Our President Loves a Pope Who Fights Dirty

German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican theologian who was elected Pope Benedict XVI, intervened in the 2004 US election campaign ordering bishops to deny communion to abortion rights supporters including presidential candidate John Kerry.

In a June 2004 letter to US bishops enunciating principles of worthiness for communion recipients, Ratzinger specified that strong and open supporters of abortion should be denied the Catholic sacrament, for being guilty of a "grave sin."

He specifically mentioned "the case of a Catholic politician consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws," a reference widely understood to mean Democratic candidate Kerry, a Catholic who has defended abortion rights.

Well, now it's even easier to understand why Mr. Bush - who doesn't seem to care much for Catholics or other living things - was so full of praise for the new Pope: Ratzinger is the one who ordered that John Kerry should not be given communion for his "pro-choice" views.

Would this were fairly meted out would be one thing. But when was the last time you heard that Rudy Giuliani or other pro-choice Republican Catholics were refused? Unlike John Kerry's at least public record, Giuliani has twice cheated on his wives within the "sanctity" of marriage.

Ratzinger - no, I will not call him Benedict the 16th for now - deliberately and arbitrarily intervened in a U.S. presidential election. Period. End of sentence.