DENYING COMMUNION AS POLITICS

I’m somewhat staggered by the revelation that even the usually sober Ramesh Ponnuru wants all pro-choice Catholic politicians, Democrat or Republican, to be denied communion by the bishops. That means Tom Ridge, George Pataki and Arnold Shwarzenegger, for starters. This is not the same thing as formal ex-communication but it will be understood – and should be understood – as the effective form of it. Why am I stunned by how far out there the theocons now are? Cutting off people from the sacraments is a drastic step for the church to take; taking on almost all one political party and a hefty swathe of another in a democracy as large and influential as the United States would be a political Rubicon for the Catholic church. But it’s one the theo-cons eagerly want to see occur. I see every reason for the church to make a positive case loudly and often about the moral gravity of abortion. But the attempt to purge miscreants who are lay people strikes me as a truly radical move. I wonder if, under theo-conservative logic, the withholding of the sacraments should be restricted only to public officials. Why not any lay Catholic who publicly dissents from Church teaching on matters of faith and morals? Why not pundits, writers, and, er, bloggers? And why just abortion? Why not those who express enthusiastic support for the death penalty, which is clearly condemned by the Vatican in almost all cases? Why not those who oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment, which is all that keeps us from sliding into the end of civilization, according to National Review? What are the exact lines of demarcation here? I ask, because purges rarely end where they start, and it would be good to read a thorough piece detailing who should be thrown out and who would be allowed by the bishops to stay. Joe Conason has described the attitude of some of these people as reminiscent of Torquemada. As usual, de trop. But the impulse to publicly shame, purge and purify religions is one that is as theologically ancient as it is politically explosive. I never realized how deep that vein now runs among today’s theocons. But it’s useful to know.