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RACISM AND HOLY COMMUNION POLITICS IN US CATHOLIC CHURCH
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
MARCH 28, 2009
Recent remark by Archbishop Raymond Burke (pictured below), the former St. Louis prelate
who now leads the Vatican supreme court that President Barack Obama “could be an agent of
death” if his support for abortion rights becomes a model for leaders in other countries
sounds more racist than just a remark.
This June 27, 2008 file photo shows St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke speaking to the
media in St. Louis. Burke, the former St. Louis prelate who now leads the Vatican supreme
court, said that President Barack Obama “could be an agent of death” if his support for
abortion rights becomes a model for leaders in other countries during a videotaped
interview that anti-abortion activist Randall Terry showed Wednesday, March 25, 2009 in
Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam, file)
Though he has also said parishioners should press U.S. bishops to withhold Holy Communion
from Roman Catholic politicians who back legalized abortion, the fact that majority of
Democrat followers are Black Americans, and aging that they are predominantly protestant
while Republicans are white and catholic, is the reason why to argue that bishop?s
comments were purely racist.
Although during the 2004 election, when Burke was still in St. Louis, he sparked a rare
public disagreement among U.S. bishops over the issue, saying he would deny Communion to
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee and alleged by
Republicans as an abortion rights supporter, the fact that Democrats are identified with
blacks and protestant, while Republicans with whites and catholic, the bishop had no
other alternative but to express his racial anger.
Bishop Burke is not the only catholic bishop angered; a small minority of them is as
well. They took the same stand during 2004 elections that Kerry should be denied Holly
Communion.
Just as Bishop Burke is making racial remarks, Obama has pledged to find ways to reduce
the abortion rate, to find common ground with opponents. This is one of the four main
priorities of Obama’s faith-based office, to find ways to reduce the abortion rate, an
attempt at common ground according to recent media reports.
This is a fact that even New Orleans Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes has acknowledged. While
begging for forgiveness in December last year for acts the church committed that were
racially insensitive or did not promote racial harmony, and committed the church to
action, the archbishop categorically said that racism is present in the hearts of some
Catholics and institutionally in the Catholic Church which the faithful must work to
purge in thought and in action, said a U.S. archbishop in a comprehensive pastoral letter.
In the document, ??Made in the Image and Likeness of God?: A Pastoral Letter on Racial
Harmony,? released Dec. 15, 2008, the pastoral which was also made available in its
entirety in the Dec. 16 issue of the Clarion Herald (www.clarionherald.org), the
archbishop said: ?I want to express an apology for the way in which I or other members of
the church have acted or failed to act,? he said. ?I want to acknowledge the past in
truth, seek forgiveness and recommit myself and our church in New Orleans to realizing
the gospel message in our relations with one another.?
Releasing it on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the issuance by New Orleans
Archbishop Joseph Rummel of the landmark and controversial pastoral, ?The Morality of
Racial Segregation, Hughes was quoted to have said: ?In this 1956 ground-breaking
message,? Archbishop Hughes said of his predecessor, ?he announced that racial
segregation was to be gradually dismantled in all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese. He
stated unequivocally: ?Racial segregation as such is morally wrong and sinful because it
is a denial of the unity-solidarity of the human race as conceived by God in the creation
of Adam and Eve.??
?Racism can be both personal and institutional,? he stressed. ?Hence, it involves not
only individual prejudice but also the use of religious, social, political, economic or
historical power to keep one race privileged,? the archbishop expressed.
The Vatican had also fired a warning shot over the bows of Barack Obama in response to
the President-elect’s intention to lift the US ban on embryonic stem cell research.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan of Mexico, who acts as the Vatican health minister, did
not only say that stem cells taken from human embryos and involving the destruction of
the embryos is immoral, but also “serve no purpose”.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
E-Mail news@ppa.or.ke
Tel 254-20-4441372
Website : www.ppa.or.ke
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Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 05:27:43 -0700 [03/28/2009 07:27:43 AM CDT]
From: People For Peace
Subject: Regional News