Leadership aides say progressives are prepared to take it on the chin and will vote for a final bill without a public option. But they say pro-life Democrats will seek direction from the U.S. Conference of Bishops as to whether they can support an amendment weaker than Rep. Bart Stupak's, thus setting up what will likely be the most difficult negotiation before a final vote.I don't expect much out of any of the organized churches anymore. They seem to be very comfortable playing the game of politics and, to my mind, they are now just lobbying groups. They are no different than the AMA, AOPA, NRA, NOW, or the health insurance lobby in that regard. After financial scandal after financial scandal and the conversion of the Catholic church hierarchy into the Society for the Protection of Child Molesters, nothing much surprises me.
So no, I am not surprised that there are politicians who bounce legislation off the Conference of Bishops, just as they would off of any other lobbying or special interest group to whom they are beholden.
And given all of the above (and the advisory, below), I am not bothered by the fact that a German pope is pushing forward saintifying Pope Pius the 12th. If the Vatican wants to take the position that "Pius was a good Christian, even if he didn't do or say jack-shit during the Holocaust", that's their right.[1]
[1] They can promote Reinhard Heydrich to sainthood for all I care.
Advisory: I will own up to a degree of ingrained prejudice, here. The immigrant generation of my family suffered no small degree of abuse back in the Old Country from the hands of the local Christian peasantry; whether they were Roman Catholics or Eastern Orthodox was a distinction lost on them. When I was very young, one of my great-aunts, who appeared to me to be older than the planet itself, pulled me aside and said: "When it is time for you to bring home who you intend to marry, remember this: Better a schvartze than a Catholic."
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