Pro-abortion politicians should not be given communion, says Cardinal

PRIESTS have been told to deny communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians by a senior Vatican cardinal.

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 US Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry should not request or be given communion.

Mr Kerry, a Catholic, 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 US bishops should decide.

When pressed to speak generally about the case of "unambiguously pro-abortion" Catholic politicians, Cardinal Arinze concurred the politician "is not fit" to receive communion.

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

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 the Vatican cannot remain silent about abuses that "not infrequently plague liturgical celebrations". And it reiterated the Pope's view that the "mystery of the Eucharist is too great for anyone to treat it according to his own whim".

The 71-page document, called an instruction, focused on what the Vatican considers abuses, such 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.

The document said only priests may read the Gospel, and only priests or deacons may deliver the homily. However, it allowed that bishops can appoint "extraordinary ministers" to give communion when there is no priest available.