[lbo-talk] The new Pope and the last (s)election....

[Mike Ballard]

One of the most blatant examples of Ratzinger’s intervention into the
political affairs of a country was his role in the 2004 US presidential
election. A number of American Catholic bishops publicly declared in
the run-up to the election that they would deny Holy Communion to
Democratic candidate John Kerry, a Catholic, because of his pro-choice
stance on abortion rights. Their intervention, a brazen violation of
the secular foundations of the US Constitution, was tantamount to a
religious injunction to Catholics to vote for George W. Bush.

In June 2004, Ratzinger issued a statement of guidance to US bishops
that, in effect, gave the Vatican’s seal of approval to Church
officials who were using the abortion issue to discourage a vote for
the Democratic candidate. In his missive to the bishop of Washington
DC, Ratzinger wrote: “A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation
in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion, if he
were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the
candidate’s permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia.”

full:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/pope-a22.shtml

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