The Politics of Denying Communion to Catholic Elected Officials

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2014-02-08

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

William D. Blake and Amanda Friesen, The Politics of Denying Communion to Catholic Elected Officials, The Forum, Volume 11, Issue 4, Pages 671–682, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/for-2014-0002.

Rights

This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston.

Subjects

Abstract

In his 2004 presidential campaign, John Kerry, a Catholic, was threatened with being denied Holy Communion because of his pro-choice voting record. This article investigates the extent to which communion denial impacted Catholic elected officials and analyzes public attitudes regarding communion denial for Kerry. The results of our analysis suggest that, despite heavy media coverage, few bishops endorsed the communion denial and few pro-choice Catholic officials were threatened. While the data also indicate there are meaningful political implications for public attitudes on communion denial, the tactic does not command support from many Catholics.