocates of baby killing on demand want to throw God out of America, so why shouldn't His representatives throw you out?I admire the bishop who is standing up for his principles. It is about time someone in all organized churches did that. Too many times we in the religious community as far as its leaders of denominations get all fearful we will be labelled as whackjobs or as extremists. Anyone think Christ wasn't labelled an extremist by the Sanhedrin? Isn't that what in part they charged him with being? Therefore, he was willing to stand out for his mission. It is about time that religious leadership did as they claim they are doing and following in Christ's footsteps, and not be afraid of the labels by the liberal self important intelligentsia.
