HEAVY HANDED BISHOPS AND AMERICAN FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE

HEAVY HANDED BISHOPS AND AMERICAN FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE

I had hoped that since we did not have a Catholic running for president this year we would be spared the ugliness of political tyranny by the Bishops in dictating to American Catholics which candidates to vote for as they so blatantly did during Naumann the Kerry vs Bush campaign. Saber rattling threats about denial of communion and what constituted a "good Catholic" influenced the outcome of political races. However, it  appears the “wafer war” has not disappeared. We have the example of registered Republican Kansas Archbishop Joseph Naumann attacking Democrat Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius for vetoing legislation outlawing late term abortions. He has told her she should not receive communion and called upon her for a public confession. That kind of guilt imposition contributed to the second term of George Bush. Playing communion politics is wrong.  There is something very offensive and unAmerican about the church dictating to an elected official how they should carry out their office when they represent all of the citizens of the state both Catholic and not Catholic.

As noted in the National Catholic Reporter (5/30/08) one might challenge the Archbishop to look at his own state and Fort. Leavenworth where the war college is conducted and investigate the roll call of Catholics involved in that activity. The Archbishop is a registered Republican, so what about checking his fellow Republican’s in Congress regarding their stand on the Bush Administration’s approval of torture?

Earlier Catholic League President William Donohue attacked members of Obama’s National Catholic Council as having a disgraceful record on abortion. So it begins again. Right wing evangilicals and conservative Catholics joining a handful of Bishop’s trying to force Catholics to vote for candidates they certify as having passed their test. Bishops telling American voters who are Catholic that it is a  sin to vote for the candidate they have decided is morally unworthy. That kind of guilt imposition contributed to the second term of George Bush. Playing communion politics is not just wrong it's unAmerican. As a Catholic I am more than offended by the conservative Catholics and the handful of bishops who think they have the right to tell us how to vote when their test for a good candidate is so flawed. This small minded group believes that voting for political candidates involves only two issues: abortion and gay marriage. Everything else is secondary.

As Fr. Mike Pfleger has pointed in Call To Action News(April 2008)it is wrong for the Catholic hierarchy to try to force people into a particular way of voting through guilt. Too many Catholics voted for George Bush and other candidates because they were told they were not good Catholics if they voted for anyone not opposed to gay marriage and abortion. As Fr. Pleger says:

“It is important that we remind fellow Catholics that the God we serve is not limited to two issues. It is important that we remind Catholics that the true definition of pro-life and respect of life is much broader than a womb and a clinic. It is that the born child has the health care, home, education, access and opportunity to achieve the full potential that God has called them to…that the God we serve is equally against war, poverty, racism, sexism, hunger, death penalty and all the other sins that are aborting the life potential and dignity of our brothers and sisters.”

Fr. Richard P. McBrien, professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, recently wrote: “The Catholic church surely condemns abortion on moral grounds, but makes no comparable moral judgment about the application of this moral principle in the political order On the contrary, the U.S. Catholic bishops issued as statement: “Catholics in Political life” in 2004 waning against the politicization of the Eucharist.” He points out that overwhelming majority of bishops did not support the position that pro choice politicians should not be allowed to receive communion. The communion wars reduce the political choice to two issues and ignore all the other equally significant issues. As noted by the Reporter, Pope John Paul gave the Eucharist in a private mass to Tony Blair, who was then not only pro choice but an Anglican.

What a narrow minded perspective to see the election of politicians being limited two moral issues to the exclusion of all the other very important issues, including moral ones. I have a great deal of trouble with a registered Republican bishop condemning a Democratic governor elected to represent all the people of the state how they should act politically. Why would voters who are not Catholic ever vote for a Catholic candidate when they see evidence that the candidate would be dictated to by the Bishop? These Catholic leaders do a great deal of harm to our political system by their narrow minded view of national issues.

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