oh, ffs.

The denial of communion to pro-choice politicians is back, and Giuliani's got it.

Only, not so much.

Here's the story:

Roman Catholic Archbishop Raymond Burke, who made headlines last presidential season by saying he'd refuse Holy Communion to John Kerry, has his eye on Rudy Giuliani this year. Giuliani's response: "Archbishops have a right to their opinion."

Burke, the Archbishop of St. Louis, was asked by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch if he would deny Communion to Giuliani if the former New York mayor approached him for the sacrament.

"If the question is about a Catholic who is publicly espousing positions contrary to the moral law, and I know that person knows it, yes I would," the paper quoted the archbishop as responding.

...

While it is unlikely Giuliani or any other presidential candidate will present himself to Burke for Communion in the next few months, the archbishop's comments revive an issue that could be a factor for churchgoing voters.

In 2004, Burke said he would deny Communion to Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee who supports abortion rights. Several other bishops have said politicians should refrain from the sacrament if they oppose the church on such an important issue.

Giuliani, a Republican, sometimes evokes his Catholic upbringing as he campaigns for president, yet he declines to say whether he is a practicing Catholic.

In August, when a voter in Iowa asked if he was a "traditional, practicing Roman Catholic," he said: "My religious affiliation, my religious practices and the degree to which I am a good or not-so-good Catholic, I prefer to leave to the priests."

and of that more anon, because next comes this

Last week, Giuliani compared the scrutiny of his personal life marked by three marriages to the biblical story in which Jesus said only someone who was free of all sin should try to stone an adulterous woman.

"I'm guided very, very often about, 'Don't judge others, lest you be judged,"' Giuliani told the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Guided. Very often.

Winning the Senate race in New York may not come from Clinton or Giuliani doing well but from one of them doing badly. By that measure, Giuliani's reaction to the latest police killing, the fourth of an unarmed black man in 13 months, gave Clinton her best campaign week yet. Giuliani typically springs to the cops' defense. But this time he wouldn't even express sympathy to the victim's mother, because it "might imply that the shooting was unjustified." He had no compunctions about implying that the shooting was justified. Dorismond was "no altar boy," Giuliani reported, as if all non-altar boys are subject to summary execution on the sidewalks of New York. The slain security guard had behaved in a way that was "very aggressive toward the police," he added, though there was no proof that Dorismond did anything except perhaps annoy the plainclothes narcotics cop by rebuffing his attempt to buy marijuana. Giuliani also asserted that Dorismond had spent a "good deal of his adult life punching people," a reference to a domestic complaint filed by Dorismond's girlfriend, which resulted in no charge against him. Though Giuliani released Dorismond's adult and juvenile records (the latter are supposed to remain sealed), they revealed that he had never been convicted of anything more serious than disorderly conduct. At the same time, Giuliani praised Anthony Vasquez, the officer who shot Dorismond, as a "very, very distinguished undercover officer," leaving out information suggesting that he was no altar boy himself; he once shot a neighbor's dog and pulled out his revolver during a personal altercation at a bar.

Patrick Dorismond was, in fact, an altar boy

Giuliani authorized the release of Dorismond's sealed juvenile arrest record, which contained nothing more serious than a violation punishable by a summons, to discredit him. Juvenile arrest records are supposed to be kept confidential, and Giuliani violated legal ethics by breaking the seal without getting a court order. Dorismond was 13 at the time his arrest was entered into a police computer. At a press conference Giuliani argued that the dead man's conduct at age 13 was "highly relevant." Dorismond, he sneered, was "no altar boy." But Dorismond had actually been an altar boy. He had even attended the same elite Catholic high school as the Mayor--Bishop Loughlin in Brooklyn.

A few nights later television journalist Dominick Carter asked Giuliani about his "no altar boy" comment. "This is not a fair question," the Mayor complained. He declared that Dorismond had "spent a good deal of his adult life punching people," and that he had a "propensity" for violence.

The Mayor's defense for opening the records was that Dorismond had no privacy rights because he was dead.

and as Our Beloved Former Mayor knows from his theological studies,* there's a clearly stated shot-by-a-cop exemption on the whole bearing false witness thing.

Anyway. Getting back to the Archbishop: it's sort of heartening to see him extend his opprobrium to his own side of the aisle (although I don't recall him suggesting that the politician should get a warning shot across the bow when he had Mr. Kerry in his sights).

He seems to be a man of some rhetorical skills, which presumably is why he didn't choose (I suppose he wasn't asked) to dilute the impact of his message by pointing out this, here from Catholic World News, out

Giuliani's public support for legal abortion is only one of several reason to question the Republican candidate's eligibility to receive Communion. Giuliani also favors embryonic stem-cell research and government recognition for same-sex unions, and his marital status is irregular.

By "his marital status is irregular," they mean this (which I was surprised to see that the AP got right)

Pope Benedict XVI, insisting that the faithful hold firm to Church teaching, has told Catholic politicians they must support the Vatican's non-negotiable rejection of abortion and gay marriage.

Benedict on Tuesday also rebuffed calls to let divorced Catholics who remarry receive Communion.

Nobody's going to bar Giuliani from receiving communion over his views. He's not eligible to begin with.

I guess his theological education ended before they go to that.

Lest anyone on the pro-choice side of the aisle be reassured by this, I should point out that Giuliani has already signalled to the religious right, by way of his proxy Mr. Olson, that he's just kidding about the pro-choice thing.

It amazes me how many people still think they can take this man seriously.

*Matthew 7:1-5

(1) Judge not, that you be not judged. (2) For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. (3) Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? (4) Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? (5) You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.