Cardinal Says Denying Communion May Hurt

[Khephra]

The head of a U.S. bishops' task force studying Roman Catholics in public life told fellow bishops that withholding Holy Communion from politicians or others could hurt the church in its efforts to stop abortion and euthanasia, according to documents released Wednesday.

But Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the task force leader, and a top Vatican cardinal who advised him, also indicated that the sacrament could be withheld under some circumstances.

snip............

"Disciplinary actions are permitted," McCarrick said. "But they should be applied when efforts at dialogue, persuasion and conversion have been fully exhausted."

McCarrick said keeping the sacrament from defiant Catholic lawmakers could turn Communion into a "partisan political battleground," create a backlash in support of abortion rights and raise concerns about the loyalties of Catholic politicians.

"It could be more difficult for faithful Catholics to serve in public life because they might be seen not as standing up for principle, but as under pressure from the hierarchy," McCarrick said. "We could turn weak leaders who bend to the political winds into people who are perceived as courageous resistors of episcopal authority."

more.............

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-bishops-politics,0,3660262.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

[Catch22Dem]

1. Perhaps it comes from not being catholic,

but who gives a shit? All I hear about is what the church says politicians should do. Fuck them.

[saigon68]

2. No fence sitting here

Tell it like it is

[Catch22Dem]

3. I'm just sick of it

I mean really! It seems like every other day there's an article about how Kerry shouldn't receive communion, or this politician shouldn't receive something, or how our nation is rejecting god, etc, etc, etc... Why the hell is this newsworthy?

[Barkley]

4. Why not deny communion to Catholics who support the death penalty?

Like I've said before:

Even Judas got communion.

[stickdog]

5. I think they need to deny Communion to any man who has ever deposited

his sperm outside his wife's fertile womb or even inside her fertile womb without fervently hoping and praying to impregnate her.

After all, that's what the Church teaches, isn't it?

[struggle4progress]

6. They should deny communion to everybody who voted ...

for any politician who supported the Iraq war! That'll show 'em!

[The Zanti Regent]

7. Pay off the National Debt--TAX ALL CHURCHES

They want to do the Render under Caesar thing, let em pay and play!