Vatican: No Partisan Politics for Pope on USA Visit

Inasmuch as the Roman Catholic Church has recently endeavored to interfer in political elections in both Italy and Spain (among other places), I find the Vatican's assurances as reported in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/09/AR2008040902875.html?hpid=sec-religion) less than convincing. Even if the Nazi Pope doesn't explicitly name a party or candidate for faithful Kool-Aid drinkers to support, if he rails against gay marriage, abortion and certain other topics, he is indirectly endorsing the GOP and McCain. If he truly did not want to be involved in partisan politics, Benedict XVI would have made his trip to the USA after the November elections. The fact that he is coming now discredits his claims of a non-partisan agenda. Here are some story highlights:

NEW YORK -- Organizers of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States next week have taken great pains to keep him out of presidential politics. But the Roman Catholic teaching he's expected to emphasize _ on abortion, human rights and other issues _ has policy consequences that partisans will inevitably spin for their own ends.

The church opposes abortion and embryonic stem cell research, while supporting immigrant families and aid to the poor. Catholic teaching says marriage should only be the union of one man and one woman. Yet Benedict also supports the U.N. and protecting the environment. Benedict's first trip to the U.S. as pope runs from next Tuesday through April 20 in Washington and New York. His visit ends just two days before the critical state primary in Pennsylvania, where Catholics comprise nearly one-third of voters. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the remaining Democratic contenders, are pressing for the Catholic vote. It's an inconvenient coincidence for the Vatican.

Despite the extensive Vatican safeguards against partisanship, political activists are already trying to anticipate what the pope will say and how it will benefit or hurt them. "The Republicans are just hoping and praying he'll say something strong about abortion and gay marriage and the Democrats are dreading it," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a political scientist and senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. "But when he goes to the U.N., he's going to say things that are going to be to the left of Hillary and Obama."