Matt C. Abbott
Illinois priest: Trump voters are 'going to hell'
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By Matt C. Abbott
November 4, 2016

At least one Catholic priest in the Chicago area apparently believes that people who vote for Donald Trump will go to hell.

An acquaintance of mine, Ted (not his real name), wrote the following in an email:
    After Mass today I was praying in front of the tabernacle – I was all alone in the church – and our pastor in the back of the church said, 'I don't care who hears it. Anyone voting for Trump is going to hell. It's a mortal sin.'

    This is an absolute bush league cheap shot toward me.... I'm just going to keep praying for him.
Ted is an orthodox Catholic layman. The priest who allegedly made the remarks is Father Jack Plotkowski, pastor of Saint Zachary Parish in Des Plaines, Illinois.

Through email, I contacted Father Plotkowski – as well as the associate pastor and two officials in the Archdiocese of Chicago's communications office – to get his side of the story.

As of the time this column was submitted for publishing, there's been no response.

A priest who makes such foolish and destructive statements is, quite frankly, a danger to souls. Even if it was somehow his idea of a joke (which I sincerely doubt), it was a terrible one. A sick one.

I can only imagine the type of horrid advice he might be giving to Catholics seeking his priestly guidance on important moral matters.

Contrast what Father Plotkowski allegedly asserted with what Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, recently asserted regarding the choice between Trump and Clinton:
    ...[T]he alternative to Trump is monumentally worse – not only in terms of the candidate personally, but of the entire army that follows him or her into so many offices like secretary of state, of HHS, surgeon general, attorney general, and thousands of other positions, not to mention the courts.

    We don't just elect an individual to the presidency; we elect an entire army of people whose worldview is marked by the party platform....

    What an incredible reparation Mr. Trump is making now for any past faults by the very fact that he is running as the Republican nominee for president and is ready to nominate the right kind of judges and sign the right kinds of legislation, which will steer our nation away from so many morally corrupt public policies. A penitent sinner could hardly have a more substantial opportunity to make reparation.
© Matt C. Abbott

 

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Matt C. Abbott

Matt C. Abbott is a Catholic commentator with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication, media, and theatre from Northeastern Illinois University. He also has an Associate in Applied Science degree in business management from Triton College. Abbott has been interviewed on HLN, MSNBC, Bill Martinez Live, WOSU Radio in Ohio, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's 2019 ‘Unsolved’ podcast about the unsolved murder of Father Alfred Kunz, Alex Shuman's 'Smoke Screen: Fake Priest' podcast, WLS-TV (ABC) in Chicago, WMTV (NBC) and WISC-TV (CBS) in Madison, Wisconsin. He’s been quoted in The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and other media outlets. He’s mentioned in the 2020 Report on the Holy See's Institutional Knowledge and Decision-Making Related to Former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick (1930 to 2017), which can be found on the Vatican's website. He can be reached at mattcabbott@gmail.com.

(Note: I welcome and appreciate thoughtful feedback. Insults will be ignored. Only in very select cases will I honor a request to have a telephone conversation about a topic in my column. Email is much preferred. God bless you and please keep me in your prayers!)

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