Scott Bellieveau provides John Kerry’s comments in the New York Times with a well-deserved fisking on National Review Online, answering each inane statement with a clear rebuttal and in the end showing how ill-informed about the Catholic faith Kerry really is.
Meanwhile, Carson Holloway gives a larger overall examination of Kerry’s recent statements concerning Catholic teaching, but also the challenge confronting the US bishops.
Prior to these remarks, the question confronting the bishops was this: “Can a man who runs for president claiming to be Catholic while rejecting key Catholic moral teachings be ignored?” Now they confront a different question: “Can a man who runs for president, claiming to be a Catholic , rejecting key Catholic moral teachings, and insisting that the Church says that this is all O.K. be ignored?” That is, can they fail publicly to correct a prominent Catholic who not only rejects but also actively mischaracterizes Church teaching?