My friend Doug Kmiec reports that at a recent mass he was denied communion by the presiding chaplain for his endorsement of Barack Obama for President. This has been an issue much in the news lately because of the granting of communion to several pro-choice politicians at Pope Benedict’s mass a few weeks ago here in Washington. And I don’t fully understand the details on how these decisions are made (which seem somewhat ad hoc). But even if one supports the logic of denying communion to those like Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi, it is difficult to see how this compares to Doug Kmiec, who has been a tireless and principled opponent of abortion. I disagree with his endorsement of Obama, but I don’t think that anyone seriously believes that Doug is supporting Obama because of his position on abortion rather than despite it. I’d like to hear some more details about how this all went down, as Doug’s discussion is fairly summary. Apparently this all happened at a conference of Catholic business leaders, so I’d be interested in hearing the impressions of anyone else who was there.
More from Michael Perry at Mirror of Justice.
Update:
Here’s the views of a canon lawyer who concludes that it was wrongful to deny communion to Kmiec (with links to the relevant Canons).