CBS propaganda, unpacked

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Apr 07, 2004

Last night's CBS News report on the controversy over whether John Kerry should receive communion stands as a model of inaccurate, selective-- should we say dishonest?-- reporting.

Correspondent David Paul Kuhn found several Catholic "experts" to back Kerry's side of the controversy; somehow he couldn't find anyone on the other side. So he produces some gross inaccuracies. A quick sampling:

The denial of communion to a Catholic eminent politician would be unprecedented. Experts cite such action as forbidden by Catholic cannon (sic) law, except in extreme cases that do not apply to Kerry.

Wrong. Eminent Catholic politicians have been excommunicated in the past; kings have been denied the sacraments. Although there has been no recent precedent in the US-- at least not involving a politician of national stature-- there is absolutely nothing in canon law that would forbid it. Archbishop Burke, a trained canon-law expert, knows full well that Church law is on his side.

Communion is a central tenant of Catholicism, meant to recognize Jesus’ last supper.

You don't expect an ignorant reporter to understand Catholic theology, so let's pass over the simplistic notion that the Mass "recognizes" the Last Supper. Focus instead on the statement that Communion is a "tenant." A "tenant" is someone who pays rent. Poor Mr. Kuhn can neither think nor spell.

If abortion were part of such a litmus test, so must other issues of equivalent substance to the Church, like its vehement opposition to capital punishment.

Baloney. The two issues are radically different. The Church has always taught that abortion is absolutely unjustifiable: the killing of the innocent. The Church has always taught-- and still teaches!-- that the state has the right to impose the death penalty. (Catechism 2266)

In recent years the Church has added the caveat that circumstances rarely justify the use of capital punishment. To be sure, in current Church teaching there is a strong presumption against the death penalty. But there has never been an absolute prohibition-- nor could there be, without a complete reversal of traditional teaching.