Bernard Kenny, Senate Majority leader in New Jersey, has informed the pastor of his Catholic church that he is leaving Roman Catholicism after 57 years. Why? Because he does not feel that he can remain part of a church that tries to tell him how to vote as a legislator in order to remain a "Good Catholic."
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
"If every faith starts trying to impose their rules on elected officials, democracy is going to be factionalized along religious lines," Kenny told The Philadelphia Inquirer for Sunday's editions. Kenny, who supports abortion rights and stem-cell research, said his church leaders told him he would be offered Communion one more time, "but that then he would tell me not to come again."
U.S. Rep. William Pascrell Jr., also a Catholic Democrat, agrees that politicians have an obligation to represent all their constituents. "This is exactly what the Catholic Church said 50 years ago would not happen when Catholic politicians were trying to get elected to office," said Kenny, a former altar boy from Essex County. "It is a total reversal of the position that enabled Catholics to represent people of all faiths and all backgrounds."
It is true that Catholics are obliged to be "pro-life," but there is no specific doctrine that spells out what it means to be pro-life. Because abortions are less frequent in places where abortion is legal, it isn't that hard to argue that pro-life goals are more achievable by letting abortion stay legal than by trying to criminalize it. Insisting that Catholic politicians must vote to criminalize abortion, Roman Catholic clerics are stepping beyond the bounds of what is appropriate - both politically and religiously.
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