Charleston, S.C., Nov 14, 2008 / 23:16 pm
The Diocese of Charleston is distancing itself from the actions of a Catholic priest in Greenville, South Carolina, who made remarks in a letter to parishioners suggesting that those who voted for Barack Obama should not receive Holy Communion until they go to Confession.
Monsignor Martin T. Laughlin, Administrator of the Diocese of Charleston, said on Friday afternoon that the Catholic Church’s “clear, moral teaching on the evil of abortion” has been “pulled into the partisan political arena” by the priest’s letter which was posted on the web site of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville.
Writing in his November 9 letter, Father Jay Scott Newman said that the election has revealed “deep and bitter divisions within the United States and also within the Catholic Church in the United States.” Saying the divisions can be compared to a “culture war,” he named abortion as the “central battleground” of the conflict.
In the priest’s description of the abortion debate, one side regards abortion as “a murderous abomination that cries out to Heaven for vengeance” while the other regards it as “a fundamental human right that must be protected in laws enforced by the authority of the state.”