This one, I can't let go.

[bktheirregular]

From the Denver Post:

"Bishop draws line for voters: Communion tied to politics"

"The bishop of Colorado's second-largest Roman Catholic diocese has issued a pastoral letter saying Catholics cannot receive Communion if they vote for politicians who support abortion rights, stem-cell research, euthanasia or gay marriage."

*blink*

*blink*

You know, I'm starting to get this odd impression that I'm living in some bankrupt Third World theocratic police state, and the country I was brought up to cherish is bound and gagged in the hall closet.

Because this ... this ... I want to use the phrase "spiritual blackmail", but that sounds too gentle.

"Spiritual extortion"? Is that strong enough?

Comments

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

Under current doctrine, priests and lay ministers can't actually withhold Communion from anyone. It's up the the individual to determine whether they should take it. Non-Catholics, the excommunicated and Catholics in a state of unreconciled sin (i.e. who've got something on their conscience that hasn't been dealt with through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is what confession became after Vatican II) are excluded, but nobody's actually going to stop them from taking Communion. The added sin is on them if they do, not on the person administering the Sacrament.

So BK's "spiritual extortion" phrase pretty much hits it right on the head, but the effect will be very personal and private.

[butterflykiki.livejournal.com]

yeah. Although it pisses me off that the effect on the local known Catholics in office is to hold *them* to a damn standard that the Church is setting. They'll have to have 'secret votes' just to not compromise their religious privacy.

And yes, he is a gleeb.