In remarks that could influence the U.S. presidential race, a top Vatican cardinal said on Friday that a Catholic politician who unambiguously supports abortion should be denied communion at Mass.
The cardinal spoke amid a debate in the United States over whether Democrat John Kerry should be denied communion, which Catholics believe is the body of Christ, because he supports abortion rights.
At a news conference presenting a Vatican document restating standing rules about the celebration of Mass, Cardinal Francis Arnize was reminded of the Kerry case and asked if a priest should refuse communion to a politician who is unambiguously pro-abortion.
"Yes," he answered. "If the person should not receive it, then it should not be given. Objectively, the answer is there."
Kerry supports abortion rights and has said he would nominate only Supreme Court justices who support his position. Anti-abortion groups in the United States, which is about 23 percent Catholic, say Kerry has what they have called a "perfect record" of voting for legislation that allows abortion.
He is due to be endorsed by Planned Parenthood Action Group, a pro-choice group.
Some members of the American Church hierarchy have said they would deny communion to Kerry, who, if elected, will become the first Roman Catholic president since John F. Kennedy in 1960.
The Church teaches that abortion is murder and debate over Kerry's eligibility for communion arose after Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis told him not to present himself for communion in the city. Other bishops have made similar warnings.
NEWLY CHARGED DEBATE
Arinze, a Nigerian who is head of the Vatican department that establishes regulations on the way the sacraments should be practiced, spoke at a news conference presenting the Vatican document which itself is likely to charge debate on Kerry.
The 70-page document makes no specific reference to politicians but turns the screws on practices that have become common in some local churches, such as joint communion services with non-Catholic Christians.
The section on communion which could apply to Kerry says: "The Church's custom shows that it is necessary for each person to examine himself at depth and that anyone who is conscious of grave sin should not celebrate or receive the Body of the Lord without prior sacramental confession... ."
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, who heads a panel studying how to handle politicians with views that diverge from doctrine, has said Kerry should follow Church teachings.
Kerry did take the sacrament during a Mass at Boston's Paulist Center on Easter Sunday.
A practising Catholic and a former altar boy, Kerry also supports stem cell research and civil unions for gays and lesbians, issues he calls matters of conscience.
Kerry has said he keeps his religion separate from his public life. President Bush, a Methodist, approves of abortion only in cases of rape or incest or when the pregnancy endangers a woman's life.
In Kennedy's days, non-Catholic voters were afraid another senator from Massachusetts might follow Papal Doctrine too strictly. Now, some conservative Catholics are criticizing Kerry for not adhering to it closely enough.