Abortion: A Bishop Says No

"The harm you are doing by espousing the 'pro-choice' view will require great efforts to repair," San Diego Bishop Leo Maher wrote last week to Lucy Killea, 67, a Democrat running in a special election for California's state senate. He then applied a little used sanction that denies Communion to Catholics who "obstinately persist in manifest grave sin." Killea says she will abide by the decree but will not change her position. She is the first political candidate to receive this censure.

Catholics who take pro-choice stands have been particularly frustrating to the nation's bishops, who have been asked to respond decisively to dissenters. But a spokesman said it is highly unlikely that Maher's precedent would become national Catholic policy.