Res Publica 2005

He says:

Most offensive to Catholics is Kerry's rationalization on his faith. He treats it like a tote board, justifying his blank-check support of abortion by pointing to his opposition to the death penalty and his anti-war activism. First, Catholicism doesn't work on a points system; you don't get merits and demerits. Second, the Catechism does not preclude either the death penalty or war, contrary to popular belief. In fact, the Church allows for both under very limited circumstances, a fact which a short perusal of the Catechism demonstrates. An entire philosophy exists within the Church on the nature of "just war", and execution can be supported if it surely saves other innocent lives. Abortion, on the other hand, is expressly called a "grave sin" in the Catechism and no mitigating circumstances are countenanced, either in the doctrine or the Magisterium, the two-millenia body of teaching and philosophy.

This is part of a longer article about the incoherence of Kerry's stand on his religious viewpoints, and worth reading.

This incoherence, this willingness to say "Because I am an American Politician, the church can't tell me what to do, even if I claim I am catholic and therefore under the church's authority" is made clear in this bit from the AP yesterday:

BOSTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry scolded the Vatican Friday for saying Catholic politicians like himself have a "moral duty" to oppose laws granting legal rights to gay couples.

"I believe in the church and I care about it enormously," said the Massachusetts senator. "But I think that it's important to not have the church instructing politicians.

The truth is, if you are a faithful catholic, you cannot compromise like Kerry. If you compromise like Kerry, you are telling the church that the magisterium has no authority. Therefore, even though you might still go to services, you have put yourself outside of the Catholic communion, you have self-excommunicated. And no surface adherence to going to services, taking communion, or even acting in the community as a Catholic can change that reality. God knows the difference.