I found it hard to believe Mario Cuomo actually said "...we know our Christian responsibility doesn’t end with any one LAY or amendment...." in regard to abortion, but I looked it up in the speech, and it seems that's what he really said...
LOL
Politics is the science or art of maintaining or attaining control. With the controversy that seems to stain every action taken by the Vatican these days, especially in America, is it really any wonder the Church is becoming more politically assertive? Do you think it's feeling at least a little bit of a sense of loss of control?
Link to the latest PR disaster.
Not to sound disrespectful, but there have been a LOT of bad news items focusing on the Catholic Church lately... and by lately, I mean for a long time. It's hard not to see this thing with the Communion, as an outsider, as anything but a defensive or reflexive action taken to reassert it's waning moral authority (at best) or just another tragic step along the same general downward path it's been heading (at worst.) I'm not speaking from my own personal opinion here, so please don't take my comments as such. I suppose there's a good reason why the obvious has yet to be mentioned in this thread, but you cannot talk about the Catholic Church's actions any more without discussing all of the bad press it can't seem to shake and the effect that has on public opinion.
I know you were posing an if...then question, but the audience is, for the most part, wondering by what right the Vatican can take ANY moral stand when it's own skeletons have been out of their closets, dancing in the streets for decades now. You seem to be discussing dinner plans when the cruise ship is sinking beneath you... though, of course, I'm not referring to anything having to do with faith... only the hierarchy of the Church.
Another link, slightly relevant
As for the discussion you guys were having regarding the appropriateness of the Republican courtship of the Vatican, (again,as an outsider,) it only seems to fit. The Democrats long ago positioned themselves as the secular, too- intelligent-for-faith party. Any sort of Christian is better than a free-lovin', abortion-havin', dope-smokin' Hippie. Again, this seems obvious.
Perhaps your discussion here is just too nuanced for me to completely grasp...