The Hindu : International : New Vatican directive may hit Kerry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 24, 2004

International

International

New Vatican directive may hit Kerry

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 23. A top Vatican Cardinal said on Friday that priests must deny Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians. The Cardinal, however, declined to be drawn into the debate in the United States over the Catholic Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry.

Cardinal Francis Arinze made the comments during a press conference to launch a new Vatican directive clamping down on liturgical abuses in Mass, which bars lay people from giving homilies, non-Catholics from taking Communion and rites of other religions from being introduced in the service.

The document reiterated Church teaching that anyone who is conscious of being in ``grave sin'' must go to confession before taking communion. And it said priests cannot deny Communion to a Catholic unless he or she is prevented from receiving it by Church law.

Cardinal Arinze was asked whether that rule meant that Mr. Kerry should not request or be given Communion. Mr. Kerry says he is personally opposed to abortion, but supports the rights of others to make that choice. He argues that Church doctrine allows Catholics the freedom of conscience to choose that stance.

Cardinal Arinze, a Nigerian whose Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued the document, said the Church's position was clear and that U.S. bishops should decide. When pressed to speak generally about the case of ``unambiguously pro-abortion'' Catholic politicians, the Cardinal concurred the politician ``is not fit'' to receive Communion.

``If they should not receive, then they should not be given,'' he said.

Bishop Raymond Burke, the Archbishop of St. Louis, has said he would refuse to give Mr. Kerry Communion; Mr. Kerry's own Archbishop, Sean O'Malley of Boston, has endorsed that principle without naming the Senator.

The Vatican directive, commissioned by Pope John Paul II, softened a stricter earlier draft that had discouraged the use of altar girls and denounced such practices as applauding and dancing during Mass.

It said, however, that ``shadows are not lacking'' and that the Vatican cannot remain silent about abuses that ``not infrequently plague liturgical celebrations.'' The 71-page document, called an instruction, keyed in on what the Vatican considers such abuses as lay people increasingly taking on the role of priests, even non-Christians ``out of ignorance'' coming forward to take Communion and the introduction into the Mass of books and rites of other religions. It said the use of altar boys was ``laudable'' but repeated Church policy that girls or women may also serve at the altar. It made no specific mention of clapping or ritual dancing during Mass, as the Pope himself has witnessed during his trips to Africa and elsewhere.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International