Hell, Mary

In 2004, some dozen American Catholic bishops announced that they wouldn't give Sen. John Kerry communion because he was pro-choice. A.k.a., religious bullying for the sake of a political agenda.

According to the NYTimes today, those same Catholic bishops are dodging press questions about whether Rudy Giuliani should also be denied communion, considering his pro-choice views. (Possibly, according to the article, Giuliani already doesn't even attempt to receive communion, but that's far from proven.)

"Most bishops are quiet primarily because the presidential election is still more than 16 months away, said church officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to be quoted on political matters."

Yeah, right. They're quiet on Giuliani because the election is so far off? No, they're quiet because Giuliani's a REPUBLICAN. Blows their orthodox minds to be confronted by a socially liberal politician who's also a member of the "faith," i.e., Republican.

Though a few (mainly unnamed) Catholic bigwigs ARE pretty upset with Giuliani: "...church leaders say they are frustrated by prominent Catholic politicians like Mr. Giuliani who argue that while they are personally opposed to abortion, they do not want to impose their beliefs on others."

Study that sentence carefully. Catholic leaders are upset because a Catholic politician like Giuliani isn't ready to impose Catholic dogma on others. Yeah, that IS pretty upsetting all right, especially if you've had several hundred years' experience with imposing your beliefs to the point of torture (Inquisition, anyone?).

The gist of the Times article is that the Catholic prelates pray Giuliani doesn't get very far in the primary process, so that they won't ever really be threatened by a serious pro-choice Catholic Republican candidate.