19th Jul 2004
Pope Offers Communion to Pro-Choice Politician in Italy
I’m listening to NPR’s Fresh Air this evening, with the guest John Allen, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. Terry Gross asked him about the whole question of American Catholic bishops prohibiting pro-choice politicians (read John Kerry) from receiving communion. Allen notes something that the Pope doesn’t seem to have a problem giving communion to pro-choice politicians, which he reported on earlier in this article:
In January 2001, Rome’s outgoing mayor, Francesco Rutelli, was the candidate of Italy’s center-left “Olive Tree” coalition to be the country’s next Prime Minister. (Rutelli went on to lose to Silvio Berlusconi). Rutelli’s political background was in the Radical Party, which had led the battle for legalized abortion in Italy. As he moved into the mainstream, Rutelli took the classic position of left-leaning Catholics in public life: personally opposed to abortion, but not willing to impose his stance through law.On Jan. 6, Rutelli and his wife Barbara, who are regular Mass-goers, attended the final act of the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year: the closing of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica. Despite what in the United States would be termed his “pro-choice” stance, Rutelli came forward for Communion and received it from Pope John Paul II himself.
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