Priest: If you voted for Obama, better head to confession now

The bishop of the diocese disagrees with the priest.

McClatchy Newspapers

MODESTO, Calif. — Father Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Modesto, Calif., has told parishioners in a homily and in a follow-up letter that if they voted for Barack Obama, they should consider going to confession because of the president-elect’s pro-abortion-rights position.

“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,” Father Illo wrote in a letter dated Nov. 21.

The letter was sent to more than 15,000 members of St. Joseph’s parish. It is one of 34 parishes in the Stockton Diocese, which has more than 200,000 members in Stanislaus, San Joaquin and four other counties in California.

Though Obama’s support of abortion rights angered many Catholics nationally during the campaign, Father Illo’s letter is believed to be the first in central California from a priest to his parishioners on the topic.

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

Bishop Blaire said Catholics who carefully weighed many issues and settled on a candidate, such as Obama, who also was pro-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,” Bishop 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.”

Father 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.”

Father Illo also wrote that Obama “promised Planned Parenthood that the first thing he would do upon taking office is to sign the so-called ‘Freedom of Choice Act,’ which would grant unlimited access to abortion in all 50 states up until the moment of live birth.”