I enjoy reading news outlets from beyond the US borders. The Vatican media is telling its readers that Catholics will decide the US elections. Pennsylvania Catholics are shifting to the president by five percentage points, at least, from four years ago. Thanks to that, there’s no swinging in the keystone state. About one-third of registered Iowa voters have already submitted ballots. I see lots of hand wringing over bishops getting into the political fray, but a few things on that:
Lots of Catholics have already voted. I like early voting because it throws expectations out the window, and makes partisan campaigning close to Election Day even more irrelevant.
Let the bishops speak. I don’t have any problem with them chasing alienated Catholics into doing the exact opposite of what they’re being asked to do. These bishops don’t realize that even Catholics who agree with them don’t like them and don’t like how they conduct themselves as governors of the Church. It’s going to take a lot more than being on the winning side in an election. Or the right side.
Catholic Sensibility 
It’s a little much – actually it’s a lot much – to hear a priest say, from the pulpit, during Mass, that only Fox News tells the truth. Gag! What kind of moral is this priest in?
You couldn’t pay me to go to my geographical parish lately. If I want punditry, I’ll turn on the TV. If I want Mass I’ll go elsewhere.
I’ve voted early and for Obama. I wonder that the bishops like Jerky can’t see how extreme and hateful their rhetoric seems to others.