Pro-Choice Lawmaker Is Barred From Church Rite

SAN DIEGO —  Roman Catholic Bishop Leo T. Maher has barred Assemblywoman Lucy Killea from receiving Communion because of her pro-choice stand on abortion in a special state Senate campaign, apparently the first such action ever imposed by a bishop against a Catholic elected official in the United States over the abortion issue.

In a two-page letter in which he describes Killea, a San Diego Democrat, as “an advocate of this most heinous crime,” Maher banned her from receiving Communion unless she recants her pro-choice position. A four-term legislator with a solidly pro-choice voting record, Killea said that she will abide by Maher’s order not to receive Communion but that she has “no intention of changing a position I arrived at after a lot of very serious thought.”

“I knew I was in disagreement with the church hierarchy, but I’m surprised by the severity and punitive nature of the bishop’s letter,” said Killea, who faces Assemblywoman Carol Bentley (R-El Cajon) in a special Dec. 5 election for a vacant state Senate seat in San Diego County. “Perhaps they’re trying to make an example out of me.”

Maher’s action, which church officials and national pro-choice organizations said was unprecedented, was not entirely unexpected.

Within both political and religious circles, Maher’s crackdown is widely viewed as the opening salvo in an intensified anti-abortion campaign growing out of last week’s declaration by the nation’s 300 bishops that a pro-choice position is not an option for Roman Catholics. The bishops said Catholic politicians will no longer go unchallenged if they disagree with the church’s position.

Leaders on both sides of the volatile abortion issue predicted Thursday that Maher’s move will inspire another heated round in the continuing public debate touched off by last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court decision restricting abortion rights. Noting that Maher’s sanction against Killea goes beyond traditional bounds governing clerics’ political activity, some also foresee a parallel debate over the familiar question of separation of church and state.

“I really think the Catholic Church has put its foot in its mouth on this one,” said Sam Popkin, a political science professor at UC San Diego who has done extensive research on the impact of religion in politics.

In his letter to Killea, Maher indicated that his decision was prompted by television advertisements in which she details her pro-choice position. Killea describes her stance as one of her major differences with Bentley in their race for the state Senate seat.

“By your media advertisements and statements advocating the ‘pro-choice’ abortion position in the public forum, you are placing yourself in complete contradiction to the moral teaching of the Catholic Church,” Maher wrote. “Consequently, I have no other choice but to deny you the right to receive the Eucharist in the Catholic Church. . . .

“The harm you are doing by espousing the ‘pro-choice’ view will require great efforts to repair. Like those who have abortions, the guilt remains with them, and so will your guilt remain with you. . . .”

Though his authority is limited to his local diocese, Maher said his sanction will prevent Killea from receiving Communion “wherever she goes.” Killea said she plans to continue attending Mass and hopes that Maher eventually rescinds his order.

“I’ve been pro-choice for years, so the timing of this is a bit perplexing,” Killea said. “Apparently it’s all right to vote pro-choice, but to say so is another matter, I guess.”

Maher, however, said in an interview that Killea’s TV ads “elevated the issue” to such a degree that he felt he “had to show that this kind of scandalous conduct could not go” unpunished.

“With these TV ads so blatantly opposed to the Catholic Church’s teachings, something had to be done,” said Maher, a staunch conservative scheduled to retire as leader of the San Diego Diocese next summer. “Lucy Killea is the one who has made this a one-issue campaign by so adamantly and consistently contradicting the church.”

Communion--the most sacred part of a Mass--is a rite in which worshipers receive a wafer that they believe has been transformed by a priest into the body of Christ. Denial of Communion rights, church officials explained, is a serious sanction, but far less severe than excommunication. Maher says he does not intend to impose more severe sanctions against Killea.

Officials of the U.S. Catholic Conference said Thursday that they are not aware of similar moves planned in other dioceses. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ public relations office said discipline such as that imposed by Maher is a local, discretionary matter and that Archbishop Roger M. Mahony would have no comment.

Though he described his action as “more pastoral than political,” Maher acknowledged that it was motivated in part by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ strong reaffirmation of the church’s anti-abortion position at its annual meeting last week in Baltimore. In his letter to Killea, Maher quoted word for word a passage from the bishops’ resolution that says: “No Catholic can responsibly take a ‘pro-choice’ stand when the ‘choice’ in question involves the taking of innocent human life.”

In addition, Maher said he hopes that Catholic voters in the heavily Republican 39th District heed his message, adding: “I doubt that Lucy Killea will get many Catholic votes.”

Neither religious nor political leaders questioned Maher’s right to impose the Communion sanction on Killea, or to make his views known. As Father Thomas Reese, a fellow at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center, said: “Just because someone becomes a bishop, he doesn’t lose his constitutional right . . . to speak his mind on political issues and candidates.”

However, while Maher’s sanction applies to church, and not public, policy, it clearly has political implications in Killea’s campaign.

“As far as the church-state separation question, one might say that this touches the gray area, but I’m not sure it crosses the line,” said Father Ladislas Orsy, professor of canon law at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Though Killea said she is uncertain how the controversy will affect her campaign, pro-life activists and others regard it as a potential asset in her uphill race.

“I think this is going to backfire against the church in a big way,” said Frances Kissling, president of the Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice. “Whenever something like this happens, I feel like I ought to send a check to the bishops for public relations services faithfully rendered, because what they’ve done helps us.”

Similarly, UCSD professor Popkin predicted that Maher’s action will “raise an entirely new set of issues for the campaign and for the church.” By targeting Killea in her underdog race, Popkin argued, Maher and other church leaders may be “looking for an easy public relations boost,” but his action could have the opposite effect.

“I have no doubts that political as well as moral criteria entered into Maher’s choice of a test case of where to try to show off this political muscle,” Popkin said. “And that’s going to get people talking about how far the church should go in these cases. In the long run, I think that’s a debate the church might prefer not to stir up.”

The action by Maher goes beyond those of other church officials in similar controversies that have arisen in politics in recent years. In one of the more notable examples, 1984 Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro was sharply criticized by Cardinal John O’Connor of New York and several other Catholic bishops for favoring abortion rights, though no action was taken against her.

Agnes Mansour, a nun, was forced in 1985 to choose between continued membership in her order and a high-level job with the Michigan social welfare department because part of the budget that she administered funded abortions for poor women. She chose her job over the Sisters of Mercy.

Last year in Virginia, an Alexandria City Council member was denied Communion rights by a local priest who objected to his vote for a health clinic that provided contraceptives. But the council member was not barred from receiving Communion elsewhere.

Times religion writer Russell Chandler contributed to this report.

ABORTION CURBS REJECTED--The California Supreme Court rejects abortion curbs. A3