Proving Ordination Doesn't Automatically Lead To Enlightenment

Another one track mind in the Catholic church proves just how fallible the one-track mind can be:

Parishioners of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto have been told they should consider going to confession if they voted for Barack Obama, because of the president-elect's position condoning abortion.

"If you are one of the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion candidate, you were clear on his position and you knew the gravity of the question, I urge you to go to confession before receiving communion. Don't risk losing your state of grace by receiving sacrilegiously," the Rev. Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph's, wrote in a letter dated Nov. 21.

Nice, huh? Vote republican...or else. In fairness to this priest's boss, the Bishop of the Stockton diocese, doesn't necessarily agree with Father Illo:

But the Most Rev. Stephen Blaire, bishop of the Stockton, Calif., Diocese, said he disagrees with Illo. He said Catholics should not feel compelled to disclose how they voted to their priest.

Blaire said Catholics who carefully weighed many issues and settled on a candidate, such as Obama, who was supportive of abortion rights, were not in need of confession. He said confession would be necessary "only if someone voted for a pro-abortion or pro-choice candidate -- if that's the reason you voted for them."

"Our position on pro-life is very important, but there are other issues," Blaire said. "No one candidate reflects everything that we stand for. I'm sure that most Catholics who voted were voting on economic issues.

"There were probably many priests, and I suspect many bishops, who voted for Obama."

Apparently the boss is wrong. More from Illo, who apparently places greater value on the life of a fetus than the life of the mother, the tortured, the hungry, the uninsured, and the souls of the war dead:

Illo's letter states, "Many Catholics voted for such pro-abortion candidates thinking that their good positions on other issues, such as the war or health care, outweighed their deplorable stand on abortion."

Basic human rights don't matter for the living according to Illo--you have more value as an unborn fetus. Hate to hear what he has to say about the right to be happy.