Several news outlets are reporting on Rev. Jay Scott Newman of St. Mary's in Greenville, South Carolina for proclaiming that parishioners who voted for Obama should refrain from Communion until they have made confession. His argument is that voting for a radical pro-abortion candidate when a plausible pro-life candidate is available constitutes an intrinsic evil.
But depending on where you read the story, you get a very different sense of what Father Newman's proclamation means (that's perhaps the most obvious statement I've written all week...).
If you read the Breitbart AP version, you get this:
But bishops differ on whether Catholic lawmakers—and voters—should refrain from receiving Communion if they diverge from church teaching on abortion. Each bishop sets policy in his own diocese. (emphasis mine)
And this:
a few Catholic bishops saying Kerry should refrain from receiving Holy Communion because his views were contrary to church teachings. (emphasis mine)
And this:
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said she had not heard of other churches taking this position in reaction to Obama's win. (emphasis still mine)
And, finally, this:
"Father Newman is off-base," said Steve Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats. "He is acting beyond the authority of a parish priest to say what he did. ... Unfortunately, he is doing so in a manner that will be of great cost to those parishioners who did vote for Sens. Obama and Biden. There will be a spiritual cost to them for his words." (I own the emphasis)
It all adds up to make it sound as if Father Newman is a wild-eyed extremist priest who has gone rogue, as if he is acting without Church approval like a religious dissenter.
If you read the LifeNews version of the story, though, you get this little nugget:
Stephen Gajdosik, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, told the newspaper that Newman's actions are within Catholic Church guidelines. he said local priests can best determine how to encourage their member's relationship with God.
The AP piece goes to great lengths to get quotes and opinions from a wide range of people...but never bothered to call up the priest's own diocese to find out whether or not he was in trouble (which, evidently, he is not)? I will concede that the AP version ends with one of the parish's lectors saying he is cool with the situation, and that he can't understand how someone can vote in favor of murdering babies and call themselves Catholics. Still, having the only really positive voice in the article come from a single parish volunteer doesn't do much to show that Father Newman is in his rights...it only shows him appealing to what might be a fringe base by using methods that were previously described as beyond his authority. After considering the statement by the Diocese in the LifeNews piece, it looks like the AP, and apparently Kreuger's group for Catholic Democrats, don't seem to understand how the Church works. Hardly surprising.
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