What has happened to this country?
BOHICA – bend over, here it comes again.
But. We’ve gone too far.
Steven Waldman provides this high noon must read piece.
“Doug Kmiec is a conservative Reagan administration official and leading pro-life legal scholar. Despite his strong anti-abortion views, he recently endorsed Barack Obama on the grounds that Obama cared more about the full range of “life” issues – including poverty and human rights – and because Kmiec believes that Obama’s “abortion reduction” agenda will have more impact on abortion in the short run than the traditional battles against Roe v. Wade.
He was attacked by conservative Catholics and Republicans and was even denied communion from his church, a moment he describes here in an excerpt from his new book, Can a Catholic Support Him?:”
Here’s Douglas Kmiec’s account of his being denied communion because he publicly stated his intent to vote for Barack Obama (H/t: Andrew Sullivan)
The Day I Was Denied Communion for Endorsing Obama, by Douglas Kmiec
April 2008. On that day the children were not with us [at church]. It was only my wife Carol and myself. I turned out to be the subject of the homily. Without warning or prior conversation, this blue-collar kid from Chicago had somehow given offense not just to this priest who stood before me, but in my memory, which was now running at top speed, to all those watchful religious eyes: to the good Franciscan sisters who watched the Kmiec brothers play basketball beneath the convent window; to Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, who instructed us in black-and-white from the old 6″ Philco as we sat upon the living room couch; to my school days pastor who, on May 7, 1959, distributed Communion to me for the first time; to the Bishop whose hands confirmed my membership in the body of Christ in 1963; to Brother Konrad Diebold, F.S.C, the Christian Brother who led us in prayer in high school chapel….A litany of saints, these splendid women and men of the cloth. …
Until that evening, when all was revoked.
Suddenly the life-long chain of liturgy was broken into pieces. The priest–the priest who had just joined with us in the prayer of the Rosary was now red-faced shouting. I thought. Talking about me. I had cooperated with evil. I had?….
My wife held my hand tightly. We looked at each other in disbelief. Here was someone in the vestments of the priesthood who had called us to have our prayers be heard, who recited the Kyrie with us, asking the Lord’s mercy upon us, now seemingly merciless, telling me and the many there assembled that I was unworthy. I was to be publicly shunned and humiliated. My offense? Endorsing Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States.
The irony of ironies was that my motivation for the endorsement was entirely Catholic. No, Obama doesn’t share the Catholic faith, but he certainly campaigns like he does. As reflected in his book, the Senator is focused on the human person, on the common good, on the social justice of economic arrangement. All is so very Catholic.
[.]
It was time for Communion. Notwithstanding the indictment of the homily, I did not think of myself as unworthy of receipt of the sacrament–at least no more so than pre-Obama endorsement. Communion in the Catholic tradition is indeed sacred….
But I was not to receive the Eucharist that evening. The couples who stood in line before my wife and myself received the body of Christ in their hands or on their tongues and returned to their seats. My wife received. My hand outstretched, the priest shook his head from side to side. Was that a no? It was Judgment Day, and I hadn’t made it. LSAT Insufficient. Inadequate GPA. Do not pass GO…go directly to Hell.
[.]
From the back of the Communion line someone shouted out, “Are you judging this man, Father?” I was grateful for the intervention. Will the Last Day be like this? One friend making an appeal for another? The response was cold: “He has judged himself and been found unworthy.”
Incredible!
Are we surprised?
Why? The Constitution was shredded on December 12, 2000. The elections, 2000 and 2004, stolen. No robust outrage from our elected officials.
So aided by the theo-cons, the Neo-con disciples took over our government, dismissing ALL our rights and freedoms.
Has anyone noticed?
We’re in deep, up to our ears in this sh*t.
A Hearty Welcome to the USSRA.