NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Jan. 9, 2004

Priests of parishes where such lawmakers attend Mass must withhold communion from them until the lawmakers publicly renounce their support of abortion rights, Burke said in the decree, posted on the diocese's Web site.

Burke also has written letters to three Roman Catholic lawmakers, telling them they risked their faith if they continued to vote for measures he termed "anti-life," including abortion and euthanasia.

Burke was named archbishop of St. Louis in December and will be installed there later this month. Pope John Paul II has yet to name Burke's replacement.

State Sen. Julie Lassa, a Democrat, received a letter from Burke and has said she would not let religion decide how she serves her constituents.

Judie Brown, president of the Washington, D.C.-based American Life League, praised Burke and called his move a "historic first step forward in dealing with the problem of pro-abortion Catholic political figures."

The Diocese of La Crosse is home to more than 200,000 Catholics in 169 parishes in west-central Wisconsin, according to its Web site.

© 2003 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Editor's note:
FREE e-mail alerts from NewsMax.com – click here now!