Political Science Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-2013
Volume
11
Issue
4
Journal
The Forum
First Page
671
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1515/for-2014-0002
Last Page
682
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.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Citation of this paper:
Blake, W. D., & Friesen, A. (2013). The Politics of Denying Communion to Catholic Elected Officials. The Forum, 11(4), 671–682. doi:10.1515/for-2014-0002
