Oh Dear: The Pope Is Catholic!

Pope Benedict just won the trifecta.

In the last week, three events have combined to create a remarkable "teaching moment." The horse race began last week at the first Republican presidential debate.

There, Philadelphia native and Irish Catholic Chris Matthews of MSNBC asked presidential candidate Mitt Romney: Do you think it violates the separation of church and state for Catholic bishops to deny Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights?

Romney, a Mormon, appeared puzzled to be asked a question involving a matter of internal Catholic policy. Maybe, Mitt must have thought, Matthews has me confused with Rudy Giuliani or Sam Browback (or Democrats Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry or Teddy Kennedy). No matter. Romney, as Mister Dooley might have seen, seen his opportunity and he took it.

Given the chance for an unexpected whack at the ball, Romney proceeded to hit it out of the park. Look, buddy - Romney said, or words to that effect - that's between you and your bishop. But, however that comes out, it sure doesn't violate separation of church and state. Any church has the constitutional right to determine its internal policies free of state interference, for example, who can receive Communion and who cannot.

The second event occurred in Mexico City, a very Catholic country.
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...as theologian George Weigel has written, Benedict's election as pope means that the 40-year effort by secular humanism to force the Catholic Church to adapt to secular humanism's view of man and the world has failed. Indeed, this latest episode, like Jane Kramer's piece on the pope and Islam in the April 2 issue of the New Yorker - which Weigel scorned as "The New Yorker Spins the Pope," proves the truth of his observation:

[These people who keep expecting a change of the church's position] really ought to find [themselves] new ... sources. [They] remind me of nothing so much as those unfortunate Japanese soldiers found on remote Pacific islands in the 1970s - men who never, somehow, got the word that Emperor Hirohito had packed it in 30 years ago ... It's over. Get over it.

The second question, of course, is how this week's clear direction from the Holy See will end up being implemented in the United States, especially in the coming election year.
. . .
The archbishops of St. Louis and Denver have, similarly, been outspoken (about pro-abort politicians receiving Holy Communion)...
Is the church's teaching clear? Crystal. Then it's time to talk about mercy.
Clarity ... and mercy. Something we all need.

By: James G. Wiles , For The Bulletin