Back in the day (and not too long ago), right-wing American Catholics used to call for the church to deny the sacrament to Democratic politicians who supported abortion rights. President Joe Biden, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Senator John Kerry were all in their crosshairs — and, most recently, so was Senator Dick Durbin. So this is not exactly a thing of the distant past.
In Durbin's case, his hometown bishop objected to an award that he was set to receive from the Archdiocese of Chicago. And so Durbin took the higher road and said, you know what? Skip the award, I'm good.
However, you can't help but wonder if contretemps like these might become less frequent under the papacy of Leo XIV. The former Robert Prevost, born in that Toddlin' Town and holder of both US and Peruvian citizenships, has begun to chart his course — and because his mentor, Pope Francis, stacked the College of Cardinals like Biden did US judgeships, Leo might actually be able to make some incremental progress on a more progressive direction.
We say "might," "incremental," and "more" progressive, because this is the Catholic Church we're talking about. But it seems like Leo's staking out a global position against autocracy, intolerance, and hatred of migrants. Sooner or later, he may come smack up against Benedict Donald and his ICE-y minions. At least, he's considering an invitation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to visit his old Cook County stomping grounds — so we'll keep you posted on that.
Meanwhile, we definitely expect that the "deny the sacrament to Democratic office holders" crazies will have the wind taken out of their sails. But if not, here's a thought: Why not do the same to Catholic convert JD Vance? He's defended the killing of an unarmed Minneapolis woman at the hands of ICE — an outright murder of someone whose last words were "That's okay, dude, I'm not mad at you." And it's on video.
Is there anything worse than that these days? In fact, should we blow right past denying the sacrament to Vance, and move straight to excommunication? We cats wonder, and we HISS.
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