...or has the Vatican Council given way to the Vatican Counsel?

The headline should be "Catholic Bishops Discover the American Legal System". It's true. After two decades of acting as if the courts were some leper colony to be avoided at all costs, America's Catholic bishops have suddenly come to the realization that the Church can actually appear in front of a judge as something other than defendants. Having spent untold millions on legal fees and out of court settlements (money donated by good Catholics) the Church has decided that it can risk a few more pieces of silver to sue the Dept. of Health and Human Services. Specifically, the suit was filed by, among others, the University of Notre Dame, Catholic University and the Archdiocese of New York. (The fact that Cardinal Timothy Dolan is running for Pope played no part in this decision.)

The Church's position is that the HHS mandate that Catholic hospitals and schools provide employees with birth control and morning-after anti-pregnancy meds is somehow a violation of its right to practice its religion. In today's Washington Post, Cardinal Wuerl of Washington D.C. suggests that every church, school and hospital is an outward expression of faith and therefore equal in law. Were these institutions free-to-all, that argument might carry some weight. The fact that they are engaged in commerce clouds that picture. Nevertheless, this is America and the law allows for the fair hearing of grievances in front of a judge. Personally, I hope the RCC falls on its ass but what I think is of no consequence. (However it might be nice if the 95% of Catholics practicing birth control stopped acting soooo offended by the HHS and stood in opposition to bishops who have never missed a meal to feed a child.)

Of larger consequence is the galactic hypocrisy of a Church that, having avoided courts, lawyers and well, justice since its dirty little pedophiles started making news, is now marching into court with no hint of shame. Timothy Dolan couldn't find a courtroom with a map and a GPS device when the time came to prosecute priests for sex crimes with children. The bishops of Rome scurried like roaches when the lights of scandal came on. To this day in spite of tens of thousands of cases of child abuse not one priest has been marched into a precinct by a monsignor or bishop. The current case being tried in Philadelphia is a monument to church obfuscation and misdirection. Monsignor William Lynn, on trial for child endangerment after leaving known pedophiles in parish positions, has blamed everyone, including a dead cardinal, for the Church's neglect. Lynn is the only cleric to be hauled into court to face charges.

So now after twenty years of disgrace, denial and duplicity the Catholic Church has the unmitigated gall to use the legal system to make some obscure point about whether a hospital is a church. Far be it from me to suggest that Rome has decided the best defense is a good offense but check the facts. No archdiocese has sued any state to stop an execution even though the RCC is opposed to capital punishment. The Church hierarchy in Washington State has taken no legal action against that state's assisted suicide law. And we all thought Catholics took a dim view of assisted suicide. Face it. This suit against HHS is misdirection at its best. Timothy Dolan can appear righteously indignant for the NY media and piously defend his anti-birth control policies while never addressing the garbage cans under the piano. Pay no attention to that smell gentlemen. Instead focus your attention on those evil condoms. Seriously!

...or is the War on Religion being fought with very large egos and very small, round pills?

Meanwhile, down the street from the Unitarians...

The Catholics were girding for war. The gauntlet having been thrown down by Barack Obama and the Department of Health and Human Services, Catholics are being told that their very survival is at stake. America's Catholic Bishops are in conclave (conclave is like a meeting but everyone wears a dress.) deciding whether the fig leaf solution to the contraception problem offered by the Godless dictators in Washington can be accepted.

Really, this contraception squabble works for the Catholics on several levels. First, it diverts attention from the 500lb scandal that has plagued the RCC for the last fifteen years. "Pay no attention to all those pedophile priests and our institutional attempts to cover them up. The real issue is birth control pills". Second, it bestows on the Church the sacred cloak of victimization. Catholics who haven't seen the inside of a church since Aunt Clara passed are rallying around the old rugged cross. "Our blessed church is under attack. Man the barricades. ..right after we check Google Earth to see where the Church is." Nothing unifies the mob like a common enemy. For the moment we can forget that 98% of Catholic families have ignored the Church's teaching on birth control.

This controversy isn't likely to refill the pews at Our Lady of Infinite Indifference but it will at least afford the RCC the opportunity to make the papers for something other than sexual abuse. Priests can actually appear in public without their attorneys. Having been handed this marvelous public relations gift do not expect the bishops to let it rest. The debate among the prelates will be less about insurance coverage than about spin. This will require some delicacy...never an RCC long suit. Too much dogma and you risk alienating all those Catholic women who not only use birth control but have it paid for by their employers. Not enough pressure and the "evil oppressors" in Washington might seem less evil.

A tactical hint might be the statement by New York's newly minted cardinal, Timothy Dolan, who opined that the compromise suggested by the administration was a " step in the right direction". The wrong tone was offered by Cardinal George of Chicago who wrote that "liberty of religion is more than freedom of worship. Freedom of Worship was available in the Communist Soviet Union." Suggesting that government mandated contraception coverage is tantamount to state suppression of religion is a sure way to remind your audience why they left in the first place. The idea is to look principled but reasonable. No matter how much damage you inflict on Barack Obama you won't get Rick Santorum elected.

Actually, Catholics and Republicans have the same problem but for exactly opposite reasons. The Catholics are victims of a hierarchy whose reactionary policies have made them irrelevant. Catholics can make up their own minds about what constitutes a Catholic whether or not that view comports with Rome. Thus we have "cafeteria" Catholics. The GOP on the other hand is being dragged to the extreme right by its congregation. In this case its the leadership is resisting. Of course the Catholic bishops aren't running for anything (except for Cardinal Dolan running for Pope). The Church doesn't need consensus, although it would help fill a church or two.

The bishops will, no doubt, drag this debate beyond Easter and on into the summer. Catholic Americans, being Americans first, will lose interest and focus on the start of baseball season and the NBA playoffs. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum will take their War on Religion on the lecture circuit where this red meat issue will stand in stark contrast to the chicken dinner they've just eaten. Catholicism will survive but in a diminished role. Mostly, American Catholics will come to believe that their obligation to their church is satisfied if they lustily root for Notre Dame football on Saturdays. Go Irish!

...or will the GOP continue its vagina dialogues through November?

WOW!

I'd run out and buy a lottery ticket but I've already hit the liberal blogger trifecta: the Republican Party, the Catholic Church and Rush Limbaugh. If we could work in Sarah Palin, I could retire.

Yes, I know you're sick to death of women's health and contraception, of sluts and Santorum, of birth control pills and Georgetown health insurance but honestly, would you rather be talking about gas prices? Hell, even the double-digit IQ crowd that listens to Rush would rather agitate over how many birth control pills prostitutes need as opposed to God-fearing Christian girls.

In order to properly understand what happened to sane intelligent discourse it's important to understand a few facts. (Facts being those things which are harder to find than condoms in the Santorum bedside table.):

Health Insurance and the government- Twenty eight states in America currently mandate that employers cover birth control pills as part of comprehensive healthcare. Many of those states make no provision for religious institutions whether they be churches or church-run businesses like hospitals or universities. So almost half the states already have birth-control mandated and as far as I know Bishop Fishhat of the Roman Catholic Church hasn't said a word. So why bring it up now? Why is the provision more odious when it's national? (BTW, these state laws have been signed by such notables as "Governor" Mitt Romney and Rev. "Governor" Mike Huckabee.)

Women's health vs the First Amendment - Freedom of Religion as stated in the Constitution covers the establishment of a state religion and the "free exercise" of anyone's faith. I fail to see how a government mandate to provide health insurance coverage for contraception in any way violates the Constitution. Catholics are still free to practice their faith without interference. Government has been sensitive to church prohibitions and exempted them from the law when employees of the church itself are affected. When ancillary businesses such as hospitals are concerned however, churches are expected to obey the law. How does this violate a Catholic's right to practice?

Barack Obama and the War on Religion - I suspect that no one was more surprised than Barack Obama to learn that he had declared war on religion or war on the Catholic Church (You have to hand it to Newt. When he says "War on the Catholic Church" you can actually see Joan of Arc on Pennsylvania Ave.) Having been castigated for spending twenty years at the feet of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the President expected attacks on his patriotism not his faith.

Nevertheless Congress, anxious to do anything to divert the country's attention from its complete and total ineptitude, lept to action. Rep. Darrell Issa of California empaneled a committee and elicited testimony from "experts"...all men, all white, all older than that condom high schools kids carry in their wallet. Honestly, the panel looks like the reunion photo from the graduating class of a Presbyterian seminary circa 1958. It took a Democrat to permit the testimony of one woman, a law student, to present the argument for the other half of the population. And thus we get...

Rush Limbaugh and his appalling lack of grace and information - It's difficult to believe that the level of discourse in America has sunk so low that anyone would listen to or comment on a cancer like Limbaugh. His listening army of salesmen and retirees routinely spend three hours a day wallowing in every form of racist, misogynistic, reactionary bile a twisted soul can conceive. Unbounded by good taste, courtesy, or the slightest nod toward justice or fair play, Limbaugh has attacked anyone and everyone with innuendo, half truths and distortion. This is slime in its purest form.

However, this is a country founded on free speech. He gets to be a pig and we defend his rights. He's welcome to verbally abuse entertainers, politicians and public personalities for the amusement of his drones and the delight of his advertisers. Fame carries some peril (ask Sarah Palin). His right to be a turd however does not extend to ad homonym attacks on private citizens. The birth-control related testimony of Sandra Fluke before a Congressional Committee does not make her a public person. Attacking her as a "slut" and a "prostitute" is beyond disgraceful; it's libelous. It's also buffoonish. To expound on a woman's contraceptive needs is boorish. To do so with no actual knowledge is comic. Limbaugh's assertion that Ms. Fluke's sexual cravenness necessitates multiple contraceptive applications would be clownish if not so hurtful. Tragically, this incident and ten more like it won't end Rush Limbaugh. Boycotts have been suggested but the only boycott that may prove effective would be if women withheld sex from every husband who listens to that asshat. Not that Rush's audience gets laid all that much anyway!

Regardless of how this comes out, women will have access to contraception because, no matter what they say in public, men, fathers, lovers, adulterers and especially priests, do not welcome unintended blessed events. One might even expect to find a little round dispenser squirrelled away in the medicine cabinet of the Rick Santorum Little Red Home Schoolhouse in Great Falls, VA. After all, what student of military history doesn't remember the old World War I song "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ortho Novum"?

...or is the Catholic Church universally guilty of inappropriate behavior?

Another country heard from. The Catholic Church in the Netherlands has been deluged (how biblical) with complaints of child molestation and abuse. From 1945 to 1981, between 10,000 and 20,000 children were abused in seminaries, boarding schools and orphanages. The Dutch commission has identified hundreds of priests involved both in the abuses and the cover-ups. Once again the Church in Rome offered its scripted heartfelt apologies and meaningless mea culpas. Once again no police were notified. Once again no priest or bishop was publicly arrested. Once again no bishop was expelled. Once again no offer to surrender Church files or documents was made. In other words the Holy Roman Catholic Church remains the largest fraud in the history of religion. Their "heartfelt apology" is worse than useless. The charlatans in Rome will wring their hands and bow their heads until the headlines fade. At that point they will return to business as usual, which is covering-up; hiding the proof of crime and hoping the fools who still occupy the pews on Sunday will believe their lies and misdirection...until the next country is heard from.

If anyone out there is offended...tough. The world has been forced to choke down one horrific scenario of abuse after another. Their pattern, like the perpatrators', never changes. Anyone who thought the crimes of pedophile priests were confined to the United States, Ireland, or Germany is probably foolish enough to believe that The Netherlands will be the end. It won't.

...or should we listen when the Catholic Church says gay marriage is a perversion?

After all, who would know more about perverts than the Catholic Church? They run the pedophile academy.

Truly, I would give anything to be able to ignore the Catholic Church and their gang of pedophile-enabling ostriches who think rock and roll causes men to fondle little boys. I would love to just chuckle at the false conclusions that imagine the collapse of civilization in any action that runs contrary to Church dogma. Honestly, it's amazing that the cult of hubris that brought the world the Crusades, the destruction of civilizations throughout South America and the Inquisition would have the colossal gall to pontificate on the potential harm of gay marriage. After the Church's befriending of Hitler and Mussolini at the expense of Europe's Jews and the systematic, century-long torture of Ireland's youth, you might expect a little modesty. Perhaps a retreat to a retreat. No such luck.

Five minutes after the New York State Senate approved the gay marriage amendment, New York's archbishop Timothy Dolan was ominously predicting dogs and cats sleeping together. "You think it's going to stop with this? You think bigamists aren't going to want their rights to marry?" The good bishop went on to rant about men wanting to marry their sisters but no one was listening by then. At least he stopped short of the fears expressed by former Senator Rick Santorum or Bill O'Reilly (both Catholics) who were confident that people marrying their domestic animals was the next logical step. (Santorum clearly had his eye on a fetching presidential elephant.)


Where is Rome during all this hysteria? Where are the cool deliberate members of the Curia to calmly lay out the Church's view? "We in the House of Celibacy are opposed to any wedding that doesn't involve one man and one woman. (Exceptions include nuns who 'marry' themselves to Christ.) We uphold this teaching even though we can find no passage in the New Testament that shines any light on how Christ felt about gays. We, as a religious institution however, have no control over how non-members spend their time. If gay people want to marry, ponce around in thongs and drink sidecars, that's none of our affair."


Instead, Rome allows publicity-seekers like Archbishop Dolan to blog and release statements condemning the actions of people over whom they have no authority. Why does the CC give a fig what gay people do? You would think that an organization rife with pedophiles and their enablers would tend to their own knitting. New York State law does not compel Catholic priests to perform gay marriages. (New York State law does compel bishops to report cases of child abuse and molestation but so far none have done so.)

The institution that is the Catholic Church has never gotten over the loss of its temporal power after the Reformation. It can't stand being relegated to the same public status as boutique religions like Jews and Druids. They would welcome state-sponsored religion, as long as it was theirs. They watch Evangelical Christians elect God-squaders to office in Iowa and Texas and they seethe. Even in countries like Italy and Ireland no one is listening to orders from the Holy See any more. The Church's attempts to prevent the sale of birth control pills and its efforts to prohibit divorce (both crimes against women) have crumbled in recent years. European Catholics haven't lost faith, they've simply lost faith in a Church that never appears to be looking out for the faithful. "Thou shalt cover your ass at all times" is the new eleventh commandment.



The Wall Street Journal carried an op-ed from the leader of the National Organization for Marriage (read hetero marriage) Maggie Gallagher (Irish Catholic). Ms. Gallagher devoted the entire column to affirming that when gay marriage is put to a vote, it is always defeated. At no time does she propose a single reason why anyone should oppose gay marriage or what harm it does. Her entire argument is that courts and legislatures as well as all media have a perverted liberal bias and that the people know best. Fortunately, the "people" weren't consulted prior to the Emancipation Proclamation. The "people" were excluded from participating in the "Loving vs Virginia" case in 1967 which finally allowed blacks to marry whites. The "people" want the borders closed but they also want cheap produce. The "people" love capital punishment but rarely support it when the "best people" are accused. The "people" hate welfare but love Medicare. The "people" hate taxes but love their police and fire depts. We elect legislators to protect us from the tyranny of the majority. Courts and government bodies encourage the angels of our better nature.

The legislature of New York State did the "people" a favor. Maggie Gallagher, Archbishop Dolan and every other member of the faithful who finds gay marriage offensive will now have to find something else to hate. Ms. Gallagher could devote her time to helping battered women, especially Muslim women, escape abusive relationships. As for the Archbishop of New York well, he might blog on why, after 2,000 years of Catholicism, women are still relegated to second-class status; why nuns are treated as little more that chambermaids; why the priesthood is still a male-only club? But mostly, he can explain why an institution like the Catholic Church, with its bloody and abusive past, continues to use fuzzy doctrine as a cudgel to deny people basic civil rights? That includes not just the right to marry but the right to be spared the attentions of pedophiles.

...or should the Catholic Church stop taking public relations advice from BP?

"Every time I try to get out, they pull me back in." I know exactly how Michael Corleone feels. Each new article about how the Catholic Church is reinvigorating its efforts to get past the sexual abuse scandals reminds me that we have heard it all before. Whether the newest revelation occurs in Germany, France, the U.S. or Belgium the plot remains the same. Some Cardinal is forced into a public statement regarding new details of abuse by the priests in his diocese. The prelate is, of course, dismayed (he can hardly be shocked). New safeguards are promised, new apologies are made,victims are consoled. No one thinks it ironic that the consolation comes from the same source as the abuse.

The Vatican has depleted its supply of sackcloth and ashes. All the hair shirts have been distributed. We all know how very sorry you are. Tragically however the remedies remain half hearted and still smell of an incense-ladened cover-up. The Catholic Church in the person of his Holliless the Pope is still praying night and day that this sorry mess just goes away. Praying is all they have left. Blaming the media didn't work. Painting the Church in America as an isolated cauldron of sin failed miserably as Germany, Ireland and now Belgium exploded in the press. The clerical spin-doctors in Rome have blamed everyone short of Pontius Pilate for the consistent, pervasive, systemic patterns of sexual abuse inside the Roman Catholic Church. The time for blame is over. Fix it.

There is only one way to get passed this tragedy: call the cops. The Church in Rome has continually dodged the simple remedy of treating their abusive priests as the criminals they are. The Church wants to protect them as though the transgression was akin to stealing from the poor box or being drunk during Mass. The Holy See has attempted to enforce a statute of limitations on older cases hoping to leave adult victims without remedy. If Catholicism ever expects to restore any shred of moral superiority to its institutions, they must prosecute each and every verifiable case of abuse. Period. Anything less makes a mockery of the entire concept of organized religion.


No one should care if Rome continues to refuse ordination to married men or to women. If the Vatican wishes to see itself become extinct while clinging to out-moded traditions, so what? There is no shortage of churches to absorb the faithful. God will still be God. However, Rome must clean house. Any priest found guilty of abusing a child must be defrocked immediately and publicly. The time for "handling these things "in-house" has passed.Think Spanish Inquisition only without the rack.



By the way, just to show that Pope Benedict XVI hasn't lost his comic touch, attend the tale of his recent trip to the UK. While touring in England the Pope announced the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, a former Anglican priest and scholar who lived in the nineteenth century and converted to Catholicism. Cardinal Newman believed that the Church of England and the Church of Rome should reunite. Considering the thousands of Protestants barbecued during an earlier attempt at reunification this was not an especially popular notion. Also, Benedict had previously proclaimed that Popes should not participate in the beatification process. Apparently the Pope chose to break his own edict in order to poke a finger in the eye of the country in which he was a guest. Smooth.

...or is a Church with too many secret societies bound to have too many secrets?

In what appears to be an earnest effort to (finally) get ahead of the sexual abuse scandal in his Church, Pope Benedict XVI is moving to clean up at least one aspect of ecclesiastic criminal conduct. The Pope has ordered an investigation into the administration of a sub-sect in Catholicism called the Legion of Christ. Turns out that this nest of uber-Catholics was founded and led by Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, a Mexican bi-sexual priest with a string of offenses that would make a cartel druglord blush. His list of mortal sins includes: drug abuse, the wholesale plagiarism of a book, financial irregularities within his organization and, the ever popular, sex with both seminarians and female members of his flock. (For bonus points, he had a child by one of them.) On the plus side, he did give up sweets for Lent.


This little episode didn't surface recently amid global tales of clerical transgression. Father Macial's peccadillos have been under investigation since 1956. That's 54 years. Allowing for the glacial movement of the wheels of justice, this is the equivalent of holding the Nuremberg trials in 2002. If you're wondering what was holding up the show, look no further than the usual suspects. It seems that Father Macial had a friend in a very high place. Before Pope John Paul II went knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door, he spent twenty years defending this despicable felon. Apparently the ability to recruit priests (with the offer of candy and a ride in the pope-mobile) and his ability to raise money, trumped morality and obedience to one's vows. When an investigation was launched by the bishop of Mexico City, it was squelched by none other than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger aka Benedict the sixteenth of that name. To be fair, there is a rumor afoot that the order to halt the investigation came directly from JPII. Little messy scandals like this are why a rush to sainthood for the former pope is such a bad idea.


Of greater concern to the Church should be the damage done to her already tattered reputation by the revelation of secret societies within the clergy and the laity. We aren't talking about religious orders of priests and nuns who operate in the open and whose good works are legion. However, super groups like Regnum Christi (a sub-sub set of Father Maciel's "Legion") and Opus Dei have amassed money and power behind closed doors. Rome has been thusfar unable to resist the lure of devout sub-groups with big money and backstage passes to the halls of influence. The RCC has been less tolerant of organizations like the Freemasons or the Oddfellows whose leadership Rome does not control.


The problem with anointing these over-the-top zealots is that, like all poor sinners, they have feet of clay. Revelations of financial misconduct or sexual dalliance among its leaders taint not just the group but Mother Church as well. Considering that Rome has spent 50 years attempting to perfume the smell coming from the Legion of Christ, it becomes difficult to plead ignorance.


Sadly, Benedict has not moved to disband the Legion. A symbiotic relationship stretching back through six pontificates is difficult to sever. Nevertheless it needs to happen. The Vatican must consult a dictionary for the meaning of "catholic". Mine says, "universal, involving all". This isn't Scientology. There aren't levels of devotion. There is no "my faith is stronger than your faith" test. If you're so inclined, become a priest or a nun or a deacon. Forget secret societies and secret handshakes. Nothing good ever comes of meetings held in the dark.

...or has The Wall Street Journal discovered the real criminal in the Catholic Church scandal?

Thank you Rupert Murdoch! Because of your tireless editorial contributors at The Wall Street Journal we now know where the real trouble with the Roman Church can be found. It's not the hundreds of pedophile priests roaming the sacristies of America and Germany (so far). It's not the institutional torture and abuse of generations of children in Ireland. It's not the bishops and cardinals who looked the other way to protect Mother Church from repeated accusations. It's certainly not Our Holy Father in Rome (bless yourself here) who showed compassion for a predator priest rather than the deaf children he mistreated. No, my friends, the real villain in the piece is...The New York Times.


As a result of a nifty bit of misdirection, William McGurn, sometime writer for the WSJ and full- time conservative abuse denier, has determined that the reporting of the Times is biased (well they're owned by Jews, be Jesus) and unfair to the Church he loves. He contends that Laurie Goldstein (note the name) left several inconvenient facts out of her report of the case of Father Murphy and the 200 abused, deaf children in the archdiocese of Milwaukee. Ms. Goldstein failed to report that the lawyer for the abused children has been suing the cassocks off the Catholic Church since these abuse allegations began to surface. I guess one man's crusader for justice is another man's ambulance (or possibly Popemobile) chaser. I'm not sure how Father Murphy's heinous crimes become less vile because his victims' lawyer has profited from RCC misdeeds.


McGurn also contends that, because Rome got the case thirty years after the fact, prosecution would have been difficult. Really? If The Vatican had a statute of limitations on crime, why are they still sneering at the Jews for killing Christ? Besides, it takes thirty years to do anything in the Catholic Church. Don't believe it? Ask someone trying to annul a marriage.


None of this matters worth a damn. The Church failed to act in the case of Father Murphy out of self preservation, period. Mr. McGurn can rearrange the deck chairs any way he likes, it won't change the destiny of the Church's ship. Rome has handled this mess shamefully. Given the opportunity to purge itself of this stain it has chosen instead to obfuscate and misdirect.


Rome's last/best hope to reclaim the moral high ground involves a Reverend Joseph Jeyapaul. Father Jeyapaul has been charged with two counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct in Greenbush, Minn. in 2004-2005 in connection with the alleged abuse of a 15 year-old girl. Father Jeyapaul is currently serving in Ootacamund, India and has no intention of returning to America to answer the charges. To keep Mr. McGurn happy, it should be noted that the plaintiff in the case is represented by Jeff Anderson, the lawyer involved in many of the other abuse cases.



If the Vatican is serious about its desire to reverse hundreds of years of ignored abuse, they will box Father Jeyapaul in a nice FedEx package and deliver him to Minnesota before you can say Pentecost Sunday. Rev. Jeyapaul may or may not be guilty but if the civil authorities in Greenbush are satisfied enough to indict, the Catholic Church must acquiesce. If Rome obstructs, you should expect a flood of indictments extending all the way back to the Chair of Peter. The Church would do well not to confuse infallibility with immunity.

...or is Albert Pujols the only Cardinal with any consistency?

The abortion villagers are at the gates again brandishing their torches and pitchforks. They claim to speak for God and are demanding that everyone, and I mean everyone, kneel to their will. I speak of the Catholic Church, in the person of its middle management, which continues to attempt an ecclesiastic coup in the United States. Not content with advising its adherents to respect the life of the unborn, they are bound and determined to alter the American justice and legislative systems to do their bidding. In 2004, Saint Louis archbishop Raymond Burke forbade Sen. John Kerry from taking communion in his domain. It is impossible to know whether this action cost Kerry any votes among Catholics but when the margin of victory in Ohio was 130,000, any issue could be seminal.



Today's effort to control the world comes from Cardinal Edward Egan of New York. The good Cardinal has attacked the Jesuits of Fordham University for their plans to honor Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Justice Breyer is to receive the Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize. Cardinal Egan has voiced his objection to this honor on the grounds that Breyer has voted early and often to uphold Roe vs. Wade. Apparently the archdiocese is unimpressed with the hundreds of other decisions that have marked Justice Breyer's fifteen years on the High Court. Hello, Pierre the bridge builder!



Breyer will be the seventh justice to receive the Fordham-Stein award. All were on the "wrong" side of Roe. There have also been three former Attorneys General. None of those awards caused so much as a ripple around St. Patrick's Cathedral. That might be because none of the other recipients were announced before an American Presidential election. Fortunately, the Jesuits have a long and storied history of thumbing their noses at Church authority. You can expect that Cardinal Egan's blustering will receive all the attention it deserves...none.



Having grown up under the sometimes heavy hand of the Roman Catholic Church, I am at a loss to understand why they have chosen the abortion question as the cause celebre and why in the United States. Abortion, in one form or another, is legal in all 27 European Union countries where the number of abortions is much higher. That includes Italy and Ireland where Church influence is systemic and pervasive. Why the U.S.? Perhaps the folks in Rome feel a natural kinship with the neocons of the Republican party. In Europe, religion is almost never a part of the political discourse. Politicians never pander to the God squad. No one cares what you believe. They care how you will govern. What a novel concept!



Strangely, the Church has not been nearly as vocal on other issues it considers sinful. One never hears of popes and bishops railing on about adultery. The last time I checked, the prohibition on adultery was still listed in the Ten Commandments right between killing and stealing.

And what about capital punishment?If state sponsored murder doesn't rate a little papal indignation, what does? No one in the Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy made a peep when George W. Bush ran for President from one of the most execution-happy states in America. Does war count? No one tried to excommunicate Jack Kennedy for invading Cuba. At least the U.S. government isn't in the abortion business directly. I suspect that if you want to know why the RCC considers one sin more worthy of protest, you'll need to buy a ticket to Rome.



Nevertheless, neither the Republicans nor the Catholics have had any success making abortion part of the presidential election in 2008. It would appear that in the face of an economic meltdown of biblical proportion, the only God America wants to pray to is Henry Paulson. It only took a President of epochal mediocrity to remind the country that leadership and false piety aren't synonymous. In fact, they don't even pray in the same church.

...or should Pope Benedict XVI take a vow of silence?

Isitjustme has stayed away from discussing the Roman Catholic Church at least in part because some of my best friends, etc. However a notice in the paper this week reminded me that it isn't just the right wing Protestant loonies that require watching.

For no particular reason, the Vatican issued a statement this week reinforcing the Church's position on gay marriage. The Holy See indicated that the subject was "non-negotiable" and that Catholic, elected officials should act accordingly. Holy white smoke, Batman. That's a helluva thing!

Way back in 1928 the Democratic party nominated the affable Governor of New York, Al Smith, to run for President. Al was the first Roman Catholic to be so honored. He was thumped by Herbert Hoover partly because much of Southern America believed that if we elected a Catholic, the United States would be run by edicts from Rome. Jack Kennedy would have to overcome the same prejudices 32 years later. Most Catholics at the time found the idea absurd. Why would the Pope be interested in meddling in the affairs of Washington? Well, here we are in 2007 and it turns out that the rednecks of 1928 were right to be concerned.

The delightful irony of this is that American Catholics rarely listen to the doctrines of Rome on any issue. In the U.S. 80% of Catholics practice birth control. (It's probably closer to 99% but some just won't fess up.) About half of the faithful in the U.S. are in favor of leaving Roe v. Wade where it is. The Pope has about as much clout in America as the Dalai Lama or the Archbishop of Canterbury. Perhaps the Vatican will have better luck with the members of Congress.

To be fair, the Catholic Church and many other denominations, view abortion as murder. On that basis the Pope is right to speak out against Catholics in government who support what the Church sees as state sponsored homicide. This really is non-negotiable for Catholics. However, the last time I looked, marriage was a civil matter. While the Church affords marriage sacramental status, priests are licenced by the state to preform what essentially is a secular function. By excoriating legislators to bend to the will of Rome on gay marriage, the Pope is interfering in a non-religious, civil issue. This would be similar to encouraging the owners of Yankee Stadium to prohibit the sale of hot dogs on Friday nights during Lent.

Can you imagine if any other religious leaders attempted to superimpose their doctrines on America? Rabbis could lobby for road closings to discourage travel on Fridays after sundown. Imams could demand the prohibition of liquor sales (again) to conform to Islamic law. The American Congress has managed quite nicely for the last 220 odd years without the infallible interference of the Holy Father. Here's the deal. If the Pope doesn't attempt to tell us how to run America, we won't tell him how to remove Father Chester the Molester from the priesthood.

If Benedict XVI wants to create a better America by having our laws modeled after Church teachings, how about we invoke the Catholic Church's prohibition against suicide and ban smoking? American Catholics might not have clean souls but at least they would go to hell with clean lungs.