Priest says Obama supporters need to repent before taking Communion

And The Rev. Jay Scott Newman also ought to tell his parishioners that if they voted for McCain they should repent before taking holy communion because McCain supports a war in Iraq…a war that has probably taken over 100,000 innocent lives and continues to claim more lives everyday.

The taking of life is never right, but I will saw that more people were murdered in Chicago last month then were killed in the Iraq War.

It speaks about war in the Bible. I'm not saying the Iraq war is justified, but I am saying we need to support it so our soldiers know we are behind them. It however tells us out flat thou shall not kill. It's one of our commandments to live by sent from God Himself.

Norris Hall, Really? Do you still not see the difference between casualties in just war and killing children because they are inconvenient? The Bible notes the substantial difference, the one is tragic and the other is an intrinsic evil. You compare apples and oranges. Does your name "norris hall" mean you are horrified by the shooting there? Why would that bother you and not the dismembering of innocent life that happens 3500 times a day in America?

Here's Fr. Newman's letter;

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
9 November 2008

Dear Friends in Christ,

We the People have spoken, and the 44th President of the United States will be Barack Hussein Obama. This election ends a political process that started two years ago and which has revealed deep and bitter divisions within the United States and also within the Catholic Church in the United States. This division is sometimes called a “Culture War,” by which is meant a heated clash between two radically different and incompatible conceptions of how we should order our common life together, the public life that constitutes civil society. And the chief battleground in this culture war for the past 30 years has been abortion, which one side regards as a murderous abomination that cries out to Heaven for vengeance and the other side regards as a fundamental human right that must be protected in laws enforced by the authority of the state. Between these two visions of the use of lethal violence against the unborn there can be no negotiation or conciliation, and now 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. We must also take note of the fact that this election was effectively decided by the votes of self-described (but not practicing) Catholics, the majority of whom cast their ballots for President-elect Obama.

In response to this, I am obliged by my duty as your shepherd to make two observations:

1. Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits 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.

2. Barack Obama, although we must always and everywhere disagree with him over abortion, has been duly elected the next President of the United States, and after he takes the Oath of Office next January 20th, he will hold legitimate authority in this nation. For this reason, we are obliged by Scriptural precept to pray for him and to cooperate with him whenever conscience does not bind us otherwise. Let us hope and pray that the responsibilities of the presidency and the grace of God will awaken in the conscience of this extraordinarily gifted man an awareness that the unholy slaughter of children in this nation is the greatest threat to the peace and security of the United States and constitutes a clear and present danger to the common good. In the time of President Obama’s service to our country, let us pray for him in the words of a prayer found in the Roman Missal:

God our Father, all earthly powers must serve you. Help our President-elect, Barack Obama, to fulfill his responsibilities worthily and well. By honoring and striving to please you at all times, may he secure peace and freedom for the people entrusted to him. We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

Amen.

Father Newman

Steve -

It is not a just war - it was a premptive illegal war, unlike abortion which is completely legal and protected by the 14th Amendment.

Grow a brain.

It's my understanding of Catholic teaching, based on the 'faith and voting' programs put on by the SF Diocese this year that voting for Obama (or any pro-choice candidate) isn't inherently evil. The Church materials that were handed out explain that as long as someone doesn't vote for a candidate *because* that candidate is pro-choice, but based on other issues (healthcare, economy, war, death penalty, whatever) that does not automatically constitute "material cooperation with intrinsic evil."

You can argue about what issues do or don't outweigh others (and I'm sure you all will), but if we take the pre-election Catholic Church's teaching at face value, voting for Obama doesn't inherently mean someone has sinned, and that they should abstain from communion.

If this story from South Carolina is true, it seems that the Church's pre-election teaching was disingenuous, and that they may have intended all along to admonish anyone who voted for any pro-choice candidate for any reason. Or maybe they changed their minds after the fact, and decided that having voted for any pro-choice candidate at all is a sin. If that's true, it's not altogether surprising, but it may have unfortunate implications for the future.

Just sayin'.

Detroit - illegal war? The vast majority of Congress saw the need for it. Where is abortion in the 14th amendment? Right to Privacy you say? Don't see that there either though I know some do.

Angie - rationalize all you want, the stain of blood is still on your hands.

Detroit -

In the 14th amendment I read the following, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

I don’t know about you, but the last time I checked “Abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, human being”. (So says South Dakota State Government as well as the United States 8th District Court of Appeals).

Sounds like the next logical step is to apply the 14th amendment to the children, therefore we must let them live. Last time I checked when you take away a person’s right to Life, you take away all of their other rights as well.

Does that sound like Equal Protection to you? Or does one person’s “Implied” Right to Privacy more important to another’s Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness, oh and “Privacy”?

What do you say about the Preamble to our Constitution?

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Here is the defintion of Posterity.

Posterity -

Main Entry: pos·ter·i·ty
Pronunciation: \pä-ˈster-ə-tē\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English posterite, from Anglo-French pusterité, from Latin posteritat-, posteritas, from posterus coming after
Date: 14th century
1 : the offspring of one progenitor to the furthest generation
2 : all future generations

Don't get yourself all worked up, Steve. All I'm doing is explaining what I was told *by the diocese* (Travis Benson, to be specific) to be their position on how Catholics should vote. I also simply pointed out that if this story is true, it seems to indicate a change in the Church's position on voting for pro-choice candidates.

If someone else who's pretty well versed in Catholic teaching on voting can show me where I'm missing something, by all means.

Angie,

In response to the statement “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship" that Travis cited, you need some clarity as to what that statement actually says. The Catholic church has not changed its position.

To clarify the possible confusion surrounding the issue of “proportionate” reasons, this appeared in a joint statement from the Catholic bishops of Dallas and Fort-Worth, who declared the following:

“Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, in paragraphs 34‑37, addresses the question of whether it is morally permissible for a Catholic to vote for a candidate who supports an intrinsic evil ‑ even when the voter does not agree with the candidate’s position on that evil. The only moral possibilities for a Catholic to be able to vote in good conscience for a candidate who supports this intrinsic evil are the following:

a. If both candidates running for office support abortion or “abortion rights,” a Catholic would be forced to then look at the other important issues and through their vote try to limit the evil done; or,

b. If another intrinsic evil outweighs the evil of abortion. While this is sound moral reasoning, there are no “truly grave moral” or “proportionate” reasons, singularly or combined, that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year.

To vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or “abortion rights” when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil ‑ and, therefore, morally impermissible.

If you and other churches plan to tell parishioners that they need to repent or pray about the sin they committed by voting for Obama, you should all be ready to lose a lot of your congregations.

I'm sure Jesus would be proud of you shaming those who have came to you or other churches looking for God, just as I'm shue he's been while watching the catholic church pay restitution to the many they abused.

Obama won by a majority, and I'm sure many of those who voted (probably most) are Christians. You evangelicals cornered the market in 2000, but have continued to lose ground. Belittleing and shaming those who look up to you will do little to build your alliance back up.

"Abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, human being"

That is the opinion of one court and state of SD but I can't find it anywhere in our Constitution.

Detroit -

Are you saying that you cannot find the protection of Life anywhere in our constitution?

This may be a news flash, pastor, but most voters are concerned with more than one issue in who they choose to be our president. Whether the president is pro-life or pro-choice makes little difference in the grand scheme, because there is really nothing a president can do about abortion. The only likely influence he'd have is over the supreme court, and would only appoint one or two new justices in eight years. You should worry more about local elections.