In a May pastoral letter to 125,000 parishioners in Colorado Springs, Colo., Bishop Michael Sheridan advocated that Communion should be denied to politicians who don’t support the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings on issues such as abortion rights, gay marriage, euthanasia and stem cell research.

Then he went further, saying that Communion should also be denied to those Catholics who would support such politicians at the ballot box.

That position — shared by only a handful of bishops around the country — didn’t sit well with Nelson Harper.

“My first reaction is that the Eucharist should not be used as a club to punish or intimidate anyone,” said Harper, a parishioner at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 1234 Ky. “The Catholic Church is a sacramental church, the Eucharist being the focus. To refuse Communion to anyone is to make a judgment (on them).”

Harper’s wife, Mary — who described the couple as “cradle Catholics” — agreed.

“We have no business deciding who is guilty of this or guilty of that. It’s embarrassing. I don’t believe in war, and I don’t believe in the death penalty. We’ve got to look at all of that (not just the abortion issue),” she said.

With John Kerry likely to become the first Catholic since John F. Kennedy to run as the nominee of a major political party — and the fact that he’s openly pro-choice — lots of Catholics like the Harpers are pondering how much influence the Catholic Church and its teachings should have on the way they’ll vote in November.

Mary has made up her mind on that subject.

“Bishops and priests can preach the word (of God), but it’s up to every individual to respond as their conscience dictates. In the realm of spirituality, politics cannot play a part. What we have to do is have an informed conscience,” she said.

Taking a stand

So far, Lawrence Catholics haven’t been put in the same awkward position of those who are in the parish of the Colorado Springs bishop.

The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas (which includes Lawrence’s two parishes and one campus ministry) doesn’t have a stated policy about whether pro-choice politicians — or Catholics who might support them — may receive Communion.

It doesn’t need one, according to the Rev. Thomas Tank, a vicar general for the archdiocese and pastor of Church of the Ascension in Overland Park.

“We have not made any statements specific to this situation, because the general pastoral policy of the Church covers that. For a person who’s a conscientious Catholic, that should do it,” he said.

“The general pastoral care of the Church is always to help people with their formation of conscience and to determine whether or not they are properly disposed to receive Communion. If a person is aware of serious sin, doing something or not doing something of a very grave nature, then they are not properly disposed for Communion, unless there is contrition and reconciliation.”

But, in one instance, the archdiocese has taken a definitive stand.

In the Feb. 13 issue of The Leaven (the newspaper of the archdiocese), Archbishop James P. Keleher requested that no Catholic institution in the archdiocese invite any person in the pro-choice movement, or any politician who espouses the pro-choice movement or has a voting record endorsing pro-choice legislation to address, give workshops or make any presentations.

That description would include Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic who is identified as a pro-choice politician.

On another politically charged issue, the Merriam-based Kansas Catholic Conference, which is the political policy arm of the Catholic Church in Kansas, expressed its disappointment that Statehouse legislators failed to support an amendment to the state constitution that would have barred legal recognition of gay marriages.

In a May 28 letter in The Leaven, the Kansas bishops urged Catholics “to express their citizenship by communicating to their state senator or representative their support for a constitutional amendment to protect marriage.”

Private matter

Anthony Brown is a good illustration of the intersection between the Catholic Church’s moral teachings and politics.

Brown, who lives in Eudora, is a Republican candidate for an open seat in the Statehouse serving the 38th District. That district includes a portion of Lawrence.

Brown and his wife, Susan, are St. John parishioners, and three of their six children are students at the Lawrence Catholic School-St. John Campus.

The family attended a farewell picnic Tuesday at St. John for the Rev. Charles Polifka. Anthony had with him a thick stack of his campaign yard signs to offer to fellow parishioners.

He said he would be concerned if the Eucharist were to become politicized, in an election year, by bishops refusing to serve Communion to some Catholics based on how they planned to vote.

“It would be hard to tell what state of grace a person is in when they come for Communion,” Anthony said.

But, he added, “In the Church’s opinion, abortion is a sin. If a person (who supports pro-choice politicians) is really honest with themselves and with Christ and the Church’s teachings, then they would be ineligible for Communion.”

He said he believed Catholics would evaluate how presidential candidate Kerry stands on a range of important social issues, rather than simply voting for him because he’s Catholic.

“To me, it diminishes their character in my eyes (politicians such as Sebelius and Kerry), who profess to be Catholic and also profess to be pro-choice,” Anthony said.

Charlie Cornwell, a St. John parishioner for 60 years, said he didn’t reflect much on the Catholic Church’s moral teachings when he pulls the lever for one candidate or another.

“To me, it’s a private matter,” he said.