In my earlier post, I wrote that Father Frank Pavone, president of the militantly anti-choice Priests for Life, said that Sarah Palin is a more genuine Catholic than Joe Biden because she is pro-life and he is pro-choice.
Turns out Sarah Palin isn't Catholic.
Rob Schenck, head of the National Clergy Council, sent one of the first of many press releases from religious right figures today praising Palin. Schenck's release said that that Palin is Catholic. Later in the day, he issued a correction (which actually needs another correction), "Sarah Putin [sic] is not a Catholic as stated in previous release."
But Pavone had insisted in a conference call with the media this morning that Palin was a better Catholic than Biden. I asked him to repeat it, because I had heard that she is not Catholic but an evangelical:
Q:I just wanted to clarify what Fr. Pavone was saying earlier in the call. Gov. Palin is Catholic, you were saying, and you were contrasting her Catholicism with Sen. Biden's Catholicism?
PAVONE: Yes.
Q:So you were saying because she's pro-life and he's pro-choice she's a more genuine Catholic than he is?
PAVONE: Well, he's a Catholic who is contradicting one of the key tenets of Catholicism and claiming that he's practicing when that's simply not true. You can't practice the faith when you deny it.
It shouldn't matter, obviously, what religion Palin is. Pavone might have been confused about whether Palin is a Catholic or not. But the fact that he turned out to be wrong about that made his claim that she's a better Catholic than Biden seem even more ridiculous.
--Sarah Posner