Fr. Jay Scott Newman: Updates on South Carolina Priest Regarding Communion and Obama Supporters
“And the truth is passed on by the small fervent band of the few. Not by the many but by dauntless, resolute, dedicated few.” ~ John Henry Cardinal Newman
[UPDATED November 25, 2008 - Scroll down for latest]
This post is an update from around the Catholic Blogosphere on what’s happening to Fr. Jay Scott Newman of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina. Fr. Newman demonstrated a great deal of courage recently that may prompt retaliation.
Priests faithful to the Magisterium who are silenced and removed from ministry (without due process) for speaking the truth can receive spiritual, emotional, psychological, legal, canonical, and financial support from Opus Bono Sacerdotii AT NO COST TO THE PRIEST.
Please donate to Opus Bono Sacerdotii, so they may continue to help our faithful priests in times of crisis.
Bishop Emeritus Rene Henry Gracida of Corpus Christi, TX, told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) his reaction to Fr. Newman’s letter “is one of admiration and awe. I find nothing in what he has written that is at variance with the Magisterium of the Church. He is to be congratulated.”
Mary Ann Kreitzer in particular provides resources on how to help Fr. Jay Scott Newman. Just follow her various posts on the topics below.
Local Catholics in Charleston who are organizing a prayer vigil during Masses this weekend are calling for support for Fr. Newman whom they say has been “rebuked and silenced”. If this is true, it’s a shameful outcome for this courageous priest. Please call the Chancery next week and ask for the status on Fr. Newman. Send letters of support to the Diocese asking that they go into his personnel file.
After Fr. Newman’s letter was deleted from his parish site, Mary Ann Kreitzer made it available:
9 November 2008
Dear Friends in Christ,
We the People have spoken, and the 44th President of the United States will be Barack Hussein Obama. This election ends a political process that started two years ago and which has revealed deep and bitter divisions within the United States and also within the Catholic Church in the United States. This division is sometimes called a “Culture War,” by which is meant a heated clash between two radically different and incompatible conceptions of how we should order our common life together, the public life that constitutes civil society. And the chief battleground in this culture war for the past 30 years has been abortion, which one side regards as a murderous abomination that cries out to Heaven for vengeance and the other side regards as a fundamental human right that must be protected in laws enforced by the authority of the state. Between these two visions of the use of lethal violence against the unborn there can be no negotiation or conciliation, and now our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president. We must also take note of the fact that this election was effectively decided by the votes of self-described (but not practicing) Catholics, the majority of whom cast their ballots for President-elect Obama.
In response to this, I am obliged by my duty as your shepherd to make two observations:
1. Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation.
2. Barack Obama, although we must always and everywhere disagree with him over abortion, has been duly elected the next President of the United States, and after he takes the Oath of Office next January 20th, he will hold legitimate authority in this nation. For this reason, we are obliged by Scriptural precept to pray for him and to cooperate with him whenever conscience does not bind us otherwise. Let us hope and pray that the responsibilities of the presidency and the grace of God will awaken in the conscience of this extraordinarily gifted man an awareness that the unholy slaughter of children in this nation is the greatest threat to the peace and security of the United States and constitutes a clear and present danger to the common good. In the time of President Obama’s service to our country, let us pray for him in the words of a prayer found in the Roman Missal:
God our Father, all earthly powers must serve you. Help our President-elect, Barack Obama, to fulfill his responsibilities worthily and well. By honoring and striving to please you at all times, may he secure peace and freedom for the people entrusted to him. We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
Amen.
Thirty-Third Sunday of the Year
16 November 2008
Dear Friends in Christ,
Last week I wrote a column for our Sunday bulletin just as I have done every week for the past seven years, and when I wrote it, I had no thought that it would be read by anyone other than parishioners of St. Mary’s or out of the context of everything that has been taught and preached here, from the pulpit or in writing, over these seven years. And yet that was precisely the result of the distortion of my words by the Associated Press. For an in depth explanation of what I wrote and what I did not write, please see the bulletin insert today which begins “Priest: No Communion for Obama Voters.”
Of course, I said nothing of the kind and explained very carefully and in writing to both the Greenville News and the Associated Press that “I cannot and will not refuse Holy Communion to anyone because of his or her political opinions or choices.” Nevertheless, the AP story was written to create the false impression that I intended to deny Holy Communion to those who voted for Senator Obama; I did not.
My bulletin column last week was exactly 542 words—a space in which no comprehensive description could be offered of an enormously complex subject. That is why what I wrote last week has to be read in light of the teaching of the American bishops on “Faithful Citizenship” which was distributed in the bulletin the week before the election and explained from the pulpit. From that document and the teaching of the Church’s Magisterium, no one could conclude that a vote for Senator Obama is in itself or by itself a mortal sin. But from that same teaching, though, we must conclude that a vote for a pro-abortion candidate can be a mortal sin if the intent is to support abortion, that abortion is not merely one issue among other important issues, and that no Catholic should endorse a pro- abortion politician if a plausible pro-life alternative is available. I regret that I did not take time last week to parse out every stipulation of the Church’s teaching, because the failure to do so allowed those who oppose that teaching to ridicule it by falsely asserting that I intended to deny Holy Communion to anyone who voted for the president-elect or that I presumed to know or judge their conscience. Again, for a fuller discussion of these issues, please see today’s bulletin insert.
As I write these words, I have received over 3,500 emails from around the world. Most of the people who wrote seem to regard me as either a mighty champion of reform or an evil tool of the devil, and I am naturally hesitant to accept either title. In truth, I am but a useless servant of the Lord Jesus trying, despite my frailty, to be a faithful witness to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I hope that everyone who reads these words will study what the Church teaches about freedom of conscience, political responsibility, and the absolute sanctity of human life. As I explain in the introduction to the Principles of Evangelical Catholicism which guide pastoral practice at St. Mary’s, everything about us must be measured and guided by the Gospel: our thoughts, words, actions, bodies, relationships, spending habits, political convictions, lifestyle choices, and business decisions. But this total surrender to Christ and His Gospel is not a restriction of our freedom; in fact, it is the beginning of authentic discipleship and the only path to evangelical liberty.
Father Newman
Statement from Msgr. Martin T. Laughlin Regarding Voting and Holy Communion:
A Roman Curia Cardinal speaks out on Obama:
“For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden,” Stafford said, comparing America’s future with Obama as president to Jesus’ agony in the garden. “On November 4, 2008, America suffered a cultural earthquake.” . . . “If 1968 was the year of America’s ‘suicide attempt,’ 2008 is the year of America’s exhaustion,” said Stafford, an American Cardinal and Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary for the Tribunal of the Holy See. “In the intervening 40 years since Humanae Vitae, the United States has been thrown upon ruins.”
In the wake of the statement from the Diocese of Charleston, a group of local priests is organizing a public statement of support for Fr. Newman. The priests’ statement will also criticize the way his words were distorted by the media, CNA has learned.
Fr. Newman’s parishioners came to Mass in large numbers this weekend and applauded so long when he began his homily that they only quieted down when he turned and knelt to the Blessed Sacrament. If you want to know what properly formed consciences are like and what they do, that’s the real story – which you won’t hear about from the AP or ABC.
On Saturday afternoon, over 50 Catholics rallied outside the parish in support of the priest. When Father Newman celebrated Mass later in the day, his homily was interrupted by a lengthy standing ovation as his parishioners indicated their support. When his gestures for silence failed to stop the applause, Father Newman, fighting back tears, turned to kneel, facing the Blessed Sacrament, until the congregation finally quieted down.
I am delighted that Fr. Newman saw the problem and corrected it quickly. Again, he is to be commended for the humility and intelligence he displayed in doing so. Let his example, then, instruct us once more in the need for extreme attentiveness in matters of truth, and the equal need to correct ourselves quickly—just as Fr. Newman did—should we slip.
Before going any further, let’s set the record straight. Father Jay Scott Newman did not say that he would deny the Eucharist to Obama supporters. In a message that he placed in the parish bulletin, he strongly recommended prayers for the incoming President, and reminded the parishioners that Obama had been duly elected by the American people and deserves their respect. However, he took note of Obama’s strong support for unrestricted legal abortion, and made the following observation:
Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation.
Again, Father Newman had not denied Communion to anyone, and had said clearly that he did not intend to do so. Msgr. Laughlin was aware of this; he had received Father Newman’s original statement and his later (written) response to the reporter’s queries. Father Newman had pointed out that voting to support abortion is a serious sin– a point made by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in their election-year statement, Faithful Citizenship– and he had reminded parishioners that if they were guilty of serious sin they should refrain from the Eucharist until receiving sacramental absolution– the constant teaching of the Catholic Church.
. . . In light of the pastor’s clear statement, it is shameful that an AP story carried the thoroughly misleading headline: ” SC priest: No communion for Obama supporters.” And it is still more shameful that some reputable Catholics, who had full access to the original text of Father Newman’s statement and to his clarification as well, helped to spread the false impression that the AP story created.
November 17, 2008
On the November 14 episode of the HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the comedian said the following:
“A Catholic priest in South Carolina has told his congregation: If you voted for Obama you can’t receive Communion. That’s right. The cracker won’t let you get the cracker. He said supporting Obama constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil. Then he proceeds to pass around the plate so everyone could chip in to payoff the child f—— lawsuits.”
Catholic League president Bill Donohue spoke to this issue today:
“Maher has a long and ugly history of bashing Catholicism, and he typically goes for the jugular. In his season finale, he managed to mock the Eucharist, paint priests as molesters, call a priest he knows nothing about a racist and seriously misrepresent what this South Carolina priest said about voting for Obama (note: Father Jay Scott Newman did not say what Maher attributed to him).
“HBO would never allow a comedian to continually disparage any one of a series of highly protected classes of persons (persons protected by the politically correct police, that is). But when it comes to Catholics, it’s a different story—they’re fair game. Ironically, on the exact day Maher struck again, a survey was released showing that 61 percent of Americans believe that ‘Religious values are under attack in this country.’ It could also be said that no religious values are under more attack than those espoused by Roman Catholicism. And for that we can thank bigots like Bill Maher, and his executive friends at HBO.”
Contact Bill Nelson, HBO’s CEO: Bill.nelson@hbo.com
Contact Sue Naegle, HBO’s President: Sue.naegle@hbo.com
The following documents are useful in clarifying the truth of what Father Jay Scott Newman of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina, said in the aftermath of the November 4 election about conscience, voting, material cooperation with intrinsic evil, repentance, and the reception of holy communion. The truth in this case has been distorted by media reports, which have unfortunately been taken at face value by certain ecclesiastical authorities and by those in the Catholic blogosphere supportive of the Obama candidacy.
Is what Fr. Newman taught in his bulletin really “diverting the focus from the Catholic Church’s clear teaching against abortion” and Catholics’ consciences allowing them to vote for pro-abortion politicians, as Msgr. Martin Laughlin said, or is Msgr. Laughlin seriously confused?
In this second part, let’s examine what the Catholic Church, its Popes and those Bishops in unions with the Pope, teaches us about its Church members forming right consciences, wrongly voting for pro-abortion politicians, and being worthy to receive Holy Communion.
Father Newman hastened to say that church teaching doesn’t allow him to refuse people Holy Communion based on their vote but most news media outlets chose to ignore that statement, running headlines that suggested he would deny the sacrament to Obama voters.
. . . The problem for many Evangelical voters may have been the lack of a clear sound from the pulpit concerning the truth about the moral issues. According to another survey by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, the number of churches involved in the election process dropped by as much as 17 percent from 2004. The survey defined “being involved” by the amount of information the church provided to members on the candidates and their positions on the moral issues.
I find this to be a disturbing trend. The world needs more leaders like Father Newman, not less. We need leaders who are willing to take a stand and passionately, purposefully, and profoundly proclaim the truth as it relates to politics and the public arena.
What is true is that Father Newman received more than 5,000 e-mails within a few days. When the parish webmaster finally removed Father Newman’s e-mail address from the Web site for his own protection and peace, e-mailers contacted me instead. I received nearly 500 replies. What interests me about the feedback from the fracas is what it says about American Catholics and American culture generally.
The mail we received can be put into four categories: Loyal, Lame, Defiant, and Demonic:
I urge you as pastors to instruct your congregations on how to form a good and true conscience, how to correct an erroneous conscience, and above all, what is conscience. I am sure you will consult with the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1776-1802), and good moral theologians. It is important that we teach according to the Magisterium and mind of the Church Universal,’ he said. Saying he had the obligation ‘to protect the church from any semblance of partisan politics and focus on the objective teachings of the church, though admittedly moral issues often have a political dimension,’ Msgr. Laughlin urged priests not to make ‘the recent furor over voting and communion an internal partisan issue will only result in the church being a less credible witness to Christ and the unity we profess.
The letters of support for Fr Newman and myself continue to flow in. Most heartwarming are the ones from fellow converts.
But if the clergy are curtailed, and if there are restrictions on the official organs of the Catholic Church, then it must be the role of the laity to speak out. Who can muzzle the voice of ordinary Catholics?
My advice to the laity is: Don’t wait to be asked, and don’t wait to be thanked. Continue your efforts for life through the media. Get involved in radio, television and film. Distribute pro-life information and advertisements. Be happy warriors. Be joyful. Be positive. March for Life. Pray for Life. Work for Life. Give for Life. Live for Life.
After all, there are far more of you than there are of us anyway.
Any fight is messy, unpredictable and painful. You may get into trouble. The devil may bite back. It is true that fighting for human life may get you into hot water. Last week at St. Mary’s in Greenville, we got into hot water.
But remember what G.K.– Chesterton wrote: “I believe in getting into hot water. It keeps you clean.”
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