The prince of darkness is going after the princes of the Church. In his syndicated column today, Robert Novak lambastes the prelates of Washington, D.C. (Archbishop Donald Wuerl) and New York (Cardinal Edward Egan) for allowing prominent pro-choice pols (Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senators Kennedy, Kerry and Dodd in D.C. and ex-Hizzoner Rudy Giulilani in New York) to receive communion during Pope Benedict’s recent visit. (Giuliani, as Novak acknowledges, poses a special case, since he’s on to his third marriage without ever having gotten his second one annulled.)
The truly faithful bishop, Novak argues, is St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, who refuses communion to pro-choice electeds. To proffer the wafer runs counter to Benedict’s dictat since, Novak writes, “Vatican sources say the pope has not retreated from his long-held position that pro-choice politicans should be deprived of Communion, but the decisions in Washington and New York were not his. The effect,” Novak continues, “was to dull the pope’s messages of faith, obligation and compassion.”
The theological Novak is a relatively new creation; he converted from Judaism to Catholicism in 1996. Now, however, he has anointed himself Protector of the Faith, while functionally, he is becoming the op-ed-page version of the Grand Inquisitor. Where heretics lurk, there Novak shall follow, with column, kindling and a matchbox.
--Harold Meyerson
