c. 2004 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Catholic politicians who support abortion rights in three Southeastern states will be barred from Communion until they publicly recant and receive the consent of their bishop, three dioceses said Wednesday (Aug. 4).

In an unprecedented show of solidarity, the bishops of Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., and Charleston, S.C., said unrepentant politicians “are not to be admitted to Holy Communion in any Catholic church within our jurisdictions.”

“A manifest lack of proper disposition for Holy Communion is found to be present in those who consistently support pro-abortion legislation,” the bishops said. “Because support for pro-abortion legislation is gravely sinful, such persons should not be admitted to Holy Communion.”

The directive marked the first time a group of bishops had worked together to sanction politicians. It was also one of the most restrictive, essentially giving a bishop veto power by requiring his “knowledge and consent” in order for politicians to return to the flock.

The three dioceses fall under the administrative oversight of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. In a sign of how the Communion issue has divided the church, two dioceses in the same province _ Raleigh, N.C., and Savannah, Ga. _ chose not to sign the statement.

The bishops of Atlanta, Charlotte and Charleston said rank-and-file priests would not have to make the call on whether to deny Communion. But, Bishop Peter Jugis of Charlotte will rely on parish priests to send him the names of politicians whose public positions do not square with church teaching on abortion.

“The call is not going to be made at the Communion rail,” said David Hains, communications director for the Charlotte diocese. “It will be made by the bishop after a deliberate process.”

Lay Catholics who are not engaged in public life were admonished to only seek Communion “free from mortal sin,” but said politicians, because of the “influence” they hold, would be held to a higher standard.

Bishop Robert Baker of Charleston, in a letter to South Carolina Catholics, said the choice to withhold Communion was his alone. “No one else may make a decision regarding whether or not a person should be admitted to Holy Communion.”

The edict comes during an election year in which Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has drawn scorn from some church leaders over his support of abortion rights.

In May, Archbishop John Donoghue of Atlanta said he would give Kerry Communion only once but would want to see him after Mass in an attempt to change his mind.

“If Sen. Kerry responds that he has not changed, then Archbishop Donoghue would tell him not to come to him for Communion again,” the archdiocese said in a statement issued in May, according to Mary Boyert, the director of pro-life activities.

At their June retreat outside Denver, the nation’s bishops said politicians who support abortion risk being “cooperators with evil” and should be denied public honors by the church. The bishops declined to issue a blanket statement denying them Communion, instead leaving it up to the “different judgments” of individual bishops.

A handful of bishops _ led by Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis and Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb. _ have told Kerry he will be denied Communion in their dioceses, while most have either issued no restrictions or urged dissenting politicians to abstain.

Frances Kissling, president of the grass-roots independent group Catholics for a Free Choice, called the Atlanta ruling one of the most “punitive” policies adopted by the bishops, and was concerned that priests would have to “rat out” members of their churches.

“It sounds to me like there’s a lot of process and none of it is due process,” she said. “It’s turning a pastoral issue into a police matter.”

But abortion foes, who have demanded the bishops take a stronger position against pro-choice politicians, cheered the policy. The American Life League, which ran full-page newspaper ads on Wednesday urging Pope John Paul II to rein in the prelates, said it was “overjoyed” with the statement.

“It is our prayer that the rest of the country’s bishops will join these steadfast shepherds of the church” in enforcing church law that denies Communion to Catholics in “manifest grave sin,” said AAL president Judie Brown.

The decision by the Savannah and Raleigh bishops not to join the statement reflects how radioactive the issue of Catholics in public life has become for the bishops’ conference.

Barbara King, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Savannah, said Bishop Kevin Boland declined to sign the statement, preferring to “take another approach.” He does not have an official policy on whether to deny Communion.

“He just told me that when he gets back (from travel) he would look at the statement again and then decide which path he wants to take,” she said. “But at this time he wants to take his own approach.”

Last month, Bishop F. Joseph Gossman of Raleigh said he would not issue a ban because “no human being can know or judge another’s relationship to God.”

“It is also been the long-standing practice in the church not to make a public judgment about the state of the soul of those who present themselves for Holy Communion,” he said.

DEA/JL END ECKSTROM