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Hardline bishops threaten to deny Kerry sacrament

The US Catholic church faces the prospect of a backlash from its congregations against a campaign by hardline bishops to deny the sacrament to politicians who support abortion rights.

In a letter to Washington's Cardinal Theodore McCarrick published yesterday, 48 Catholic Democrats in the House of Representatives chastised church leaders for seeking to punish politicians who support abortion rights and stem-cell research.

"As Catholics, we do not believe it is our role to legislate the teachings of the Catholic Church," the letter said. "Because we represent all of our constituents, we must, at times, separate our public actions from our personal beliefs."

It also warned that the church risked provoking anti-Catholic bigotry by creating the perception that its clerics were playing politics.

A spokesperson for Cardinal McCarrick said he would not comment on the letter, but it was widely seen as a rare display of organized resistance.

"In the past when the bishops attacked politicians for their pro-choice views, the politicians tended to run for cover," said Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for Free Choice. "What I am now seeing is Catholic politicians aggressively responding to the attacks from the bishops and holding their ground."

With the Democratic challenger, John Kerry, the first Catholic to seek the presidency since John Kennedy in 1960, the role of religion is inescapable in November's elections.

Kerry is pro-choice -- although he muddied that distinction this week by saying he might in some circumstances appoint an anti-abortion judge to the Supreme Court.

Kerry's candidacy set off a strenuous campaign by conservative Catholic groups to make inroads into what was a solid area of Democratic support a generation ago and bring more Catholics over to the Republican fold.

Larry Sabato of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said: "In 1960, 80 percent of Catholics voted for Kennedy. Now Catholics don't vote as a bloc. They were split almost evenly between Bush and Gore in 2000."

Karl Rove, the White House master strategist who nurtured Bush's support from Evangelical Protestant churches, has also reached out to the Catholic Right, maintaining close contact with the conservative commentator Deal Hudson and other groups that have been very vocal on the issue.

After months of campaigning by anti-abortion groups and a statement from the Vatican for Catholic politicians to follow church doctrine, four of the US' bishops have said they would deny Kerry communion because of his pro-choice stand. The bishops, serving congregations in Lincoln, Nebraska; St Louis, Missouri; Camden, New Jersey; and Colorado Springs, Colorado, represent only a fraction of churchgoers.

Fifteen other bishops called on Catholic politicians to abstain on votes on abortion and stem-cell research.

However, the majority of the US' 300 bishops opposed denying the sacrament to politicians who opposed their views.
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