Catholic Bishops

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. - When it came time for the communion offering in Thanksgiving Mass at St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church, the Rev. Stanley Deresienski blessed the sacramental bread and wine on the altar, preparing it for distribution among the 40 or so congregants. But the wine never touched the parishioners' lips, for in the war against the flu here, not even the sacred is spared. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington is the only one in the country that has formally asked priests to refrain from using the communion chalice and parishioners to avoid the usual handshake, hug or kiss when they make the sign of peace during Mass until the end of flu season, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said.

Catholic faith carries tenets of social justice The Sun's editorial "A faith-based president?" (Oct. 14) mentions the Catholic bishops' "call to political responsibility" document. But in addition to the well-known Catholic teachings about abortion, cloning and assisted suicide, it is important for Catholics to note that the document mentions many other issues. They include working for a more just economic life with decent jobs and just wages, providing adequate assistance to poor families, overcoming a culture of violence, combating discrimination and defending the right to quality health care, housing and food.

NEW YORK - In the view of the nation's Roman Catholic bishops, politicians who belong to the church but depart from its teachings on abortion should be denied honors from a Catholic institution. Unless, some would say, you happen to be a national hero of Sept. 11 who has raised a lot of money for a church-affiliated hospital. That would be the former mayor of New York, Rudolph W. Giuliani, an abortion rights supporter, whose name will grace a new $25 million trauma center at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan.

Weighing in for the first time on a controversial, election-year issue, the leadership of the U.S. Catholic Church said yesterday that it is up to individual bishops to decide whether to give or deny communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, such as Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee. "Given the wide range of circumstances involved in arriving at a prudential judgment on a matter of this seriousness, we recognize that such decisions rest with the individual bishop," the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement at a week-long, private retreat in Colorado that ends today.

CATHOLIC BISHOPS can say what they want in ministering to their flocks. But when they refuse to serve politicians Communion because they hold views antithetical to church teachings, bishops are wielding a holy sacrament as a clumsy, political weapon. Publicly sanctioning parishioners -- whether they are a presidential candidate, a schoolteacher, or a factory worker -- for their political beliefs may be within the bounds of canon law, but it serves neither the church nor democracy well.

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kerry, a former Roman Catholic altar boy, reasserted his defense of women's right to an abortion yesterday as a Vatican official called on priests to stop granting Communion to politicians who vote for abortion rights. The confluence of a high-profile speech on behalf of women's rights and the declaration by Cardinal Francis Arinze in Rome escalated Kerry's uneasy relationship with the church over abortion. It also raised new questions about the relationship between religious and political convictions, an issue that has also dogged President Bush.

A statement by Pope John Paul II that health care providers are morally obliged to provide food and water to patients in persistent vegetative states has left church officials uncertain what impact it would have at the nation's more than 600 Catholic hospitals. The statement, made March 20 but translated into English on Thursday, raised major questions in the church's decades-long debate over how far health care providers should go to keep alive people who have been in deep comas for long periods.

WASHINGTON - In a speech stressing hope and conciliation, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged his colleagues yesterday to re-establish a sense of Christian community in the beleaguered church. Addressing nearly 300 bishops at their semiannual meeting here, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory encouraged them to reconcile with sexual abuse victims, talk more openly with lay members and consider the criticism they have drawn since the church's priest sex abuse scandal erupted nearly two years ago. "Even we bishops need to reflect on our own need to accept just criticism, to apologize and to forgive - not only in our relationships with the faithful, but in our commerce with one another," said Gregory, bishop of Belleville, Ill. "Rather than being something that divides us, the sexual abuse crisis can and should become a rallying point not only to make the church a safe environment for all children, but our whole society as well," he said.

ST. LOUIS - Roman Catholic bishops who balked at a survey to assess the scope of sexual abuse by priests met with members of their national lay review board and the survey designers for three hours yesterday and emerged saying their concerns had been resolved. The agreement was reached three days after the board's chairman, Frank Keating, the former Oklahoma governor, had resigned and berated the bishops for refusing to disclose information about priest offenders. The bishops said yesterday they had always intended to cooperate with the study, which they had commissioned, but had first to overcome objections from their lawyers that the survey information about abusers and victims could be used by prosecutors and lawyers suing the church.

HE WAS THE PERFECT candidate to lead a national panel scrutinizing the Roman Catholic church's response to the sexual abuse of children by its priests. Frank Keating was a tough former prosecutor, a governor with a national profile, a devout Catholic unafraid to speak his mind. His resignation this week - after he publicly accused church leaders of obfuscation and likened them to the Mafia - was premature and regrettable. But it shouldn't deter the year-old citizens review panel from holding the bishops accountable in ensuring that children are safe.