A Colorado bishop’s controversial edict linking politics, voting and taking communion has exposed a chasm within the Catholic Church that has reached into the Rogue Valley.

Some 250 people at Central Point’s Shepherd of the Valley Catholic Church — about half the active congregation — signed a petition to the bishop of Colorado Springs, Colo., opposing his ban on Holy Communion for those who disagree with the Church’s stance opposing abortion, euthanasia, stem-cell research and same-sex marriage — or those Catholics who would vote for politicians who stray from Church doctrine.

"It’s using communion as a reward or punishment and I don’t think that’s what Jesus intended it for," said the Rev. Jim Clifford of Our Shepherd, who opposes abortion but signed the petition. "The Eucharist is meant as food for the journey and is for people on that journey, whether they be saint or sinner."

The petition was mailed recently to Bishop Michael Sheridan of the Colorado Springs Archdiocese, who started the public controversy with his May 1 pronouncement.

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Archbishop John Vlazny, who oversees Southern Oregon’s Catholic parishes, has since reiterated Sheridan’s pronouncement, but with a caveat that some say amounts to a "loophole" allowing Catholics to use their own judgment in casting votes. The valley’s largest Catholic church, Sacred Heart in Medford, supports Vlazny’s view.

Clifford said Sheridan’s edict would likely "cause a great deal of confusion, tension and anxiety," adding to controversies already within the church about who should go to communion, a sacred Christian rite in which believers take bread and wine as the flesh and blood of Christ.

Clifford’s congregation was split on the issue.

"I signed it because I don’t feel the Eucharist is a bargaining tool," said Jeanne Ellen Podolske, Our Shepherd’s director of liturgy. "His (Sheridan’s) actions are not consistent with what scripture and the church tells me. The state of the world now is so complex that you can’t reduce it to one issue."

A "small percentage" of parishioners in attendance were "upset and angry" with the petition, but, Podolske added, "they vote with their feet and the best way to tell the true impact is by how many don’t come back next week. I didn’t see any difference."

Parishioner Ernie Balogh, 77, of Central Point, said, "I thought it (the petition) was negative right off the bat. I had no idea what the purpose of it was and no time to read it and think it through. It was a bolt out of the blue and it went against my principles, the catechism of the church and the teachings of the Cardinals."

Balogh opposed the petition because a Catholic can rid moral wrongs by confession before communion, but if a priest or parishioner "blatantly comes out" and circumvents church teaching, "there is no way they should take communion."

"If you in your own mind are against the teachings of the church, and you don’t say that and you take communion," he said, "you’ve done something wrong and it’s between you and God."

Ex-Trappist monk John Sack of Jacksonville, a parishioner with St. Joseph’s Mission in Jacksonville, said he would like to see the local church clarify the issue, especially around indicating how parishioners should vote — as such political pronouncements could lead to loss of the Church’s nonprofit status.

"The implication of it (Sheridan’s edict) is that, if you can’t vote for a pro-choice Catholic (Democratic candidate John Kerry), you have to vote for (President) Bush because he’s pro-life before you’re born — but after that, you’re anybody’s target," Sack said. "Killing born children and their parents seems to be fine with him. I don’t know how you can call him pro-life when he’s put 10,000 Iraqi civilians in their graves."

Chad Robinson, 79, of Medford, a member of Sacred Heart, echoed the view. "Anyone who supports politicians who vote for mortal sins should not get communion. The priest is not obligated to sort them out. It’s in the conscience of the person. Communion is offered only to Catholics in good standing."

In response to the controversy set off by Sheridan, Bishop Vlazny of the Archdiocese of Portland also said Catholics who vote for pro-choice politicians should refrain from communion. He oversees parishes in Oregon west of the Cascades, including those in the Rogue Valley.

However, Vlazny added, "if they are voting for that particular politician because, in their judgment, other candidates fail significantly in some matters of great importance, for example, war and peace, human rights and economic justice, then there is no evident stance of opposition to Church teaching and reception of Holy Communion seems both appropriate and beneficial."

That statement, said Sack, "sounds like a big loophole." If Catholics vote "yea" based on that issue (abortion), then they shouldn’t have communion, he said. "There are so many other reasons to dislike the Bush administration that this single issue of (abortion) seems fairly small."

The Rev. Liam Carey of Sacred Heart said his church is governed only by the region’s archbishop, Vlazny, and he’s been delivering Vlazny’s pronouncement in his sermons.

"A Catholic politician who publicly advocates legal abortion takes himself out of communion with the Catholic Church," Carey said. "Catholics who vote pro-choice solely because of the politician’s pro-choice stance take themselves out of communion with the church.

"But Catholics who vote on a number of issues and vote for a pro-choice candidate can receive communion because they don’t deliberately take themselves out of communion with the church."

The last possibility, Carey said, is not a loophole because a person can "take the easy way out, but would be called to be accountable based on their informed conscience."

Carey said a lot of bishops are being accused of trying to break down the wall between church and state, but, "I know they don’t want to do that."

"The real issue is — do bishops and Catholics have the right of free speech on political matters and do we have the right to determine the nature of our communion as Catholics?" he asked.

Clifford said Sheridan’s pronouncement focused on abortion and ignored recent "strong criticisms" of the war in Iraq by the Pope and Holy Fathers. Responding to aspersions about "cafeteria Catholics" who pick and choose what teachings they will support, Clifford said the church has always been that way, as evidenced by the divisive debate over birth control a generation ago.

"The Eucharist is not meant to be a reward given only to those who are good," Shepherd of the Valley’s petition, "but as food for the faith journey for those who sin and struggle. To imply that those who would vote for politicians having a major disagreement with the Catholic Church’s beliefs are unworthy of receiving the Eucharist is wrong and un-Christian."

John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org