Church retracts Obama stance

A Roman Catholic priest should not have told parishioners who voted for President-elect Barack Obama to refrain from taking Holy Communion because of his stance in support of abortion, the church’s senior officer in the state said.

Monsignor Martin T. Laughlin said in a statement posted on the diocese’s website that the church should not be drawn into “the partisan political arena.” Earlier this week, Father Jay Scott Newman said in a letter to parishioners at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion without first doing penance for voting for the Democrat.