Connecting dots

I forgot until I read an article on Salon that Ratzinger was instrumental in assuring Bush's reelection. To read some chilling stuff, go here: http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/04/21/tk/index.html

He was the one that told bishops not to give communion to political candidates who supported choice, and said those candidates and anyone who supported them should be excommunicated. Pretty strong stuff. Enough to make many on-the-fence Catholics fall in line with his thinking and increase the percentage of Catholic votes for Bush by five or six percent.

My Catholic background put me between a rock and a hard place when I tried to decide which was worse: access to abortion, or a war predicated on lies that killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Then there's that pesky issue of the death penalty, which the church also opposes. Oh, and what would Jesus do about all the children doomed to a life of poverty, deprived of medical care? In short, Rats doesn't know his theology from an inquisition; there are too many shades of gray.

You can only wonder about the backroom deals that went down after Rats threw his support behind Bush. Now we're really going backwards, full-tilt. We're entering neo-medieval times now, where you have serfs and lords. The church controls the government. They both control the serfs. Everything is neatly in place.

Salon pointed out that our government was founded—here in Philadelphia, I might boast—on the principles of separation of church and state. This new papal/presidential axis goes solidly against that grain. We're at a crossroads where American democracy could stand or fall.