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Priest says 'no Communion' for Barack Obama supporters

Saturday, 15 November 2008

A 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, South Carolina 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 the president-elect by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama.

"Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists 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 presidential campaign, many Catholic bishops spoke out on abortion, telling politicians and voters that the issue should be the most important consideration in deciding which candidate to back.

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 last Tuesday, the nation's Catholic bishops vowed to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights.

According to national exit polls, 54 percent of Catholics chose Obama, who is Protestant. In South Carolina, which McCain carried, voters in Greenville County — traditionally seen as among the state's most conservative areas — went 61 percent for the Republican, and 37 percent for Obama.

"It was not an attempt to make a partisan point," said Rev. Newman. "In fact, in this election, for the sake of argument, if the Republican candidate had been pro-abortion, and the Democratic candidate had been pro-life, everything that I wrote would have been exactly the same."

Conservative Catholics criticized Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 for supporting abortion rights, with a few Catholic bishops saying Kerry should refrain from receiving Holy Communion because his views were contrary to church teachings.

A Boston-based group that supports Catholic Democrats questioned the move, saying it was too extreme.

"Father Newman is off base," said Steve Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats. "He is acting beyond the authority of a parish priest to say what he did. ... Unfortunately, he is doing so in a manner that will be of great cost to those parishioners who did vote for Sens. Obama and Biden. There will be a spiritual cost to them for his words."

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Rev Newman is exercising his constitutional right to free speech as an individual citizen of the United States. Endowed by his Creator with free will, the Rev uses that free will to stand up and defend what is right, rather than to seek approval and claim "enlightenment" by pretending that evil is really virtue.

Sometimes the truth isn't what we want to hear, but it's still the truth. Sorry Rev Newman defied the Obamatron, pseudo-intellectual Kool-Aid party mantra which states: If it feels good do it, and then claim superiority and sainthood...and of course, demonize and marginalize anyone who tells the truth.

God bless the Rev.

Posted by Lorraine | 23.11.08, 18:25 GMT

I think people should try to keep the focus on the individual, and not the church. Protestant religious figureheads have been repsonsible for more cases of pedophilia and child abuse in the past twenty years than the Catholic church.

Father Newman is not a spokesman for the Catholic church, but his only for his own personal set of morals.

"Kettle and pot" conclusions are made only to polarize, not to state the obvious.

Posted by Scott Richards | 17.11.08, 22:40 GMT

That's rich, coming from a Catholic Priest. Doesn't he know that his hierarchy has concealed paedophiles and child abusers for years? Kettle and pot spring to mind.

Posted by Freddy | 16.11.08, 21:31 GMT

I think people in positions of authority need to quit giving their political viewpoints to others. Let everyone make up their own minds. Obama is for a woman to have the right to choose. if a woman decides to have an abortion, that is not Obama's fault. Roe vs Wade says she has that right.

Posted by Denise | 16.11.08, 16:00 GMT

Are you saying that Americans vote OBAMA, because, he did not totally condamn abortion? ? ? ? ? ?

What about the other american challenge?

Instead of attacking OBAMA, don't you think that a continuous sensibilization of the government, the pressure on the government to fight against abortion and mobilization?

They are so many others prohibited things that everybody is still doing every day without being seen.

It rather looks like you are attaking OBAMA just for him on behalf of American catholic.

It rather look like using our church to solve a hidden racial problem.

In this particular case you have already done what you can before the vote.
I am convainced that the racism is also killing many people and a killing is killing no matter how.

So, please let each christian faces his/her action in front of the Almighty God with going in a vote case.
PLEASE DO NOT REPLACE GOD.

A bon entendeur Salut.

Posted by Lucia | 16.11.08, 09:17 GMT

Just WHO does this Rev. Jay Scott Newman think he is DICTATING who should and should NOT get communion? If I was a member of his church and had voted for Obama I would seriously be considering leaving his church if not his faith.

Posted by B. Kerr | 15.11.08, 21:23 GMT

Who cares? Obama is a Protestant, McCain is a Protestant, and a Catholic priest had a problem with Obama voters because of abortion? He should've had a problem with people voting for McCain because of racism.

People in South Carolina could care less about Obama's abortion stance. South Carolina has always been one of the most bigoted states in the union (starting the Civil War, waiting until 2000 to remove the Confederate battle flag from the capital dome, moving it to the Soldier's statue next to the dome where it currently resides, etc.), and wasn't voting for a black man under the pain of death.

It would be interesting to see a poll of white voters that voted for Obama in South Carolina. They probably could've been counted on one hand.

Posted by Scott Richards | 15.11.08, 19:17 GMT