St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop Bernard Hebda wrote a letter to priests in Minnesota asking them not to vote in Tuesday’s Democratic primary out of concerns over privacy. The letter, obtained by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, points out that voters must now request the party ballot they want, and the preference is recorded and distributed to political party chairs across the state. Hebda warned his priests that the data, “could be seen as ‘partisan’ political activity to align oneself with a party and to vote in its primary, which the Church generally discourages clergy from doing for evangelical reasons.” The new regulation in Minnesota also asks voters to be in “general agreement with the principles of the party” which would ultimately prove tricky for Catholics since none of Democrats on the ballot have campaigned on the side of traditional Catholic issues like birth control, abortion or LGBTQ issues. “Counseling the avoidance of partisan political activity helps ensure that the priest retains an identity as a credible witness of the Gospel,” Minnesota Catholic Conference Executive Director Jason Adkins said in a statement.
