Ugh. This kind of thing really makes me mad.
No More Mister Nice Blog points to this article in the New York Times about the Governor of New Jersey, a Democrat, being threatened with the denial of communion because of his position on abortion rights.
Note that this is his political position on abortion rights, not his personal position on the morality of abortion. This is a vital difference, or at least it would be if our political system was as it should be.
Also in the article is this mention of John Kerry:
"The discussion has centered on the question of whether John Kerry should be invited,'' said Joseph Zwilling, the spokesman for the archidocese. "There has been no decision reached on that."
NMMNB points out that in each of the past three years (as far back as he checked) Republican Pro-Choice Catholics and Democrat Pro-Choice non-Catholics have attended this dinner. Examples: Rudy Guliani, George Pataki, Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, Chuck Schumer.
Only Pataki and Guliani are both Catholic and Pro-Choice, but they're Republicans so the issue was never raised.
The typical excuse for this is "they're not running for President" and therefore are not subject to as much scrutiny. Right, this is obvious by the intense scrutiny the church placed George Bush under when he was running for President.
The other obvious flaw with their position is that they have singled out abortion rights as the one true test of someone's Catholicism, while conveniently ignoring popular Republican positions like the death penalty, social justice, and like that.
As a non-religious person, this kind of thing offends me more than I can explain. I would find it no more offensive if we were suddenly seeking approval of our politicians from the "Church" of Scientology.
All of these organizations should lose their tax-exempt status. It's just ridiculous.
