Letter to the Editor
Church shouldn’t prohibit communion
Dear Editor:
Over the last several weeks, many church leaders, including St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, have stated that they will deny Senator John Kerry the ability to receive Holy Communion under their jurisdictions. As a member of the Catholic community, I find the actions of these Church officials deplorable.ÿI am appalled by their use of such a sacred thing as the Eucharist as a political statement.ÿAside from excommunication (a strategy I am sure the archbishop would be pleased to employ), the Church cannot deny someone Communion, no matter what their voting record, no matter how fundamental to the church their sins are perceived to be. Such an offense would have been criticized by Christ himself.ÿAfter all, let he who has never sinned throw the first stone.ÿThe Church is an institution that is meant to protect its people and promote their relationships with God.ÿOstracizing of any sort clearly violates its teachings and the very principles it is designed to uphold.
As a pro-choice Democrat myself, and without trying to defend my political leanings or opinions,ÿI am not at all “pro-abortion” or a “baby killer.”ÿI simply feel that criminalizing a moral decision will not solve any of our problems.ÿCall me a pragmatist, but the only thing that overturning Roe v. Wade would accomplish would be a return to dangerous back-alley abortions, threatening our national health. In fact, there is excellent correlational data that shows a link between the legalization of abortion and a very significant decrease in crime.ÿAn excellent analysis of this data can be found at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=174508
WhileÿI do not believe abortion is a good choice for women to make, criminalizing that decision would prove disastrous and ineffective.ÿWhy don’t we actually work to do some good?ÿLet’s make the need for abortion decrease.ÿLet’s improve education.ÿLet’s fight poverty. Let’s not try to convince an entire demographic that some politician should receive despicable treatment because he wants to achieve the same ends through more practical means.ÿ
Amy Overington
Political Science and Spanish
Class of 2007
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