We must truly be moving into general election mode with Count Novakula coming out with a serious hit piece on Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius. Nice to see that the Catholic Church can’t help but attack all pro-choice Catholic politicians.
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, whose Roman Catholic archdiocese covers northeast Kansas, on May 9 called on Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to stop taking Communion until she disowns her support for the “serious moral evil” of abortion. That put the church in conflict with a rising star of the Democratic Party who is often described as a “moderate” and is perhaps the leading prospect to become Barack Obama’s running mate.
Naumann also took Sebelius to task for her veto April 21 of a bill, passed by 2 to 1 margins in both houses of the Kansas Legislature, that would strengthen the state’s ban on late-term abortions by authorizing private lawsuits against providers. Last year, she vetoed a bill requiring explicit medical reasons for a late abortion, and she vetoed other abortion legislation in 2006, 2005 and 2003.
The rest of Novak’s piece just gets nastier with insinuations and guilt by association and distortions. Par for the course from the right. You know when I’ll be impressed with the Catholic Church’s moral political leadership? When they start denying Communion to people that carry out the Death Penalty or support torturing people, then I’ll be impressed. Until then, it seems horribly partisan to go after only Democratic candidates. There’s a good chance we’d have a Catholic president right now if the Church hadn’t refused to treat John Kerry as a member in good standing.
Wow. If the Catholic Church continues along those lines, it will kill its entire membership. I didn’t know one Catholic who wouldn’t support Roe v. Wade even if they thought it was personally immoral when I was, years ago, a practicing Catholic. It’s exactly this sort of fundamentalism that made me leave the church.
When they start denying Communion to people that support illegal wars of aggression, and refuse to meet with the war criminals who start them.
Ain’t Dubya lucky he’s a Methodist.
W’s bishop asked to speak with him before the war, and W ignored him. W doesn’t attend church unless his father’s in town and makes him go, and then it’s to his parents’ Episcopalian church.
There were apparently quite some Methodist carryings-on at the time, but I’m not a Methodist and don’t remember the details. At any rate, his hierarchy has not been happy with him, and there’s an ongoing campaign to keep his library and “think tank” off the SMU campus, despite the money involved.
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“Catholics can vote for pro-choice candidates if they vote for them despite — not because of — their pro-choice views.”
(Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver)
According to their website, the Obama supporters say that they have faithfully thought and prayed about who they should support and “have arrived at the conclusion that Senator Obama is the candidate whose views are most compatible with the Catholic outlook, and we will vote for him because of that — and because of his other outstanding qualities — despite our disagreements with him in specific areas.”
Roman Catholics for Obama
A Rift Over Iraq Between President and Pope
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."That position actually came from Benedict prior to becoming pope, as a reaction to the Bishop of St. Louis’ position on Kerry. The basic philosophy: Catholic doctrine forbids aggressive war, capital punishment, neglect of the poor, abortion, neglect of the elderly. You may find a candidate that’s good on some issues but not others, and use your conscience to balance the issues.
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Second link isn’t exactly neutral; there are, of course, differing views within the Catholic church.
There are at least some (younger) hierarchy who see that they’ve fallen into a morass by insisting on only anti-abortion votes. Benedict refused to see Rice after the torture scandal, and tried to avoid Bush (but Bush met him at the airport!) My prediction is that most (Except old fossils like St. Louis’ Burke) will try to stay neutral in this election.
Novak should never be considered the voice of Catholics. He is a convert and an Opus Dei (like Scalia) with extreme right wing views, even in his religion. And Donohue? A hack who takes at least a third of the total income of his “guild” as his personal salary, not to mention his guest appearance fees.
Novak is the worst kind of Catholic, the fundamentalist corporate type. Opus Dei is the Catholic equivalent of “The Family” a horrible heresy that says “The cross is vertical, not horizontal” and therefore Christ came primarily to save the rich!
Knowing this sort of stuff exists, religious folk haven’t declared it perversion or heresy, and it’s both.
Quoting Novak on religion is like quoting Hefner on Celebacy.
Whatever happened to the separation of church and state? Oh, but, Booman, you know abortion takes priority over illegal wars, torture, the death penalty, etc.
If the Catholics in the pews hue to this as much as they follow the church’s teaching on birth control and abortion, we have nothing to worry about. Catholics in the US use both at the same frequency as the general population.
It’s just the hierarchy bloviating again. No surprises here.
Novak’s loathsome column is about damaging Sebelius enough that Obama cannot pick her as a running mate. Since they couldn’t influence the outcome of the primary (they really, really wanted to run against Hillary) they will do all they can to ensure that Obama is forced to pick a less-than-ideal veep.
So who of the ObamaNation could possibly take Novakula seriously enough to think that what he has to say could damage Sebelius? Somehow I can’t imagine this getting traction, but I could be wrong.
Hopefully it won’t gain traction. But this doesn’t mean they won’t keep trying.
Seriously, the timing should tell us everything. In the lest several days we’ve had stories regarding the Obama team’s search for a veep, many of which mention Sebelius as a possible choice (there is also a certain amount of Sebelius Zeitgeist, no?), followed closely by this column by Novak. It seems pretty obvious.
Let’s see how this plays out in the traditional media. I’m guessing this story won’t have legs until a short-list for veep candidates emerges. Then, we can expect the TM to do a Lanie Guenier-number on Sebelius.
Didn’t Novak have an item about another woman that made some news awhile back? Just because he’s vile doesn’t mean he’s not part of the right-wing noise machine. In fact, it’s wise to see who is cheering whom and jeering whom. For example, if Limbaugh is pumping up your candidate you might want to review your candidate’s resume.
I believe the Catholic Church is perfect example of a one-issue institution. Furthermore, the Archbishop’s denial of communion seems to go against a Catholic Church policy of “blame the sin, not the sinner.” Of course if having a view that most American Catholics agree with..is a sin.
Wow, we haven’t heard much about Novak since the Valerie Wilson affair. Seems like he and his poisoned pen (read also poisoned mind) are active once again in promoting the cause of evil and untruth. This guy is a catholic? No wonder I keep having this image of Jesus weeping. With friends like Novak, a true christian needs no more enemies.
A recent Opus Dei convert, like Kudner, Brownback, and so many other Inside-the-Beltway creeps.
Sombody please give Archbishop Naumann’s phone number to Brendan!
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Administration
Catholic Chancery Offices
12615 Parallel Parkway
Phone: 913-721-1570
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Here in the Bay Area the Catholics I know just ignore that stuff. Maybe people should target the archdioseses of these archbishops and not send them money for ahwile. When the robes become threadbare then maybe the church and its policy will shift or pass on.
Among all the poo that the Repubs will fling I suspect that abortion won’t be much of an issue this fall, considering the economy. If you can’t sleep at night because of money issues, turn on BBC overnight and listen to what’s happening to the world. It’s Big Oil against the world.
Church teams up with the right…
Everyone read THE MASS PSYCHOLOGY OF FASCISM by Wilhelm Reich. He explains it well. It’s one thing to control the individual by external force. But not half as effective as controlling the individual’s mind. When an individual is kept in line by his own conscience he is much easier to manipulate.
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“There are also sincere Catholics who support the war despite their genuine regret and sadness over the loss of each and every human life that is a casualty of this war,” he said. “They are convinced that the loss of human lives under the former (Saddam Hussein) regime was much, much greater than the deaths resulting from this war. They believe the former regime’s failure for more than a decade to honor the previous peace agreement and the corresponding threat of an Iraq led by Saddam Hussein posed to our world did and does justify military intervention,” Archbishop Naumann said.
“War is always a great human tragedy. It is not, however, an intrinsic evil,” he said.
Even though the death penalty has also been condemned by the pope and by the U.S. bishops as an attack against the dignity of life, Archbishop Naumann said the church’s position is the result of “significant recent theological developments” that require careful teaching.
“It would be unreasonable and arrogant to expect the entire world within months or even years to embrace our current, nuanced understanding of the morality of this issue,” Archbishop Naumann said.
I’ve got news for Naumann from Jesus: the 5th Commandment … Thou shall not kill . No nuance on His position and recent “theological developments”.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Good for her! It’s nice to see a Democrat take a stand even when it’s not popular with all her constituents.
Especially when you realize “late term” could mean the woman missed the first trimester deadline by a week, waiting for the test to determine which trimester she was actually in… or didn’t have the money any earlier… or didn’t realize she was pregnant right away… or couldn’t arrange babysitting for the kids she already has…. or the time off work… Etc.