Brother Joseph Califano tells all

Joseph A. Califano Jr., Washington establishmentarian, sets it all straight for us. He's been there, and he's done it right. He knows how to reconcile his Catholic beliefs with occupying a public office. He tells us this from the pages of the Washington Post, in an article reprinted from America magazine, that bastion of rock-ribbed Catholic orthodoxy.

When God and Caesar claim controlling jurisdiction over public policy in America, public servants who are Catholic can get caught between a religious rock and a public policy hard place. Sen. John F. Kerry, who is at the center of a controversy over whether Catholic politicians should be denied Communion if their political views contradict church teaching, finds himself there. But he's not the first. I know. I've been there, too.

This dedicated servant of God was indeed there -- to undermine Catholic teaching on artificial contraception:

We crafted an uneasy truce: If [President Johnson] used the term "population problem" (which also allowed for solutions such as increasing available food) rather than "birth control" or "population control," the bishops would stay silent. Johnson kept his part of the bargain. So did the bishops.

I'd love to hear the bishops' explanation. Did they really agree to "stay silent" while the Johnson administration pushed condoms and vasectomies on poor people? If so, that's a shame, but that doesn't diminish Califano's actions.

As a citizen I consider it preposterous and wrong for the political parties to impose an abortion litmus test on eligibility for their party's presidential nomination: in support of abortion rights for Democrats, and opposed to them for Republicans. But that is no reason for the bishops to make the same mistake by imposing a similar litmus test for the right to receive Communion.

The Church founded by Christ, nurtured by his Body and Blood, for which countless martyrs have died, and through which salvation comes to all men, is equivalent to a political party.

I believe that public figures who are Catholic are entitled to consult their own conscience to determine whether they are entitled to receive Communion. The Catholic tradition of leaving that decision to the individual Catholic and God applies to Catholics who have divorced, sinned or eaten food five minutes before Mass.

Working to keep abortion lethal, legal, and frequent is the same as accidently taking a swig of orange juice on the way to Mass.

Read the whole thing here. Couldn't the Post find somebody with an original thought to contribute? Or someone who could come up with a line better than "a religious rock and a public policy hard place"?

It does provide a minor public service: we now know how culpable Joseph Califano was in midwifing the Culture of Death a quarter-century ago. I'm sure it will be read back to him at the Last Judgment.