WASHINGTON, D.C.—Under pressure from Archbishop John J. Myers, New Jersey Governor James McGreevey has agreed to stop receiving Communion in public. In a paper titled, “A Time for Honesty,” Myers wrote that no politician who supports abortion should seek Communion.

“I ask and urge that Catholic voters and Catholics in public life carefully consider their position if they find themselves in opposition to Church teaching in these matters,” the Archbishop wrote. “Sadly, I must point out that to continue down this road places them in danger of distancing themselves even more from Jesus Christ and from His Church. On this grave issue, public officials cannot hold themselves excused from their duties, especially if they claim to be Catholic.”

“The archbishop of Newark is clearly the leader of the Catholic community throughout the archdiocese. I will respect the archbishop’s request,” McGreevey said. The governor added, however, that he would accept Communion in private, despite the fact that Myers had made no distinction between public and private reception of the Eucharist. McGreevey, who divorced and remarried, has abandoned Christian teaching by endorsing not only abortion, but also domestic partnership status for homosexuals and embryonic stem cell experimentation.

At a Vatican press conference in late April, Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze said that politicians who unambiguously support abortion must forego Communion. He also said that priests must refuse to administer the Sacrament to them since those who support abortion are “not fit to receive the Eucharist.”

In a letter to 48 pro-abortion members of Congress who claim to be Catholic, Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, said the lawmakers are bringing scandal to the Catholic Church:

"The Lord Jesus had a term for those who professed to believe in sacred principles and then contradicted those principles by their public positions and actions: hypocrites. Every wretched sinner, public or private, who turned away from sin, always received the fullness of His mercy, but He could not and would not countenance the pharisaical posturing of those legalists who knew the meaning of the law and flouted it anyway. If terms like 'white-washed tombs full of dead men’s bones' and 'brood of vipers' say anything, they express the Lord’s perfect contempt for such hypocrisy and those who think they know more than God."

Euteneuer’s letter came in response to a statement released by the 48 lawmakers in which they criticized America’s Catholic bishops. Euteneuer said those who signed the letter deserve “our withering contempt. In fact, they merit an all-out prophetic rebuke.” He also had some questions and other points to make:

"Are the lost sheep to lecture the shepherds on how to pasture a flock? Are we to presume that they speak with infallible authority on this issue? Worse yet, in their statement, the pharisaical 48 have stepped over the line of public decency and insinuated that the bishops are casting out demons with the help of Beelzebub. Hypocrisy is no doubt alive and well in modern America, but those who persevere in it do so to the peril of their immortal souls."

Euteneuer urged those “‘Catholic’ Pharisees who want to be in the Church but not of the Church” to leave altogether rather than participate in “scandal mongering.” LDI President Douglas R. Scott, who is not Catholic, agrees. “There is a word for people who disagree with the Catholic Church. The word is ‘Protestant.’ It is inherently impossible to be Catholic and disagree with the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

Scott said he wonders just how long this “cafeteria-type philosophy” will go one before it is vigorously confronted by all Christians. “Can a person who does not believe in the Holy Trinity be accepted as Christian? Can a person who believes that Jesus is the Messiah be accepted as Jewish? Can a person who believes Muhammad was nothing more than an average guy be accepted as Muslim? Can a person who does not believe in karma be accepted as Hindu? One can call himself anything he wants, but that does not make it true. If you do not believe that which is taught by the faith, you are not one in faith. As for Christianity, one who does not accept those things cherished by the Living God is acting in opposition to Christianity itself. Without clear standards, how are we to know the believer from the nonbeliever?”

In a subsequent letter to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Euteneuer wrote that her letter to Theodore Cardinal McCarrick of the Archdiocese of Washington “qualifies for what the Catechism…defines as the ‘total repudiation of the Christian faith’….” He referred to Pelosi’s poor understanding of Catholic teaching and said that her letter was “intellectually dishonest in the extreme.” Euteneuer continued: “Your lip service paid to the…bishops while knifing their authority in the back is a treachery that deserves the scathing contempt of every honest person, Catholic or otherwise.”

After urging Pelosi to just admit that she has lost her faith, Euteneuer wrote that, “All those who dare call themselves Catholic while shamelessly advocating the death of Christ’s ‘least brethren’ will not have the Supreme Court to appeal to on the Day of Judgment.” Yet Euteneuer wrote that he clings to the hope that Pelosi will someday want to reconcile with the Church that she has “so brazenly betrayed.” He told Pelosi that if that day comes, he is willing to hear her confession. “But get ready to do some serious penance,” he wrote.

Scott had an enthusiastic word to add: “Amen!” He also pointed out that Catholic Church leaders are becoming increasingly willing to confront pro-abortion parishioners. “And that can only lead to many blessings for the Catholic Church,” he said.