Allow me a moment of suspicious speculation …
Earlier today we noted reports that President Bush had told one of the Pope’s chief advisors (actually Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state) that “Not all the American bishops are with me” on cultural issues and asked the Vatican to nudge the American bishops toward greater ‘activisim’. The issues of Bush’s concern were gay marriage, abortion and stem cell research.
Now, out of context it’s not immediately clear what such ‘activism’ might mean. But perhaps here is some of the context.
The question of whether pro-choice politicians (particularly Democrats, it would seem, and particularly one named John Kerry) should be denied communion has been roiling the country’s Catholic bishops. And starting today, June 14th, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will gather in Englewood, Colorado and one key item on their agenda will be to arrive at some guidelines or uniform decision on this issue of denying communion to Catholic politicians.
The archbishop heading the task force on this question is Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington. In public statements he has said that he is uncomfortable with the idea of denying communion to Catholic officeholders. And for this he’s been the target of a high-priced ad campaign by a group calling itself the American Life League.
Finally, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said recently that he would like to meet with the Bishops on this question.
(For what it’s worth, a recent poll of lay Catholics shows they lean strongly against denying communion to the likes of Kerry, and even a majority of weekly church-going Catholics opposes the idea. And even some of the more conservative cardinals at the Vatican have recommended caution.)
Now, a decision which leans in the direction of placing a sanction Kerry would of course be helpful to the president. But a decision which led to denying communion to various Catholic politicians who dissent from various Church-positions could quickly get out of hand. So one of Karl Rove’s chief conservative Catholic allies, Deal W. Hudson — with whom he has recently been strategizing — has tried to simplify the issue.
Here’s a clip from the Post …
Karl Maurer, vice president of Catholic Citizens of Illinois, a conservative grass-roots group, said he would add sodomy and gay marriage to that list. Some liberal grass-roots groups have said they believe the church’s teachings against war and the death penalty are worthy of equal treatment.
“Once you open this door, what’s going to come rolling through it?” asked Deal W. Hudson, editor of the magazine Crisis and a key Catholic ally of the Bush administration. “Pretty soon, no one would be taking Communion.”
Hudson said he believes the denial of Communion should begin, and end, with Kerry. Even better, he said, would be if priests would read letters from the pulpit denouncing the senator from Massachusetts “whenever and wherever he campaigns as a Catholic.”
Hudson’s and Rove’s agenda here seems rather clear.
Now, put all this together. When the president tells Vatican officials that not “all the American bishops are with me” and then asks them to push the bishops to greater ‘activism’, what might he be getting at? Think about it.
