By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Kathleen Sebelius was raised to be a Catholic and elected to be a governor. A church leader is turning that into an uncomfortable intersection.

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann is requesting that Sebelius choose between his will and the oath she swore to govern the state of Kansas to the best of her ability.

Put another way, her choice is this: Sign anti-abortion legislation that is an affront to patient privacy, constitutional rights and good government, or cease receiving Communion.

Sebelius’s lot is to govern a state that is home to one of the few physicians who administers late-term abortions. Consequently, Kansas is the base for some of the nation’s most aggressive anti-abortion groups.

Their clout reaches into the statehouse, where lawmakers annually present the governor with measures loaded with obstacles for the state’s abortion providers.

Sebelius, a Democrat who supports abortion rights, has actually made life easier for legislators. Secure in the knowledge that she will veto their bills, lawmakers aren’t required to seriously consider the irresponsibility of their legislation.

In a column published in the archdiocesan newspaper The Leaven, Naumann chastises Sebelius for her recent veto of a bill which legislators titled the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act.

Naumann, of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, describes the bill as an attempt to “protect women” considering abortion by making sure they are well-informed about the development of the fetus they are carrying and alternatives to terminating their pregnancy.

But Kansas law already requires physicians to inform patients about those things. The purpose of the legislation Sebelius vetoed wasn’t to reduce the number of abortions in Kansas. The intent was to diminish women’s authority to make medical decisions and ease the way for lawsuits against providers.

The bill would have empowered siblings, parents, grandparents and spouses of pregnant women to seek court orders to stop abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy, and made it easier for county prosecutors to gain access to women’s medical records.

As Sebelius pointed out in her veto message, the bill, “allows a variety of individuals to seek a court order preventing a woman from obtaining an abortion, even where it may be necessary to save her life.

“I am concerned that the bill is likely unconstitutional or even worse, endangers the lives of women,” she wrote.

Her position is logical and responsible, but Naumann is having none of it.

“The governor has spoken to me on more than one occasion about her obligation to uphold state and federal laws and court decisions,” he wrote in his column. “I have asked her to show a similar sense of obligation to honor divine law and the laws, teaching and legitimate authority within the church.”

There’s nothing wrong with public servants using the tenets of their faith to guide their decisions in office. But Naumann is asking Sebelius to place his dictates above the law of the land. That’s a problem.

The archbishop also leaves Sebelius no leeway to follow “divine law” without subscribing to the agendas of Kansas’s radical anti-abortion groups. Her attempts to reduce abortion through measures such as adoption subsidies, better health care for pregnant women and sex education in the schools have left him unimpressed.

Naumann told The Kansas City Star that atonement for Sebelius would involve a confession, an apology and a promise to repair the damage caused by her “scandalous behavior that has misled people into dangerous behavior.” Until then, he has requested that she not receive Communion.

“I pray this pastoral action on my part will help alert other Catholics to the moral gravity of participating in and/or cooperating with the performance of abortions,” he wrote.

Perhaps. But Naumann’s harsh request is more likely to alert the public to an uncompromising stance that forces Catholic politicians to choose between ethical public service and participation in their church.

Barbara Shelly is a member of the editorial board. She can be reached at 816-234-4594 or at .