E.J. Dionne has a good column out today in the Washington Post detailing yet another case of a prominent public figure being denied communion. The only difference is that this time it's a Republican! A Republican by the name of Douglas Kmiec. Kmiec, a pious Catholic and staunch Republican, made the grave error of endorsing Barack Obama for president. Therefore, in the eyes of at least one priest, he is not fit to receive communion. This yet another example of how the Catholic Church is running itself into the ground. Here's the main thrust:
Kmiec, who was head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel in the late 1980s, is supporting Obama despite the candidate's position on abortion, not because of it, partly in the hope that Obama's emphasis on personal responsibility in sexual matters might change the nature of the nation's argument on life issues.
Basically, what we have here is a devoted Catholic favoring a more pragmatic approach to dealing with sexual issues. Well, for the priest involved (whom Dionne does not name at Kmiec's request) and other know-nothings like douchebag-in-chief Benedict the XVI, pragmatism is a disease. Anyone Catholic that dares speak out in support of alternatives to gridlock on the abortion issue, is immediately chastised by ultra-conservative zealots within and without the Catholic Church, as "unChristian" or "sinful."
The only sins being commited in this case are intolerance, and, frankly, gross stupidity on the part of the Catholic Church.
