The Archbishop of Newark said his recent call for abortion rights supporters to abstain from Communion will attract worshippers - not alienate them.

"I believe Catholics are looking for clear statements about the convictions that we hold," the Most Rev. John J. Myers said Friday in his first news conference since his statement was published in a diocesan newspaper two weeks ago.

Myers was questioned about the May 5 statement in The Catholic Advocate during a news conference to introduce two new auxiliary bishops, Msgr. Thomas A. Donato and John W. Flesey, to replace two bishops who had reached the mandatory retirement age of 75.

The appointments of Donato, 63, and Flesey, 61, to replace retiring auxiliary bishops Msgr. David Arias of Hudson County and Charles J. McDonnell of Bergen, were approved by the Vatican, on Myers' recommendation.

In the Communion statement, which is posted on the diocesan Web site, www.rcan.org, Myers did not instruct clergy to bar abortion rights supporters from taking Communion. Rather, he asked them to refrain voluntarily.

"With abortion, there can be no legitimate diversity of opinion," Myers said in a five-page pastoral statement. "The direct killing of the innocent is always a grave injustice."

The week before Myers published his statement, Camden Bishop Joseph Galante said he would refuse Gov. James E. McGreevey Communion over McGreevey's abortion rights stance. McGreevey responded by saying he would no longer take Communion in public.

Later, state Sen. Bernard Kenny, the Democratic Senate Majority leader, a Catholic who supports abortion rights and lives within the Newark archdiocese, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he would leave the church, in part over the abortion issue.

On Tuesday, Myers' office announced that a panel he had convened recommended merging 48 parishes. That would mean closing two dozen churches, mainly in urban areas such as Newark and Jersey City, where membership and demand for church services have been declining.

Newark is among 16 diocese nationwide in which bishops have asked abortion rights supporters to abstain from communion, according to Washington-based Catholics for Free Choice. In addition to Galante, the group said three bishops in five diocese have banned communion for abortion rights supporters: Raymond Leo Burke in LaCrosse, Wis. and St. Louis; Michael Sheridan in Colorado Springs and Fabian Bruskewitz in Lincoln, Neb. The group said 135 diocese have not taken a position.

Frances Kissling, the Catholics for Free Choice president, laughed when informed of Myers' assertion.

"It's inconceivable that the bishop would think that this would bring Catholics back to the church," said Kissling. "They were driven out in the 60's by the decision to forbid birth control, and they're not likely to come back because the church has become more rigid on these issues."

Myers also said Friday that there was nothing inconsistent about singling out abortion among other public issues, including the death penalty, as a litmus test for Communion.

"Now, the church discourages the death penalty," he conceded. But, he added, "there are some instances in which it can be tolerated."

Abortion cannot be, he said.

Abortion is not the only issue on which politicians and clergy have clashed in New Jersey recently. Assemblyman Peter J. Barnes of Edison, a Democrat who opposes abortion, said during an interview for cable television that his own pastor had refused to shake his hand over Barnes' support for stem cell research.

"He turned his back on me," Barnes said on New 12 New Jersey's "Power & Politics," to be aired Saturday and Sunday. "He considered me to be a sinner."

This article courtesy of the Associated Press.