"It's the Bishops' Problem"

...In the ensuing barking contest, which dogs did not bark...

...He walked off into the night, but after a few yards, still obviously upset, he turned and said of the bishops: "It's their problem, not mine...

...What the senator said was orthodox Roman Catholic doctrine, "and since Santorum is an orthodox Roman Catholic, nobody should be surprised that he believes this...

...And anybody in that predicament is in trouble...

...Their inner thoughts may go something like this: If these bishops, really believed what they were saying about immortal souls being in jeopardy, they wouldn't be afraid to exercise the canonical powers at their disposal...

...Let mejuxtapose them without changing a word...

...We cannot allow a person who doesn't promote the sanctity of human life to appear that he was all for helping children when he's killing the unborn...

...In other words, he criticized the bishop for being a bishop...

...said Kerry...

...And your soul is in jeopardy...

...Davis made it clear that his support for abortion would continue...

...It is the crucial power that the bishop retains...

...For a brief moment, we held our breath...

...And what about the pope...

...And we will need bishops who will be happy as outsiders, not get-along Embassy Row types...

...They also believed in their cause more fervently than the Catholic bishops believed in theirs...

...That America is well along into a post-Christian and even anti-Christian era...

...PBS's Jim Lehrer—one of the more fair-minded journalists—showed just how gently the media treat those on the pro-abortion side...

...So that's the bishops' problem...

...It's their problem, not mine...

...At the same time, the American Life League published a "wanted" poster entitled "The Deadly Dozen!' twelve pro-abortion U.S...

...They can have it both ways...

...Anyone who thinks it is acceptable for a Catholic to be pro-abortion is in very great error, puts his or her soul at risk, and is not in good standing with the church?' He called on those who think it acceptable to be Catholic and pro-abortion to abstain from receiving communion...

...It has remained true to this day...

...If the bishops can't or won't do anything about that, don't come to me...

...I know who I am and what I believe...

...senators "Wanted for Fraudulently Claiming Catholic Faith:' Beneath each mug shot was the name of that senator's bishop...

...Daschle the other day, he pitched him a softball, inviting criticism of Sen...

...We live in a world, it noted, in which lawmakers "yield to ephemeral cultural and moral trends, as if every possible outlook on life were of equal value:' Catholic lawmakers have a "grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life...

...But we did not hear from the Catholic bishops...

...More recently, Bishop Robert Carlson of Sioux Falls sent a letter to Senator Tom Daschle telling him to cease identifying himself as a Catholic...

...Ever since, the "pro-choice" movement has gone from strength to strength...

...Catholics in the pews were delighted, but the governor's spokesman criticized Weigand "for telling the faithful how to practice their faith...

...The governor is "a faithful practicing Catholic who attends mass in West Hollywood!' his aide said...

...Kennedy's forty years in the Senate coincides exactly with the church's forty-year experiment with liberalism, which has shown no signs of flagging with the present pope...

...If he were really concerned about this, he would say something or do something about dissenters like us...

...Pat Buchanan asked...

...Now, the bishop has sent a letter and Daschle has replied that "I have been a Catholic all my life and will remain one...

...His exchanges with the Massachusetts senators were of particular interest...

...Lips sealed in the chanceries...

...Without such changes, the church will continue to dwindle away as a spiritual force in American life...

...In December, a priest who runs a home for children in Sacramento told the staff of Governor Gray Davis that the governor would not be welcome at a Christmas event...

...Either you change your mind, or you will be separated from the church...

...But he doesn't...

...In 1997, the bishop and the senator had sparred over partial-birth abortion...

...At present, however, it "can't or won't" (Kerry again) enforce its own membership rules...

...Carlson said that a Daschle compromise with enough loopholes to keep the abortion rights people happy was intended to provide "cover for pro-abortion senators...

...Then the senator repeated what former House Speaker Tip O'Neill apparently once said in front of several thousand priests and several thousand nuns, that 68 percent of them "support Roe v. Wade...

...He noted their unease as he spoke to them...

...Santorum (Daschle obliged...

...Senators Kerry, Kennedy, Mikulski, Susan Collins, and Jack Reed...

...It will take a new pope to change things...

...What does this trashing of Inadvertent Truth from Senators Kerry and Kennedy Santorum tell us...

...We call on all bishops and priests to respectfully refuse Holy Communion to these and all public figures whose unrepentant support for the killing of babies in the womb defiles the Mass and the Body of Christ?' Since then, two U.S...

...Not a word from Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has kowtowed to the rich and powerful throughout his prolonged misrule of the Los Angeles archdiocese...

...18 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR • JUNE/JULY 2003 It's possible that other bishops are engaged in "dialogue" (favorite word of woolly-minded clerics) with pro-abortion politicians who call themselves Catholic...

...To quote Richard Cohen, just because his orientation is that he is a moron doesn't mean he has to talk that way" She snickered as she said it...

...But it would take a serious archbishop of Boston, or possibly the pope himself, who called in either or both of them and spoke charitably but firmly: Look, we just can't have this...

...But they are indeed afraid, and what that tells us is that they say these things but don't really believe them...

...Senator Collins had "nothing to say...

...It turned out that the women's groups didn't just have the media on their side...

...In January, the Vatican issued a "doctrinal note" on the participation of Catholics in political life...

...He lurked in the corridors, waited at the Senate subway, questioned senators in elevators, and was able to reach five of the twelve "Deadly Dozen...

...We heard from Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen...

...Meanwhile, the church's social influence has greatly diminished...

...We heard from NPR's Nina Totenberg...

...His sister Eunice is also devout...

...In fact, that's what Sen...

...For them, "as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them...

...Governor Davis responded that he was "unapologetically pro-choice and I'mnot changing my position?' The bishop of Sacramento, William Weigand, then delivered a sermon in the cathedral, chastising the governor by name...

...We heard from the columnist John Leo...

...Little did we know that O'Connor was a pliant figurehead who was not remotely interested in opposing New York's Democratic, liberal establishment...

...And precisely because church and state are separate, the bishop should feel free to exercise it fearlessly, because politicians can neither appoint nor fire him nor tell him what to do...

...Asked how he could reconcile his liberal views with the hierarchy's, Kennedy said: "Look...

...Anthony Bevilacqua will be eighty in June and will lose his vote in the College of Cardinals: nothing to lose politically, maybe a lot to gain spiritually...

...Throughout, we heard a good deal of boilerplate about "separation of church and state," and John F. Kennedy's supposed resolution of the issue in 1960...

...I take my beliefs, I take my religion very seriously," Ted Kennedy said...

...But "I can tell you that the cardinal has not issued a statement" on Santorum, someone in his press office told me...

...Liberal commentary has come to this, I'm afraid...

...If the bishops can't do and won't say anything about that, don't come to me...

...And until they do, their self-identification as "practicing Catholics" will stand...

...Actually, I wouldn't put Kerry and Kennedy in the same boat...

...It is causing grave scandal...

...Kerry I am not so sure about, but I could be wrong...

...Kennedy was not just playing the familiar card when he said the church has made a big difference to his family...

...I'm guessing, but I think Kennedy could be reached, and not just on his deathbed...

...He had found time to issue a statement saying how "deeply distressed" he was over the Iraq war—the pope's sentiment, of course...

...I wondered if the archbishop of Philadelphia might come through with support for the Catholic senator from his state...

...We heard from supporters of the senator...

...That indeed is "the bishops' problem...

...This despite a plethora of "social policies," which themselves signal a culture of unbelief within the church...

...When he interviewed Sen...

...He added that Americans' "religious convictions are deeply personal!' implying, presumably, that if he wants to call himself a Catholic, no upstart bishop is going to tell him otherwise...

...Daschle responded that the bishop's comments were "more identified with the radical right than with thoughtful religious leadership...

...The question arose whether Cardinal O'Connor would dare to excommunicate the pro-abortion vice presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro...

...Kerry was telling Mark Stricherz...

...There have been several turning points since Roe v. Wade, and one came in the summer of 1984...

...John Kerry said he had to "represent all the people in my state," including Jews and Buddhists...

...The church doesn't have a very good record on child abuse, now does it...

...But he did no such thing...

...Senator Mikulski was borderline hostile...

...You know what I'm saying...

...But the excommunication option is not remotely likely at present...

...The senators perceive, all too correctly, that the bishops don't have the courage to excommunicate them (or anyone else, basically, but certainly not such politically prominent figures...

...Noxious fumes and nothing more...

...bishops have shown a modicum of courage...

...But the crucial comments of Kerry and Kennedy were oddly on the mark...

...Pro-life, Catholic reporters are rare, and getting into a position where they can ask senators awkward questions is not easy...

...The church's only "policy" should be the salvation of souls...

...The traditional Christian moral code is no longer the moral code of the American elite...

...His mother was a daily communicant and no doubt prays for him in heaven...

...Santorum is "a moron...

...What they are saying is that they can support any legislation they like (church and state being separate), can ignore Catholic teaching, and (here comes their defiance), they can continue calling themselves Catholic...

...JUNE/JULY 2003 • THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 19...

...But in a recent issue of Crisis, a journalist named Mark Stricherz managed to move this story forward a few yards...

...We only heard of the South Dakota case because someone leaked it to Jody Bottum of the Weekly Standard...

...Excommunication is what is called for...

...My religion has made an enormous difference to my family and my parents...

...Excommunicating people is about as far as you can get from the ecumenical outreach that has so obsessed John Paul II...

...He used a slippery-slope argument to caution the Supreme Court against overturning anti-sodomy laws, and said (in effect) "hate the sin and love the sinner...

...Then maybe you will believe that we take our church affairs as seriously as you take your affairs of state...

...But he asked no embarrassing questions about Daschle's own status as a Catholic...