Narratives That Blind

Narratives That Blind by MSW

My response:

This entire issue was likely started over gay marriage and the desire on the part of the Church to avoid what legal gay marriage would entail - priests, many of them gay, quietly blessing these unions at the behest of families.  Worse they fear gay priests seeking the right to marry or leaving the priesthood to do so. 

Contraception was a last minute issue, which the GOP was certainly eager to jump on (which was likely the bonehead play of the year for them, since they can't win without women).  Neither MSW or the Church should have taken the bait Axelrod floated, especially since contraception insurance coverage itself was been required of the Church since December 2000 (although I suspect most Catholic organization insurance policies covered it long before that because the employees demanded it).

Religous freedom is actually a better narrative to focus on than the debate over denying Catholic politicians Communion if they don't publicly toe the pro-life line (even though the prospects of overturning Roe on federalism grounds are essentially nil - so the whole narrative is a sham).  I'm sure it would not be long before some bishops would start denying Communion to politicians who support gay marriage too.

I will still be shocked if A/B Lori does not say something about this once he takes his chair in Baltimore, especially if opponents succeed in putting the issue on the ballot.  Attempting to use the Communion line to force the actions of Catholic politicians goes beyond religous freedom to Christendom.  Such talk has no business in our constitutional republic and the bishops as a whole are wise to discourage it.  Hopefully, the Nuncio will support them in this, including quietly threatening some of them with removal if they continue to take this line, as because he is a foreign ambassador, letting bishops who essentially work for him interfere with constitutional government is essentially sedition.