Vatican City - The senior American at the Vatican has urged a meeting of the world's bishops to discuss whether Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should receive communion, saying the issue had divided many in the U.S. church.
Archbishop William Levada, who heads the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made the appeal during a debate late Monday at the synod of bishops, the Oct. 2-23 meeting of bishops discussing major issues facing the Church.
Levada also asked to hear the experiences of other church leaders on the topic, according to the Rev. John Bartunek, briefing reporters on developments in the closed-door meeting.
"This issue has caused some divisions among the people in the church" during the 2004 presidential election, the briefer quoted Levada as saying. During the campaign, St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said he would deny Communion to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a Catholic who supports abortion rights.
The working document for the synod said it was a sin for the faithful to support Catholic politicians who themselves back abortion and other policies contrary to church teaching.
"Some receive Communion while denying the teachings of the church or publicly supporting immoral choices in life, such as abortion, without thinking that they are committing an act of grave personal dishonesty and causing scandal," the document said.
"Some Catholics do not understand why it might be a sin to support a political candidate who is openly in favor of abortion or other serious acts against life, justice and peace."
The briefer said the issue of the shortage of priests came up, but made no mention of suggestions of addressing it by allowing married men into the priesthood or ordaining women as deacons.
Honduran Bishop Roberto Camilleri Azzopardi said the key was a better distribution of priests in the world. He noted that in his diocese there was one priest for every 16,000 Catholics.