Priest: No communion for Obama supporters

Priest says it's because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."

The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.

"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," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein.

 "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 judgement 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."
During the 2008 presidential campaign, many bishops spoke out on abortion more boldly than four years earlier, telling Catholic politicians and voters that the issue should be the most important consideration in setting policy and deciding which candidate to back. A few church leaders said parishioners risked their immortal soul by voting for candidates who support abortion rights.

In their annual fall meeting, the nation's Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights.

Conservative Catholics criticized Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 for supporting abortion rights, with a few Catholic bishops saying Kerry should refrain from receiving Holy Communion because his views were contrary to church teachings.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27705755/

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{ I suppose you could say " Well.....it's just one priest so what's the big deal"? However it's clear that it's more than just one. America's Catholic bishops are going to "confront" the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights which means they are going to meddle in politics on a larger scale. How long will it be before the churches become hotbeds of political proselytizing with the churches hierarchy telling their practitioners exactly who to vote for at the pain of losing their immortal souls?

We either have a separation of Church and State....or we don't

It's time to strip these rogue priests and their churches from their special status and make them pay taxes. If that was done even on a limited scale it might persuade others to be more circumspect and stop meddling in things that are none of their business. If they want to tell their flock they have committed a moral crime and a mortal sin by voting for Obama that's fine....but not on my tax dollar!

It time to tell all the churches that they can't have their cake and eat it to. Don't you think?}