Voting for Clinton Is Sin, Priest Says : Religion: Riverside cleric’s bulletin mentions Democratic nominee and warns against backing candidates who favor abortion rights. Political statements are against church policy.

A conservative Roman Catholic priest has warned members of his Riverside congregation that if they vote for political candidates who support abortion rights they will be guilty of committing “mortal sin.”

Father Louis Marx, writing in a church bulletin, admonished parishioners that abortion is an “unspeakable crime” and that electing officials--including Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton--who would permit such a “grave injustice” is wrong.

Marx’s published statements have prompted the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino to investigate the matter. It is against Catholic Church policy to endorse or oppose political candidates.

Employees at Marx’s St. Francis de Sales Church said the bulletin was distributed at a Sunday Mass last month.

Marx, along with all other priests in San Bernardino County, was attending a retreat in Palm Springs on Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

His warning comes in a question-and-answer segment of the bulletin, a copy of which was obtained by The Times.

“Q. Would it be mortally sinful for a Catholic to vote for a politician who condones abortion (and would likely try to implement policies that enforce a woman’s ‘right’ to it)?,” Marx wrote.

“A. I believe the Church,” he continued, “teaches that any Catholic who votes for a candidate who publicly favors abortion on demand . . . is guilty of a mortal sin if he knows that this is gravely contrary to God’s law as taught by the Catholic Church.”

Marx goes on to quote from the Wanderer, a conservative Catholic publication based in St. Paul, Minn. As cited by Marx, the Wanderer specifically warns against voting for Clinton.

“Since Gov. Clinton is adamantly pro-abortion, and supports the so-called Freedom of Choice Act that would allow unrestricted abortion on demand in the United States, any Catholic, (who) knowing this and yet votes for him in November, is guilty of an objectively grave immoral action.

“The same is true, of course, of a vote for any pro-abortion candidate for political office,” the Wanderer concludes, according to Marx’s citation.

Clinton has said he is not “pro-abortion” but favors a woman’s right to choose abortion. The Freedom of Choice Act would prohibit states from outlawing abortion.

Efforts to reach the Wanderer in St. Paul were unsuccessful.

Bishop Phillip F. Straling of the San Bernardino Diocese was on the retreat with Marx and could not be reached for comment. But Father Al LoPinto of the same diocese told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that Straling was examining Marx’s published remarks and would issue a “clarification” later this week.

“Father Marx had no right to publish in his bulletin that selection from the Wanderer,” LoPinto told the Press-Enterprise.

He added that parishes are instructed not to endorse or oppose candidates for political office or “engage in any partisan political activity.”