Archbishop Would Deny Communion to Giuliani

By Karyn Chenoweth Oct 4, 2007, 13:38 GMT

Former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani speaks at a meeting of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Washington, D.C. USA on 21 September 2007. Giuliani is running to be nominated the Republican candidate for president in 2008. EPA/STEFAN ZAKLIN

Republican presidential hopeful, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is not in good stead with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Raymond Burke, who made headlines last presidential season by  saying he'd refuse Holy Communion to John Kerry, has comments for Rudy Giuliani this year.

Giuliani's response: "Archbishops have a right to their opinion."

Burke, the archbishop of St. Louis, was asked if he would deny Communion to Giuliani or any other presidential candidate who supports abortion rights.
His stance on Giuliani was made public earlier Wednesday in an interview with The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"If any politician approached me and he'd been admonished not to present himself, I'd not give it," Burke  told The Associated Press Wednesday. "To me, you have to be certain a person realizes he is persisting in a serious public sin."

Asked if the same would apply to politicians who support the death penalty or pre-emptive war, he said, "It's a little more complicated in that case."

Asked about Burke's comments Wednesday while campaigning in New Hampshire, Giuliani said: "Archbishops have a right to their opinion, you know. There's freedom of religion in this country. There's no established religion, and archbishops have a right to their opinion. Everybody has a right to their opinion."

Burke says that anyone administering Communion - ordained priest or lay minister - is morally obligated to deny it to Catholic politicians who support an abortion-rights position contrary to church teaching. Burke published an article in April in a church law journal that explored whether it is ever appropriate to deny Communion. Some U.S. bishops interpret church teaching to say that an individual examination of conscience, not a minister, should dictate whether a person is worthy to receive the sacrament.

Burke said denial of Communion is not a judgment. "What the state of his soul is is between God and him," he said.
The nation's bishops are expected to discuss the question again in meetings next month. Burke said he has made no policy proposal, simply laid out his thoughts in the article.

Burke will not be attending the bishops' meeting because of a prior commitment in Rome.

A number of other Catholic presidential candidates also have abortion-rights stances in apparent conflict with church teaching. Giuliani is the only Catholic among the top-tier candidates.

Giuliani, a Republican, sometimes evokes his Catholic upbringing as he campaigns for president, yet he declines to say whether he is a practicing Catholic. He has been a longtime supporter of abortion rights.

While it is unlikely Giuliani or any other presidential candidate will present himself to Burke for Communion in the next few months, the archbishop's comments revive an issue that could be a factor for churchgoing voters.

As for Giuliani, when a voter in Iowa asked him in August if he was a "traditional, practicing Roman Catholic," he said: "My religious affiliation, my religious practices and the degree to which I am a good  or not-so-good Catholic, I prefer to leave to the priests."

Last week, Giuliani compared the scrutiny of his personal life marked by three marriages to the biblical story in which Jesus said only someone who was free of all sin should try to stone an adulterous woman.

"I'm guided very, very often about, 'Don't judge others, lest you be judged,'" Giuliani told the Christian Broadcasting Network.

"I have very, very strong views on religion that come about from having wanted to be a priest when I was younger, having studied theology for four years in college," he said.

"So it's a very, very important part of my life," he said. "But I think in a democracy and in a government like ours, my religion is my way of looking at God, and other people have other ways of doing it, and some people don't believe in God. I think that's unfortunate. I think their life would be a lot  fuller if they did, but they have that right."

Republicans have been most successful with religious voters - President Bush, a Methodist, won the Catholic vote over Kerry, a Catholic, in 2004 - but Democratic candidates are fighting back and have  spoken frequently about their religious beliefs this year.