Father, Forgive Them for They Really Don't Have a Clue

It just keeps getting weirder.

Roman Catholic priest Rev. Joseph Illo has told his congregation at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto, California they should confess if they voted for Barack Obama because the president-elect supports abortion. Citing Catholic doctrine which requires believers go to confession when they commit a mortal sin. the priest said during Mass that parishioners would risk losing their "state of grace" by receiving communion sacrilegiously without confessing their vote for Obama.

Say it ain't so, Father Joe!

And he isn't alone on this one. Another pastor of a Catholic church in Greenville, South Carolina also told his flock that those who voted for Obama should refrain from taking communion until they have made a full confession and done penance. Father Jay Scott Newman, pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, distributed a post-election letter informing parishioners they were putting their souls at risk if they take Communion before repenting of their vote for “the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president.”

Apparently a vote for Obama or any other pro-choice candidate is tantamount to selling your soul to the Devil, at least according to the skewed interpretations of Fathers Joe and Jay. Church policies won't allow priests to refuse communion to parishioners who voted for Obama, but many in the Catholic hierarchy also made abortion the most important consideration in deciding which candidate to support during the 2008 presidential campaign.

What would Jesus do? Perhaps admonish those who live in glass churches they probably shouldn't be the first one to cast stones. He said that, right?

I'm not Catholic, but if I was, I think I might be less interested in who among my brothers and sisters voted for whom, and a lot more concerned (and outraged) about religious hypocrisy. Can you really trust an ecclesiastical power structure which harbors pedophiles, conceals the sexual behavior of its own clerics and then lies about it while attacking the victims?

I don't know what Fathers Joe and Jay do in their spare time around the Rectory, but perhaps they might try dealing with bigger issues a little more close to home. A growing number of Catholics believe the Church is out of touch with the world today and just not relevant to their lives.

According to the report “Catholics Who Have Stopped Going to Mass,” released by the the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, these commonly mentioned factors had the most powerful impact on Catholics:

1. Misuse of power and authority at all levels of the Catholic Church.

2. Irrelevance of the church as an institution “out of touch with society.” The church has lost its ability to connect with the day-to-day lives of ordinary people and as a result is no longer regarded as having the authority to guide them in living an authentic life.

3. Lack of intellectual stimulation, noting sermons delivered in their parishes “were of poor quality, ill-prepared, theologically unsound, badly delivered and irrelevant.”

I'm not saying the Catholic Church should throw the Baby Jesus out with the holy bath water (I know I will burn in Hell for that one), but get up off your knees, guys and look around. Teaching against pre-marital sex, divorce, a woman's right to choose (and now voting for Obama) makes you look foolish and fails miserably when compared to the materialistic and immoral culture of your own leaders.

Maybe its time to sing a new song from a more relevant hymnal.

Amen.