Fr. Jay Scott Newman of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina has company.
Another Catholic priest has called for Barack Obama voters to go to confession.
Like Fr. Newman, Fr. Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto, California, is telling his parishioners they should receive the sacrament of reconciliation before receiving Holy Communion.
MODESTO (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest has told parishioners they should confess if they voted for Barack Obama because the president-elect supports abortion.
The Rev. Joseph Illo says his parishioners at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto shouldn't risk losing their "state of grace" by receiving communion sacrilegiously. He delivered the message in a Nov. 21 letter and during mass.
In an interview this week with the Modesto Bee, Illo says he sent the letter because Catholic teaching requires that people go to confession when they commit a mortal sin.
During the 2008 campaign, many bishops told Catholic politicians and voters that abortion should be the most important consideration in deciding which candidate to back.
So, Fr. Illo says that casting a vote for Barack Obama and other pro-abortion candidates was possibly a mortal sin.
I don't recall this happening before.
It's certainly not something that occurs in all parishes. I've NEVER heard a priest at a Mass I attended tell members of the congregation that they should not receive Holy Communion until they confess for voting for a pro-abortion candidate.
Does this mean that any Catholic who ever voted for a pro-abortion candidate, dating back to 1973 and Roe v. Wade, may have committed a mortal sin?
If that's the case, I think a lot of Catholics have received Holy Communion "sacrilegiously."
Here's an excerpt from Fr. Illo's letter to his parishioners:
If you voted for a pro-abortion candidate, I cannot say for certain if you should refrain from Holy Communion. I don't know what you were thinking. But voting for a candidate who promises "abortion rights," even if he promises every other good thing, is voting for abortion. It is a grave mistake, and probably a grave sin. No issue can compare with the legalized destruction of a mother's child. I am writing to you because I love you and I care about your relationship with God. I am also writing because God requires this of me as a Catholic priest...
My parish priest has not issued such a letter nor has he said anything remotely like this at Mass.
Maybe my priest voted for Obama. I doubt it, but I wouldn't know.
I'm certain that Fr. Michael Pfleger voted for Obama.
3 comments:
fr. illo is it for you to judge? there were far worse happenings in the catholic church itself committed by popes, clean your own house first and" get thee behind me you satan" I suppose you think it would be better for a war monger like bush or mccain to be in the white house. People like you give the church a bad name.
I support Fr. Illo in his decision to tell parishioners to go to confession. If you read the entire letter it says they need to go to confession if they understood the importance of their vote and that it was indeed a vote for the death and destruction of an entire class of people.
It is Fr. Illo's duty as a priest to inform and guide the souls in his care. He has the spiritual background and education that give him the ability to lead his congregation. "Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more." Luke 12:48.
I know him personally and agree with him for saying what he did. I believe personally that we as citizens and voters need to look at the person we are wanting in office not just on the political level but also on moral and ethical levels. They ultimately are an extension of us "REPRESENTING US" so we vote someone in who backs abortion then I see it as we also back abortion.
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