Pittsburgh's Catholic bishop said yesterday that Catholic politicians should not support legalized abortion but that he does not advocate denying them Holy Communion.

Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Bishop Donald Wuerl speaks to the St. Thomas More Society at the City-County Bldg. yesterday concerning the Catholic Church's stance on abortion and politics. Click photo for larger image. On the Net: A full text of Bishop Wuerl's remarks is available at www.diopitt.org/addresses_loebig.htm

Bishop Donald Wuerl said pro-abortion rights legislators should stop receiving Holy Communion of their own accord, but he said he would not withhold the sacrament, as another bishop indicated he would in the case of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry, a Catholic whose public position is to support abortion rights.

Wuerl said the Vatican does not speak of sanctions against those in public life who do not live up to the "grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life."

He said it was up to the individual to listen to the church's teachings on abortion and then make a determination on receiving communion, rather than for the bishop to decide. But he did say it was up to each bishop to make the decision to impose sanctions.

Wuerl said he preferred to focus on teaching rather than punishment; the church's bishops must clearly and consistently teach that abortion is evil. "It is intrinsically wrong and is never able to be justified."

The bishop spoke at the annual luncheon of the St. Thomas More Society, an association of Catholic lawyers, in the City-County Building, Downtown.

Wuerl never mentioned Kerry by name, but the Massachusetts senator's bid for the White House and his public stance on abortion rights has rekindled the issue among Catholics.

Kerry has said he supports abortion rights. He also has claimed, as a Catholic, to agree with the church on abortion as a matter of faith but doesn't think he should legislate personal beliefs.

Kerry's aim and that of other Catholic politicians to separate their personal and public positions on abortion has prompted debate among the nation's bishops on how to approach the issue of Catholic politicians who differ from the church. They are generally said to be leaning against sanctions for fear of a backlash by voters.

But such political calculations played no role in his decision, said Wuerl, an influential member of the American hierarchy. Church leaders simply need to do a better job of teaching about the evil of abortion, Wuerl said. "Sanctions won't achieve that goal."

While some bishops, such as Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis, have announced they would deny communion to Kerry, Wuerl lines up with Kerry's own archbishop, Sean O'Malley of Boston, who has urged abortion-rights legislators to refrain from communion but left the decision in their hands.

Wuerl's speech was greeted with hearty applause by an audience of 50 people. But several questioners wondered why the Catholic bishops weren't scrutinizing politicians who take stands on other issues that go against church teachings.

One woman who praised the church's anti-abortion stance expressed concerns about "Catholic elected officials representing themselves as pro-life but who are very much in favor of the [Iraq] war. We have the worst record in health care of any country in the world. What about the mother and baby after the baby is born?"

"You're not pro-life unless it's from womb to tomb," added another audience member.

And when a third asked why the church doesn't apply the same scrutiny to politicians who support the death penalty, Wuerl noted that the 2002 doctrinal note that clarified the Vatican's position on abortion does not call capital punishment intrinsically evil. The church opposes capital punishment, but mainly because the nation has the ability to incarcerate criminals rather than execute them.

Still, Wuerl noted there were many areas where people fail to live up to church teachings, and that "it's the church's job to hold up those issues" for scrutiny, but the right to life is the primary issue facing the church today.

"There's nothing more basic than life itself," said Wuerl. "That's the reason for the intensity in this debate."