Bishop rebukes priest who said Obama voters must go to confession

[Zuni]

http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/DailyNews/todays.asp

STOCKTON, Calif. (CNS) -- A Modesto pastor urged his parishioners to receive the sacrament of penance if they voted for President-elect Barack Obama, who supports legalized abortion, but Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton said the sacrament was not obligatory for Catholics who supported Obama. "Requiring all Catholics who voted for a candidate with a pro-abortion record to go to confession is not in accord with the moral guidelines set out in 'Faithful Citizenship,'" said the bishop, referring to the U.S. bishops' 2007 document on political responsibility. Bishop Blaire, in a statement released Dec. 1, said that "determining the moral culpability of an individual Catholic who votes for a candidate with a pro-abortion record is a very complicated matter." He said that if a Catholic voted for a candidate "with a pro-abortion record with the motivation of supporting that abortion stance, then that is a grave moral matter." The bishop's statement came in response to a Nov. 21 letter sent to parishioners by Father Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Modesto, that urged parishioners to "go to confession before receiving Communion" if they were among "the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion candidate" and had a clear understanding of the candidate's abortion stance.

[rug]

1. Thanks for the followup.

[47of74]

2. Priests like Fr. Illo are indicative of what's wrong with our church today

I feel that Priests like Fr. Illo are indicative of what's wrong with our church today. Clergy of that sort are the reason that I have seriously thought of leaving the Catholic Church and joining another denomination. If anyone should go to confession, it should be him for going at the body of Christ with a hacksaw and trying to divide the church.

[Zuni]

3. I very much disagree with the politicization of Holy Communion

As far as Catholic teaching goes, neither Barack Obama nor John McCain nor really any major American politician meets the standards of the Church on all of the life and social justice issues.
For example, many of the most anti-abortion politicians were enthusiastic supporters of an unjust and aggressive war that has led to great death and destruction, and many of the same are horrible on life and social justice issues involving access to health care and helping the poor and suffering.
And John McCain, well, his stance on abortion is nothing more than possibly appointing an anti-roe judge to the supreme court. But even if Roe is repealed, most states would have legal abortion, including states like California, where almost 1/4 of abortions in the US occur. The fact that voters in South Dakota rejected an anti-abortion ballot measure, in a pretty conservative state, seems to say that politicians who want to reduce abortion rates should work on issues to reduce abortions by providing health care to pregnant women and children (and everyone else, for that matter), to provide tax credits for those who have unplanned pregnancies to look towards adoption, and to provide realistic sex education to teenagers. This is a much more realistic strategy than hoping that by voting for Republicans, eventually all abortion will end.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. Fr. Illo should have said to go to confession before

receiving if you had voted for Obama or McCain or any candidate whose policies were not in agreement with Catholic teaching. Most probably need to go to confession, anyway, how many living saints are there?

[47of74]

5. Quite impressed with Bishop Blaire's handling of the situation

Of course the more Catholic than everyone else part of the church is quite displeased about this, and have been kind of nasty towards the Bishop, as evidenced by the comments in this story.

[Zuni]

6. The Catholic Taliban