If New York’s Cardinal Edward Egan wasn’t in Rocco’s list of 50 bishops who have effectively (or explicitly) said Catholic can’t vote for Obama, then he is now. Via Gary Stern’s “Blogging Religiously” site (Gary is the religion writer nonpareil at the Journal News in Westchester County) comes Cardinal Egan’s latest column in “Catholic New York,” titled “Just Look,” with a photo of a 20-week-old fetus and a dare for anyone to support legalized abortion. He also takes the Hitler/Stalin path, and cites Dred Scott, and concludes:

“Do me a favor. Look at the photograph again. Look and decide with honesty and decency what the Lord expects of you and me as the horror of “legalized” abortion continues to erode the honor of our nation. Look, and do not absolve yourself if you refuse to act.”

Cardinal Egan earlier backed up his words with actions, scolding Fordham University for honoring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer this Wednesday (Oct. 29) with the annual Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize, despite Breyer’s clear abortion rights record. Again, Gary Stern has the details about Egan’s anger that a Catholic institution would honor an abortion-rights supporter.

On the other hand, as Gary points out elsewhere, it was Egan who honored Barack Obama at the Al Smith Dinner (along with embryonic stem cell champion John McCain). And that has him on the receiving end of some of the same criticism he is dishing out, most notably from Deal Hudson.

And so it goes.