Jay Scott Newman

CBS Mum on FOCA in Story On Priest Warning Pro-Obama Parishioners

CBS News has found a Greenville, S.C., Roman Catholic priest who has warned any and all of his Obama-voting parishioners to repent of voting for the Illinois Democrat before taking Communion, owing to the president-elect's "stance on abortion."

Yet in reporting the November 14 story on its Web site, CBS News failed to ever mention by name the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), the signing of which Obama famously declared would be a top priority in his presidency.

Catholic clerics worry FOCA could overturn freedom of conscience laws in many states that allow Catholic hospitals to operate without being legally required to perform abortions, a fact left unmentioned in the story.

SC Catholic Priest Makes Firm Post-Election Doctrinal Statement on Abortion and Voting

Why wasn't there more of this before the election?

The headline at a Greenville, SC News story carried at USA Today says, "Priest urges penance for Obama voters."

Father Jay Scott Newman is actually demanding it of those who would claim to be faithful Catholics. In the process, he is also stating longstanding Church policy on abortion that has largely been absent from Sunday pre-election homilies at Catholic churches for at least a half-dozen presidential election cycles -- policy that Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, and other politicians who claim to be Catholic have long ignored (bolds are mine):