NewsMax.com: McAuliffe Blasts Catholic Church

Terry McAuliffe did this "blasting" in a speech he gave to his fellow Democrats in Washington, DC on Thursday, February 10. Specifically, he said:

I was very dismayed at the Catholic Church in last year's election...The way they went into their pulpits and told people it was a sin to vote for John Kerry was nothing short of just outrageous.

Hold the phone, sir(rah)! First of all, if you have any evidence that any Catholic priest climbed into his pulpit and delivered a specific anathema against any who voted for John Kerry, you know where you can take that evidence: to the IRS. Of course, I would very much like that 501(c)(3) business done away with, since it goes back to Lyndon Johnson not wanting the clergy to tell his fellow Texans what a coarse, crude adulterer and thief he really was when he was busy stealing a Senate seat. But that law remains, and so does this provision of that law. I quote it:

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violation of this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise tax.

While it remains, if you have evidence that any Catholic priest broke the law, show them.

In addition to that, Mr. McAuliffe, you're just sore because the body of Roman Catholic voters, which once was your swing core constituency and one of many things that by itself could have made the difference between electing Kennedy or Nixon in 1960, has swung Republican. And they have done so, not because any priest has said, "It is not lawful unto God for you to vote for a Democrat any longer," but rather because the Church has done a thorough job of educating its laity on its own teachings (and has also cleaned up those teachings of the neo-Marxism of, for example, Pope Paul VI's encyclical Populorum Progressio while strengthening the precepts of that pope's other encyclical, Humanae Vitae). Furthermore, the Church has encouraged its laity to educate themselves as to the positions of the candidates. That they have done, and they, not being utter fools, now vote Republican. It's like this, Terry, as Abe Lincoln said:

You can fool some of the people all the time, and you can fool all the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.

So chill out, Mr. McAuliffe--and tell your friend Howard Dean that he's not going to do the Democratic Party any favors, either, if he insists on the course he has announced.