Kerry Rejects Catholic Bishops Request, Receives Communion

Instead of getting angry at Sen. John Kerry’s intransigence, we should calmly write our Catholic bishops as to whether this practice is acceptable in their diocese. Then follow up with the Vatican.

Rejecting the admonitions of several national Roman Catholic leaders, Senator John Kerry received communion at Easter services today at the Paulist Center here, a kind of New Age church that describes itself as “a worship community of Christians in the Roman Catholic tradition” and that attracts people drawn to its dedication to “family religious education and social justice.”

Mr. Kerry’s decision to receive communion represented a challenge to several prominent Catholic bishops, who have become increasingly exasperated with politicians who are Catholic but who deviate from Catholic teaching.

What bothers me is that there are some Catholic prelates who still seem to be making up their minds on the issue. Archbishop Theodore McCarrick seems to be one of these bishops:

WALLACE: But this year, John Kerry faces a different challenge; not to show he’s a good American, but a good Catholic. Kerry favors stem cell research and the right to abortion, both contrary to church teachings.

Cardinal McCarrick is head of a task force of Catholic bishops that’s now studying how to deal with politicians who defy church doctrine.

Should a Catholic politician follow the teachings of the church?

MCCARRICK: Well, as a Catholic, he certainly should follow the teachings of the church. The teachings of the church sometimes give the impression that they don’t come from God. We believe that what we proclaim is what the gospel proclaims.

WALLACE: Some church officials are critical of Senator Kerry because of his stands on abortion and stem cell research. Is that fair?

MCCARRICK: It’s fair that some bishops are critical of him, because each bishop makes his own decision. Certainly, I think we all would be critical of anyone who did not agree with us.

WALLACE: Which puts Kerry and his church on a possible collision course. Some Catholic leaders have suggested denying communion to politicians who don’t obey their church.

At least one archbishop has said that he would not like to see Senator Kerry take communion there in St. Louis. How do you feel about that?

MCCARRICK: I think every archbishop has the right to make his decision in his own area.

I think that there are many of us who would feel that there are certain restrictions that’s we might put on people, that there are certain sanctions that we may put on people. But I think many of us would not like to use the Eucharist as part of the sanction.

WALLACE: Would you, if Senator Kerry were at mass that you were…

MCCARRICK: I think I would want to get to talk to him, get to see him and get to understand him before I would make a decision like that.

If a man said to me, “I don’t believe in Jesus Christ, I don’t believe in the church, I don’t believe in holy communion,” and then comes up to me, I wouldn’t give him communion.

WALLACE: But what if he said, “I disagree with the church’s position on abortion and stem cell research”?

MCCARRICK: Well, I’d have to know exactly what his disagreement is all about.

WALLACE: So you’re saying it’s an issue?

MCCARRICK: Oh, I’m saying it’s an issue, yes. These things (inaudible) because this is the teaching of the church. So it has to be an issue. (emphasis mine)

Here’s the problem. There should be no problem on the part of His Excellency in denying Kerry the Eucharist, because Kerry clearly has no problem denying basic Catholic teaching on abortion, stem cell research, and in recent comments the nature of dissent.

Furthermore, Pope John Paul II has made if explicitly clear that Catholic politicians are to either practice their faith and live Christian lives or cease calling themselves Catholic. Kerry is specifically rejecting this, claiming that he can have his cake and eat it too.

Faithful Catholics should write their bishops directly and ask them whether Pope John Paul II is an authority on such issues concerning the faithfulness of the Catholic flock and furthermore, whether or not John Kerry’s defiance demonstrates “communion” with the Catholic Faith.