The Roman Catholic bishops of New Jersey won a victory in imposing adherence to church doctrine when Gov. James E. McGreevey bowed to their wishes and on May 5 agreed not to take communion. Several days prior the bishop of Camden had said he would deny McGreevey communion because of his positions.
On May 5, John J. Myers, the Archbishop of Newark issued a pastoral statement saying it was 'objectively dishonest' for Catholics to seek communion if they do not completely support Church policy. He focused on abortion but also mentioned 'euthanasia, cloning' and domestic partnerships for gays.
The governor, who is devoutly Catholic, called the statement 'unfortunate.'
The New Jersey Star-Ledger, in an editorial, quoted presidential candidate John F. Kennedy speaking in 1960: 'I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute—where no Catholic prelate would tell the president, should he be a Catholic, how to act.'
The newspaper continued, 'It is ironic that the Catholic Church itself is now insisting on precisely this kind of loyalty from Catholic politicians. A half-century after Kennedy dismissed these fears as unfounded bias, the church is giving them new life.'
'To bar someone from communion for that array of beliefs strikes me as new territory,' wrote gay conservative columnist Andrew Sullivan. 'The Church, in effect, is endorsing one political party over another.' He called it a 'dram of the religious right: to destroy the Catholic base of the Democratic party, create a hard-right rump of true believers, and integrate the latter into the GOP.'
The United Methodist Church ruled May 4 that its supreme ecclesiastical court does not have the authority to review the case of lesbian pastor Karen Dammann. She will be allowed to continue serving her church in Washington State, but likely will not be reappointed during that annual process because church law bars 'self-avowed practicing homosexuals' from the ministry.
The General Conference of the nation's third largest denomination, meeting in Pittsburgh, also defeated by 638 to 303 a resolution that would allow local regions of the church to decide whether or not to allow openly gay ministers to serve.
Conservatives shocked the body May 6 with a resolution calling for dissolving the church and reforming it into conservative and moderate organizations, dividing property and the pension fund proportionately. The Conference passed a unity resolution 869 to 41.
President Bush marked the National Day of Prayer, May 6, with remarks before guests that included James Dobson, leader of Focus on the Family. The event was broadcast on radio and TV channels of the religious right.
That drew the charge from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State that both the White House and the nonprofit organization behind the event were trying to politicize the day.