NBC’s “Today” covered the John Kerry-communion controversy this morning. Reporter Carl Quintanilla explained Kerry’s position: “Dismissing some conservative Catholic bishops like this one in St. Louis who say Kerry’s pro-choice voting record in the Senate makes him ineligible for communion. In Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley recently said of all politicians. Quote, ‘If they’re not voting correctly on these life issues they shouldn’t dare come to Communion.’”
Kerry: “I fully intend to continue to practice my religion as separately from what I do with respect to my public life. And that’s the way it ought to be in America.”
Separation of church and state is not so broadly defined as to extend to demanding that the Catholic church give carte blanche to Catholic politicians (especially those running as the Democratic nominee to be president of the whole blooming country) to confuse the public about what the church teaches. Kerry’s “declaration of independence” (as NBC described it a minute or two later) looks like officers of the state trying to overrrule the church on church policy, which would seem to breach the wall in reverse, right?