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BURKE-VOTERS Jun-29-2004 (580 words) xxxn
St. Louis prelate says voting for candidate who backs abortion a sin
By Catholic News Service
ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- St. Louis Archbishop Raymond L. Burke will issue a pastoral letter following his comments in a radio interview that Catholics commit a mortal sin by knowingly voting for a candidate who advocates abortion.
"It is a serious sin," Archbishop Burke told The St. Louis Review, newspaper of the St. Louis Archdiocese. He added that a person who voted that way could receive Communion only after a "true repentance" and obtaining absolution by going to confession. "It's not right to support candidates who are for abortion," he added.
The archbishop was in Rome to receive the pallium June 29. The pallium is a circular white band of wool that symbolizes an archbishop's authority and his unity with the pope.
Issuing a pastoral letter will fulfill an earlier promise to address the voting issue, Archbishop Burke said.
"It is not a matter -- as in the case of politicians whose positions are public -- of denying Communion to voters who support pro-abortion candidates," the archbishop said. "But Catholics who support such pro-abortion candidates participate in a grave evil. They must show a change of heart and be sacramentally reconciled or refrain from receiving holy Communion."
Archbishop Burke publicly stated that Catholics sin by voting for candidates who favor abortion during an interview June 24 with St. Louis radio station KMOX-AM. It was in response to one of many questions he was asked about a variety of subjects.
He said later that his answer to the question on voting for candidates who favor abortion merely reiterated what the church teaches.
"I didn't say anything novel or extraordinary," the archbishop said. He added that Pope John Paul II has touched on such matters in writings such as his 2003 encyclical, "Eucharistia de Ecclesia," on the Eucharist and its relation to the church.
The archbishop recently wrote in an article for America magazine that church law supports a bishop's right to refuse Communion to a Catholic politician who gives "serious scandal" by supporting abortion. He also said that church law "imposes a responsibility on the local bishop to address this grave error."
He said that his recent statements were not so much influenced by a recent pastoral letter by Bishop Michael J. Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colo., which warned that Catholics who vote for politicians who support legal abortion commit a mortal sin, though the archbishop added that he agreed, in substance, with Bishop Sheridan's statement.
"To support such candidates is clearly to participate in their support of abortion," the archbishop said. "We must never do that."
Archbishop Burke said that in the KMOX interview he avoided commenting on specific candidates and political races.
"I am not a Democrat or a Republican," he said. He added that people who charge that bishops favor the Republican Party or are trying to influence the election by their pro-life pronouncements "are trying to silence the bishops."
The archbishop repeated his earlier statements that the abortion issue takes priority over other issues in a candidate's campaign.
"The Holy Father has written in 'Evangelium Vitae' ('The Gospel of Life') that abortion has characteristics making it particularly serious and deplorable," the archbishop said.
Archbishop Burke said that those who have voted for a candidate who supports legal abortion would have to "confess the sin with sincere contrition."
"Confession is not a mechanical thing," he said. "Our Lord calls us to a true change of heart."
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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