Is Kerry unable to attend a Catholic church because

[King Coal]

of his abortion views?

[madrchsod]

1. no

[progressivebydesign]

2. No, of course not. n/t

[flyingfysh]

3. he attends regularly

He attends a small church near his home on Beacon Hill, Boston. It is the Paulist Center, on Park Street. It faces Boston Common, and is just down the street from the State House (the state capitol building).

[King Coal]

6. Thanks for clearing that up.

Here is what a Freeper wrote:

I see that John Kerry is stumping in churches now. Nevermind that he cannot fully participate in the church of his own faith! He will sit next to Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and spew all kinds of " I have faith" rhetoric.... but cannot even walk into a Roman Catholic Church because of his voting record.
That is not walking the walk you talk.

That is talking the talk you talk.

[Doohickie]

10. I think a bishop somewhere said that he would not serve Kerry

which is probably the source of "cannot fully participate" remark.

[Richardson08]

18. why would you believe that

many northeast republicans are pro choice-Ridge,Giuliani,Pataki

[Leilani]

25. He attended Catholic Mass yesterday

& then went to a church with Jackson & Sharpton.

[htuttle]

4. Kerry goes to church regularly

It's Bush that never goes to church.

[Doohickie]

5. Of course not.

But there is some question as to whether he should receive Communion. It is interesting to point out that the Pope served Communion to Italy's leader, an open abortion proponent.

Bottom line is that abortion is largely a non-issue in most people's lives, but the emotional rhetoric surrounding the issue can be used to cleave off factions of voters from one candidate or the other.

[mimitabby]

11. communion

Some clergy have said he would refuse to give him communion, but that's only in their own church

m

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

7. Don't be silly

[soothsayer]

8. They didn't even throw me out for being GAY (reason for annullment)

I'm still scratching my head over that one.

[Warpy]

9. The Pope said a person's political views are no reason to deny

the sacraments. The Pope also said that a candidate must be considered as a whole, that being against abortion by itself was no reason to vote for a politician and being against antiabortion laws was no reason to vote against him.

There were two churchmen who sought to deny Kerry communion, some sack of crap named Sheridan in Colorado Springs who was slapped down by the Archbishop of Denver when church contributions started to dry up around Colorado Springs, and an idiot Cardinal from Nigeria, who's been slapped down by the Pope.

So if some freeptard tells you Kerry's been excomminicated or can't receive communion, tell him the above. Freeptards always get it wrong.

[King Coal]

14. Thanks Warpy.

[IndianaGreen]

15. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's theological guru, disagrees!

Let's clarify the point that Catholics throughout the world have been ignoring the Vatican's edicts on birth control and family planning for years.

Keeping that in mind, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's theological guru, disagrees with your POV! The Vatican's position, while anti-abortion, it makes a distinction between those that vote for a pro-abortion candidate because of his position on abortion, and those that vote for a pro-abortion candidate for reasons other than abortion.

Friday, September 24, 2004
Vatican dismay: Memo on politicians touches a nerve
By John Thavis

When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger sent out a brief memo in June about politicians and Communion, he probably never imagined it would ignite a heated discussion about Catholics and voting.

The document, leaked to an Italian reporter but never officially acknowledged by the Vatican, focused on the grounds for denying Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians.

Almost as an afterthought, it added two sentences about Catholic voters:

First, it said, a Catholic who deliberately voted for a candidate precisely because of the candidate's pro-abortion (or pro-euthanasia) stand would be guilty of "formal cooperation in evil" and should exclude himself from receiving Communion.

Second, when a Catholic does not share a candidate's stand in favor of abortion but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered "remote material cooperation," which is "permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons."

Reaction to those two sentences has been simmering all summer, fueled in part by election-year politics.

http://www.the-tidings.com/2004/0924/vatletter.htm

[Warpy]

21. Right, but even Righteous Ratzinger says it's voluntary

that the church can't deny communion to anyone based on his or her political views. That person "should" voluntarily abstain, just like voluntarily abstaining from sex and birth control and a host of other things most sensible Catholics have been thumbing their noses at for years.

Why these celibate old fools think they have any valid opinion at all on reproductive issues is beyond me. However, even they stopped far short of denial of sacraments or excommunication.

[XNASA]

12. No, What makes you think so?

If all the Catholics who were Pro-Choice fled the Church then there would be 32% fewer Catholics, according to this poll at www.religioustolerance.org

www.religioustolerance.org/rcc_poll.htm

[Parche]

13. views

The right wing morons are trying to Fetus with these lies

[Doohickie]

16. I grew up Catholic

and left not because I have a problem with the Church, but because I found a place that works better for me (Presbyterian Church USA), largely because it was the Church my wife grew up in and we could worship there as a family.

That being said, there are many, many points of dissention with the Catholic Church held by my Catholic friends and family. For instance, when my dad gave me "the talk", he assumed I would have premarital sex and promoted birth control. I knew several girls that had abortions and/or were on the Pill. Several Catholics I know see the Pope as a holy leader, yet still take exception to some of his views.

American Catholics in particular are inclined to take a more "democratic" view toward the Pope- recognizing him as a man that is fallible like the rest of us.

[Virginian]

17. Kerry attends Church, Bush does not attend church.

Tell that to Church goers for Bush.

[The Chronicler]

19. lol no, they can't do that.

Unless he were excommunicated or something.

[aden_nak]

20. No more than Bush because of the Iraqi War (the Pope condemned it).

[Doohickie]

22. The president does not pretend to be Catholic

He is a Methodist, at least in name.

What does the Methodist Church have to say about ol' W?

"President Bush has been most criticized by church leaders for his invasion of Iraq. His “pre-emptive strike” strategy prompted outcry from some bishops, who saw it as a violation of the belief that war should be a last resort. The church’s Book of Discipline calls on United Methodists to “reject war as a usual instrument of national foreign policy and insist that the first moral duty of all nations (be) to resolve by peaceful means every dispute that arises.”"

That was from the UMC website: http://www.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=2&mid=5808

[JohnKleeb]

26. Bush aint Catholic

[alcuno]

23. Priests at mass are not about to start wrestling Catholics to the floor.

I've seen people who aren't even Catholic taking communion at mass in spite of the Church saying they should not. Anyone can "attend" a Catholic mass and Catholics would really frown upon some sort of a litmus test for communion.

Catholics are taught that these are personal decisions between an individual and God. If you think you've commited a sin, you have and if you don't, you haven't. The priests are not the faith police.

[leftofthedial]

24. that's a neocon crock

he is free to attend any catholic church he wishes.

[JohnKleeb]

27. of course not

There are some bishops who want to be able to refuse communion to pro choicers and those who support pro choice candiates but many bishops have argued that there are other issues like poverty, death penalty, war etc that should be a factor not just abortion.