Catholic Kerry Supporters to Burn in HELL?

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by One Citizen

Anyone listening to National Public Radio yesterday afternoon (July 4, 2004) would now be thinking that anyone who votes for Kerry will burn in hell.

During their 5:00pm broadcast an NPR field reporter (I believe he said his name was Peska) following the Kerry campaign phoned in a report from an antique store from Cascade, Indiana after Kerry's stop. The one person he interviewed was reported to have said that he basically wanted to vote for Kerry because he had been personally impressed with him at the town hall-style exchange, but wouldn't be able to support him because his priest had told him that he couldn't.

Anyone within earshot of that report would now naturally assume that whoever votes for John Kerry is running a serious risk of eternal damnation.

Could this be true? Will voting the wrong way put your immortal soul st risk?

It just so happens that on June 15, 2004, the Interim Reflections Task Force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians overwhelmingly decided that Catholic Americans would NOT automatically be condemned to hell if they voted for Kerry. They also decided that there shouldn't be any official stance for refusing communion to Kerry or anyone else over the single issue of abortion.

So either the guy being interviewed was lying about what his priest had told him, or else his priest was misinformed. It is actually doubtful that this was ever intended to have been a proper interview in the first place, because the NPR representative said the subject was wearing a pro-life shirt under his jacket.

It was hot in Cascade yesterday at 4:00 pm. The Kerry stops were depicted as being very informal, and the TV stations showed everyone in their shirtsleeves in that town during their reports.

So why was the guy wearing a jacket -- except to cover his pro life shirt?

National Public Radio included bites of Bush's speech in their broadcast, yet none from Kerry nor any of his staff.

The coverage was Bush's message to "stay the Course in Iraq" and this one unnamed stranger's view which basically served to plant an insidious lie into the listener's mind.

NPR noticeably did not cover any of the extensive protests over Bush's Independence day speech in Charleston, WV, although they'd have had to walk about a block to find them, because protestors weren't allowed anywhere near Bush yesterday.

Except for the brave young couple in handcuffs being taken by police from the crowd at Bush's speech for simply having this symbol displayed on their tee shirts.

Because that's what freedom's all about on Independence day, 2004 in Bush's America.

-One Citizen
-Charleston, WV

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stuff you SHOULD be seeing in the news media (but probably won't)...

"It is important to note that Cardinal Ratzinger makes a clear distinction between public officials and voters, explaining that a Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil only if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stand on abortion. However, when a Catholic does not share a candidate’s stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia, but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted if there are proportionate reasons.

Therefore, based on the traditional practice of the Church and our consultation with members of our conference, other episcopal conferences, distinguished canonists and theologians, our Task Force does not advocate the denial of Communion for Catholic politicians or Catholic voters in these circumstances (emphasis added)."

- excerpt, Interim Reflections Task Force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians - June 15, 2004.

http://www.usccb.org/bishops/intreflections.htm

The Task Force vote wasn't even close at 183 - 6.

So it's a matter of record that only a tiny fraction of Bishops would have ever denied communion to pro-choice Catholics. Proof positive that news media blew this single issue all out of proportion.

It was a standard subversive GOP propaganda technique that the American news media falls for time and again.

The real problem is where they sustain the damage by not reporting the findings of a Task Force that obviously considered the issue in response to their agitprop in the first place!

-oc

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION