Priest Wants Penance From Obama Voters
Obama 'Radical Pro-Abortion Politician,' Priest Says

POSTED: 2:12 pm EST November 13, 2008
UPDATED: 10:40 am EST November 14, 2008


GREENVILLE, S.C. -- A Greenville priest says that his parishioners should do penance if they voted for Barack Obama.

In a letter to his parishoners, the Rev. Jay Scott Newman, priest at St. Mary's Catholic Church, said that his congregants shouldn't take communion until they do penance for supporting "the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president."

Newman said that his statement is backed up by church teaching, but that church law doesn't allow him to refuse parishioners the sacrament.

The Catholic Church says that abortion is one of five "non-negotiable issues" for Catholic voters and that any church member voting for a pro-choice candidate would be disobeying the church.

"Abortion is understood as intrinsically wrong, meaning it's not made wrong by intentions or circumstances, it's wrong in itself." Newman told WYFF News 4’s John Eby.

The other four issues are: euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning and same-sex marriage.

Exit polling showed that most Catholics didn’t follow that church teachings this year, with a significant majority voting for Obama.

"If the pro-life candidate had been the Democrat, and the pro-abortion candidate had been the Republican, what I wrote to my congregation would have been exactly the same," Newman said,

In their annual meeting, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights.

The bishops said the church and religious freedom could be under attack in the new administration.

"President-Elect Obama wants to make it possible for a minor anywhere in the United States to get an abortion without her parents even knowing about it," Newman said.

Church leaders have said that they fear that the Freedom of Choice Act, which Obama has supported, would lead to the removal of "conscience clauses" that allow Catholic hospitals to choose not to perform abortions.

Before coming to St. Mary’s in 2001, Newman previously served as Catholic chaplain to The Citadel and as pastor of three other South Carolina parishes: St. Mark’s, Newberry; St. Boniface, Joanna; and Divine Redeemer, Hanahan.

St. Mary's was the first Catholic Church in Upstate South Carolina, established in 1852.

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