The New Holy War

First, it was Vatican officials suggesting that American Catholic politicians who don't toe doctrinal lines on abortion should be denied access to Holy Communion. Doing bad things to rebellious politicians, or merely deleting them from Grace, is one thing. Now the Bishop of Colorado Springs is upping the ante, saying that any Catholic who even votes for such a candidate should be turned back from the altar. In fact, the Bishop's "pastoral letter" was even broader than that, "saying that American Catholics should not receive communion if they vote for politicians who defy church teaching by supporting abortion rights, same-sex marriage, euthanasia or stem-cell research." (New York Times coverage here.)

So if Nancy Reagan were a Catholic and because she is currently advocating for stem-cell research, she would be thrust into the outer dark, where there is weeping, wailing, and the gnashing of teeth? Reckon so. In other words, we seem to have arrived at a place and time where the Eucharist will be used as a political weapon, at least in Colorado Springs, by a hierarchy that knows a thing or two about adult priests forcing sex on altar boys and then covering it up for decades.

And if this bishop's pronouncement isn't grounds for opening an investigation of this rich church's tax exemption status, what would constitute grounds for that?