On withholding of communion to Politicians who do not oppose abortion publicly

I posted a comment in HockeyTown4Ever Ramblings which is another good source of news info that the TV News in the US usually doesn't tell you. My comment involved the recent push from Roman Catholic Cardinals and Bishops to withhold communion from Politicians who do not oppose abortion. Keep in mind that I am Pro-Life, and do not support abortion; although, I do not and will not pass judgment on others who have found themselves making such a difficult decision. I am trying to get discussions between Pro-Life and Pro-Choice people on a common solution. More about that later. Here is my comment to the news about Catholic Cardinals and Bishops calling for withholding of communion to Politicians who do not oppose abortion publicly:

As a Pro-Life Catholic I find it morally indefensible that Bishops and Cardinals are denying (or even talking about denying) communion to politicians if they don’t take a public stand against abortion, when these same Cardinals and Bishops are completely ignoring politicians’ stances on other teachings of the Catholic Church. This cherry-picking from the teachings of the Church shows that this is purely political. To clarify: the Catholic Church teaches that capital punishment is murder, also the Pope and the Church hierarchy have repeatedly stated that the Iraq War was not a “just war.” Non-just wars (wars waged which did not need to be waged) are also murder according to Catholic teaching. To be Pro-Life requires that you respect the gift of life given by God and that life must not be taken through murder. So these same Bishops and Cardinals should be refusing communion to politicians who support the death penalty and the Iraq War, but they don’t do they? Catholic teachings come down very hard on Conservative views on the treatment of the poor and minorities, but the Republican Party has been woefully unsupportive of those groups deciding instead to cut funding to those not wealthy enough to be campaign contributors. If you are truly Pro-Life you must be respectful of life from conception to grave. And the Republicans strike out on every step after conception. I have written polite letters to some of these Church leaders asking them why they aren’t for denying communion to politicians who support the death penalty and the Iraq War but they will not respond. One Bishop, Bishop Sheridan of Colorado, has gone so far that he has threatened to withhold communion from lay people who vote for politicians who do not take a public stand against abortion. Exactly how this mind reader is supposed to know how the faithful have voted was not explained. He was hoping that the fear that he might know would be enough to get Catholics to vote Republican. Keep in mind that George W. Bush visited Bob Jones University when he ran for president in 2000. Bob Jones University teaches that the Pope is the Anti-Christ, and Catholics are minions of Satan. That doesn’t seem to prevent these esteemed Church leaders from trying to steer Catholics from voting for Catholic John Kerry and voting instead for Bush who belongs to a group of Evangelical Christians many of whom claim that Catholics are not Christian. (Note: I know a number of people who belong to non-denominational evangelical Churches where this is preached and brochures making baseless claims about Catholics are handed out. I also listen to Christian radio stations in my area where the claim that Catholics are not really Christian and need to be converted from their non-Christian religion is constantly preached.) Also keep in mind that some Bishops and Cardinals hid pedophile priests from the authorities shuffling them from parish to parish without the parishioners knowing about the charges. And now Cardinals and Bishops are cherry-picking from Church teachings in order to tell us how to vote? Their hypocritical behavior is driving American Catholics away from the Church in droves, and Republican Protestants like Bush are laughing up their sleeves. If they don’t wise up to what they are doing they’ll find themselves preaching to empty churches.

I don’t want you to get the impression that I am against Protestants, I am not. There are many areas in which the Catholic Church could learn from Protestants. I am not against the Catholic Church either. It has areas where improvement is needed, but on the whole I am very supportive of the faith in which I was raised. It’s when a few pumped up Church Bureaucrats decide that they can try to use their position in the Church to pressure the faithful on how to vote especially when they ignore other Church teachings which undermine their political positions it makes my blood boil!!!!