THE TRIFECTA!:

The Catholic Church and the Presidential Election: Vatican makes common cause with fundamentalist Protestants (Susan Jacoby, May 3, 2004, San Francisco Chronicle)

The willingness of the Vatican to target dissident American Catholic officeholders is not only a matter of internal church politics and theology. The Vatican action also reflects a realpolitik created by the once unlikely alliance between the church and right-wing fundamentalists on the abortion issue. Although both the American Catholic bishops and the Vatican disagree with the Protestant Christian Right on a variety of social issues -- including the death penalty and aid to the poor -- their consensus on issues of sexual morality trumps all differences.

President Bush is the only leader in the developed world whose policies on sexual matters -- including not only opposition to abortion but the promotion of "abstinence only" AIDS education -- are in line with official Vatican policy, which maintains that condoms do not discourage the spread of AIDS. Indeed, Deal Hudson, publisher of the conservative Catholic magazine Crisis, has said that a Kerry presidency would be "worse for the church" than for the country.

By our count that makes George W. Bush 3 for 3. We're frequently assured that no other president ever governed as a serious Protestant. He's also our first Jewish president. And now the first serious Catholic.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 8, 2004 7:20 AM