- The Washington Times - Friday, November 4, 2016

A Catholic church is under fire in San Diego for calling support for the Democratic Party a “mortal sin” and linking Hillary Clinton to Satan.

The Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Old Town made local headlines with a pair of handouts given to parishioners in recent weeks. Churchgoers were given a leaflet on Oct. 16 that charged Democrats with deliberately sinning, and another on Oct. 30 for “Voting Catholic,” respectively.

Support of abortion and same-sex marriage were listed in the first bulletin as proof that a Catholic is consciously turning away from God. The second handout quoted Mrs. Clinton as saying “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be change” for America to become a more perfect union.

“The devil does this through the tactics outlined by [author] Saul Alinsky with the outcome as Hillary Clinton has stated, ’And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be change,” to draw us away from God’s teachings regarding the sanctity of life to those of the world and its prince,” the handout reads, a local NBC affiliate reported Thursday.

Mr. Alinsky’s famous 1971 book for political activists, “Rules for Radicals,” gave an acknowledgement to the “first radical” to obtain “his own kingdom — Lucifer.”

“I disagree with these things they’re putting in the bulletin. I think it’s a disgrace,” parishioner Michael Alcaraz told the station.


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San Diego’s Bishop Robert McElroy issued a statement on the matter as the controversy spread.

“Let me stress again that while we have a moral role to play in explaining how Catholic teaching relates to certain public policy issues, we must not and will not endorse specific candidates, use parish media or bulletins to favor candidates or parties through veiled language about selectively chosen issues, or engage in partisan political activity of any kind,” the bishop said.

Kevin Eckery, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, told the NBC affiliate that it was unknown how the first insert made it into the church bulletin.

• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.

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