Nigeria, Voting & Communion

The story de jour:

A Catholic bishop in Nigeria has instructed parishioners to show they have registered to vote in elections this April or be banned from communion, a newspaper This Day reported on Tuesday.

Bishop Francis Okobo, who oversees the diocese of Nsukka in the southeastern state of Enugu, authorised the circulation of a bulletin in Catholic churches on Sunday telling the faithful that they had to make their vote count in this year's elections.

...

"Whoever has not collected the voter's card after February 7 has automatically alienated himself or herself from the community, the Church, the nation and will not be allowed to receive the holy communion," the bulletin said according to This Day. [full story.]

Ed Peters makes a few clarifying points about the situation here.