Says this Newsday columnist

The Catholic hierarchy lost most, if not all, of its credibility and clout among Catholics and non-Catholics alike when it refused to admit its central role in the priest sex-abuse scandal. And the anger and distrust are still so profound among many Catholics that they are more likely to support any candidate the hierarchy opposes. This is especially so after the incredible urging by the Vatican recently to the American bishops that they move beyond the sexual-abuse crisis and instead focus on the wider range of issues such as abortion.

So, if the cardinals and bishops are smart, they will walk away from this year’s presidential election and leave the backroom politics to the cigar smokers. Otherwise, they confirm the belief in the minds of many Catholics that a few feverishly arrogant old men in today’s hierarchy truly epitomize a dying medieval culture much closer to the dinosaur than to the divine and are hanging on, by their fingernails, to a power and prestige that is all but lost.

If Communion is ever refused to Kerry, it should also be withheld from any of those bishops and archbishops who covered up the sins of their priests against innocent children and from any cardinal who still refuses to utter a word of censure against his criminally complicit brothers in the hierarchy.