CAMDEN, April 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Governor James E. McGreevey, a divorced Catholic who supports abortion, will be refused communion when he approaches the altar at Mass on Sunday according to his bishop, the newly installed Joseph Galante. The bishop cited a number of reasons for his decision, his first public act as bishop of Camden New Jersey. First noted was that the governor is divorced and has remarried without receiving an annulment from the Church. The bishop also said that the governor supports abortion and embryonic stem cell research, the latter item being a major part of the research industry in New Jersey.
The US bishops have established a “task force” to study the issue of Catholics in public life. In the meantime, more Catholic politicians are forcing the issue by making public declarations of defiance. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House Minority Leader, said today that she will not stop taking communion, “I fully intend to receive Communion, one way or another. That’s very important to me.” Pelosi has made headlines for her outspoken support of abortion and other Catholic politicians who also support it. She said at a weekly press conference, “I believe that my position on choice is one that is consistent with my Catholic upbringing, which said that every person has a free will and has the responsibility to live their lives in a way that they would have to account for in the end.” In the face of such unabashed defiance, the head of the bishops’ task force has remained resolutely neutral. “I have not gotten to the stage where I’m comfortable in denying the Eucharist,” said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington. Read about Bishop Galante’s decision in New Jersey: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0404/143573.html USA today on Nancy Pelosi’s statement: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-29-pelosi-communion_x.htm