While
catching up on my Catholic-media reading this weekend, looking for Father
Dietzen's writeup on G. K. Chesterton and Santa Claus, I found a Catholic News
Service article titled "Confession Not Obligatory for Catholic Obama Voters", and caught the name
of Father Jacob Hujus.
Back
in our childhood – some 35-plus years ago (how can it be so many
years??) – Jake had been a close friend of my brother Doc… and, to a good
degree, of mine as well. Sometimes I'd join Doc when he'd visit Jake and his
large family at home, wander Dad's campus together (I think Mr. Hujus taught
there too, just like Dad), and so on. His parents were friends of our mother…
still are, in fact; Mother sent them a Christmas card this year, signing it
herself in her own still-shaky (but more-and-more-legible) handwriting.
I
heard from Doc only a few years ago, that Jake had long-since gone into the
priesthood. So I tracked him down and sent him an email, a year or two back,
asking if he could drop Doc a warn, gentle line when my brother – and his wife
and daughters – were working their way through his father-in-law's passing.
I
mentioned to Father Jake about my own interest in entering the priesthood
or/and professed-religious life (time and money and college-credits permitting)
and he responded with some back-then memories, and a bit of suggested reading
(e.g., Trochu's definitive biography of the gentle priest-saint John Vianney… a volume I already have, and had
begun reading).
Now,
here he was, in 2008, seriously ruffling feathers over the contention that
voting for Barack Obama was tantamount to a mortal
sin. As I've been pointing out here for some weeks now, concurring with U.S. bishops
and priests, this is incorrect. Although… let me also say that I do not profess
to be wiser or more moral or more correct than any professed Roman
Catholic priest. My old childhood-friend and I simply do not share the same
interpretation of Church teaching on this.
I
also lack his education and experience.
Catholic
News Service
STOCKTON,
Calif. (CNS) — A Modesto pastor urged his parishioners to receive the sacrament
of penance if they voted for President-elect Barack Obama, who supports
legalized abortion, but Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton said the
sacrament was not obligatory for Catholics who supported Obama.
"Requiring
all Catholics who voted for a candidate with a pro-abortion record to go to
confession is not in accord with the moral guidelines set out in 'Faithful Citizenship'," said the bishop,
referring to the U.S. Bishops' 2007 document on political responsibility.
Bishop
Blaire, in a statement released Dec. 1, said that
"determining the moral culpability of an individual Catholic who votes for
a candidate with a pro-abortion record is a very complicated matter."
He
said that if a Catholic voted for a candidate "with a pro-abortion record
with the motivation of supporting that abortion stance, then that is a grave
moral matter."
This
may be what friend Father Jake was getting at, and I very much agree with that.
I plan to send him an email asking him… asking him what? – to clarify?
Probably, as with all priests, he's extremely busy (and not just due to
Advent), and doesn't need the distraction of a non-pastoral inquiry from the
other end of the country. I may just let him know that he has my full support
in all things… but this one. How do I do so without seeming sarcastic, or
holier-than-thou? Brother!
Anyway,
the article continues:
The
bishop's statement came in response to a Nov. 21 letter sent to parishioners by Father
Jacob Hujus, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Modesto, that urged
parishioners to "go to confession before receiving Communion" if they
were among "the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion
candidate" and had a clear understanding of the candidate's abortion
stance.
According
to exit polls, 54 percent of Catholics across the country voted for Obama.
The
priest said he could not say if parishioners should refrain from receiving
Communion, because he didn't know what they were thinking when they voted, but
he stressed that "voting for a candidate who promises 'abortion
rights'...is voting for abortion. It is a grave mistake and probably a grave
sin."
The
priest's letter, available on the parish website gained attention beyond the parish
after it was reported in the Modesto Bee daily newspaper Nov. 29 and
picked up by other media outlets.
Since
then the parish has added a special link to its website to enable people to
e-mail their comments on the letter.
[note:
I couldn't find that "special link"; my own link above comes from a
public-media source]
The
priest also clarified the meaning of the letter in a Dec. 1 homily [and in a December 19 letter to his parishioners], stating that he never meant
that simply voting for Obama made it necessary to go to confession. Instead, he
stressed that parishioners risked a "state of grace" if they voted
for Obama while fully aware of his position on abortion.
Father
Hujus said the president-elect has publicly supported the Freedom of Choice
Act. The latest version of the legislation, introduced in 2007, would establish
federal protection of abortion as a "fundamental right" throughout
the nine months of pregnancy, regardless of existing state laws to restrict it.
However, it is not clear it will even be reintroduced into the new Congress.
The
California newspaper reported that Father Hujus had a long line of parishioners
greeting him after Mass Dec. 1 offering their support. The priest told the
paper that he never "condemned Barack Obama." Instead, he said,
"we must condemn a policy that eliminates the rights of a whole class of
people."
In
his letter, the priest said he knew that many people were "confused about
the issues. It is a difficult time for us all, and we are facing new social and
cultural issues." But despite such confusion, he said, "one thing is
clear and certain: We can never vote for a candidate who promises to promote
abortion."
A more
detailed read of this full article sets my mind at ease; the couple-paragraph
excerpt printed in the Baltimore Archdiocesan newspaper did not include Father
Jake's clarification, and seemed to cast him and his viewpoint as practically
demanding Obama's Catholic voters hit the confessional en masse (pardon the
unintended pun), and was in hot water with the Bishop. I gather he's still a
one-issue voter… but now his heart and compassion show through as well.
I
must add that I'm very much with Father Jake on this Freedom of Choice Act
legislation; I hope to address that here at some later point.
Stop the presses!
I
was about to sign off when I caught one more article, this posted today at the
website for Father Jake's hometown newspaper:
Modesto
pastor admits confession request went 'beyond' church
By
Sue Nowicki
last
updated: December 22, 2008
03:57:51 PM
The
Rev. Jacob Hujus, pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto, made
national headlines last month when he sent a letter to parishioners saying they
might need to go to confession before receiving Communion if they voted for a
pro-abortion candidate such as President-elect Barack Obama.
In
the new letter to the 5,600 households in his parish, Hujus does some
confessing of his own.
"I
realize that [my previous letter] goes beyond what the Church has actually
stated," he said in the letter, dated Dec. 19. "The Church does not
state that voting for a candidate who promotes the practice of abortion is
always a mortal sin."
He
added that in his personal opinion, abortion outweighs other moral issues, such
as war, capital punishment, poverty, racism, hunger, etc. But, he added, he
submits to the authority of Bishop Stephen Blaire on this issue.
He
concluded his letter with this:
"During
Advent, we meditate on the mystery of the God's Son forming in Mary's womb. May
Our Lady intercede with her Son, that we may cherish all human life,
particularly the smallest and most vulnerable."
Hear,
hear!
The
letter of clarification was sent after a tidal wave of national publicity
drenched the parish and diocese following the earlier letter, dated Nov. 21.
CNN had asked Blaire for an interview about his priest's statements. Four television
networks and a handful of radio stations carried the news far beyond Hujus's
intended audience.
"My
brother in Denver called and said, 'Hey, dude, you're on the news.' "
Hujus said on Dec. 1 about the impact of his initial letter. "We are
flooded by calls and e-mails from all over the country. Some are cheerful and
grateful. Others are enraged at me."
The
vast majority of Hujus's parishioners supported the priest's stand. He said
most of his e-mails — before it hit the national news — was running about 12 to
1 in favor of him.
Hujus
said Monday the parish has received about 825 e-mails, phone messages and
letters since his initial letter went public. About 40 percent of those —
mostly from people out of the area — criticized his views. The rest supported
him.
He
doesn't anticipate another landslide of comments following his second
letter.
"I
think it's over," he said.
"I
learned that it's important for spiritual leaders to engage the current moral
issues of the moment," he added. "I feel we've had an open and
respectful dialogue overall. There were lots of good comments. It was fairly
constructive. The nasty letters were minimal.
"It's
important for the churches to be involved in the democratic process, just like
churches were involved in the civil rights issues in the 1960s."
[name
withheld], a
long-time St. Joseph's parishioner, was one of his parishioners upset by Hujus's
initial letter. "I was steaming," she said in an early December
e-mail.
She
said Monday she was "glad to get the [second] letter. This kind of cleans
things up a little bit. I like him, and I feel a little bit bad for him that he
had to soften the edges."
But,
she added, "I think he was dead wrong [in the earlier letter]. I believe
in a loving God who understands. ... How can we tell people they are in mortal
sin?"
Blaire
was traveling Monday, but issued a brief statement through Sister Terry Davis,
director of communication for the diocese.
"He
appreciates that Father Hujus made some necessary clarifications," Davis
said. "The bishop would like to highlight the two areas that required
clarification: No one can make general statements about the imputability of
guilt. Each person in his or her own conscience stands before God. And second,
no one can make general statements assuming the intentions that people have
when they vote."
Jan
Tsaki, a spokeswoman with the Obama transition team in Washington, D.C., said
Monday, "We're going to decline to comment" on Hujus's letters.
