Posted 11:46 PM by Robert

Not Equivalent

John Kerry - a nominal Catholic - recently weirdly referred to "Pope Pius XXIII" and suggested that the Catholic Church's position against abortion was on a par with its disfavor of capital punishment.

Well, Senator Kerry isn't right on either point. Not even close.

Senator Kerry has no obligation to be a member of any organized religion. But it is really very strange that someone raised in a sect, and who purports to still be a member of that sect, does not know the official positions of that sect on questions that come up all the time in the course of public life.

The Pius XXIII slip is weird enough. Up there with Howard Dean thinking "Job" is in the New Testament. And they both went to Yale!

But how the heck could John Kerry not know what the official Catholic positions on abortion and capital punishment are? His represents a largely Catholic state. Regardless of whether he intends to abide by Catholic positions, doesn't a competent politician have an obligation to know what they are? I'll bet Barney Frank knows those positions - not because he's Catholic (he's a gay jew), but because he knows what his job entails. Are Senator Kerry's responsible aides all that stupid and/or ignorant?

Strange. Passing strange. Perhaps there's more where these two came from. Perhaps Senator Kerry thinks that Easter is the day Jesus came out out of his tomb, saw his shadow, and decreed that there be six more weeks of winter.

Someone should ask him. It would be no stranger than a lot of his economic proposals.