Now they're attacking the D.C. cardinal because he won't issue a fatwa against Kerry.

Here's the story from today's Washington Post:

A Roman Catholic antiabortion group launched an advertising campaign against Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington yesterday, attacking him for saying he is not comfortable denying Communion to Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and other Catholic members of Congress who support abortion rights.

The Virginia-based American Life League said the advertisements are the beginning of a $500,000 print ad campaign targeting bishops who are reluctant to punish Catholic politicians for taking policy positions that defy the church. The first ad shows Jesus in agony on the cross and asks: "Cardinal McCarrick: Are you comfortable now?" ...

Here's the shrill ad (in PDF form). It has all the subtlety of Mel Gibson's Jesus movie. And it ticks off the names of the guilty: "John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy and the 68 other pro-abortion 'Catholic' politicians in Congress." Guess what? They're all Democrats! As are all the politicians subject to similar recent fatwas, according to the Post:

On Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey, a Democrat, said he would voluntarily refrain from taking Communion. Three of New Jersey's bishops have said in recent days that politicians who support abortion rights should not take Communion, and two of them mentioned McGreevey by name.

Last year, Bishop Robert J. Carlson of Sioux Falls, S.D., reportedly warned Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle not to call himself a Catholic because of his stand in favor of abortion. Sacramento Bishop William K. Weigand made a similar remonstrance to Gray Davis, the former Democratic governor of California. And Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, of St. Louis and formerly of Wisconsin, went the furthest in January, instructing all churches in his former diocese to deny the Eucharist to three local politicians, including Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), because of their voting records on abortion.

Another Wisconsin politician who received the letter was State Senator Julie Lassa -- a Democrat. I haven't found the third name.

(Deal W. Hudson, editor of a Catholic magazine and a Bush ally, has the gall to go even further: He tells the Post that, in the Post's words, "denial of Communion should begin, and end, with Kerry. Even better, he said, would be if priests would read letters from the pulpit denouncing the senator from Massachusetts 'whenever and wherever he campaigns as a Catholic.' ")

Someone needs to ask -- perhaps in full-page newspaper ads -- two questions:

* If it's so appalling to be a pro-choice Catholic, why doesn't the church have the guts to say that anyone who's pro-choice should be denied communion, whether or not it results in a mass exodus of parishioners? If the church really believes abortion is murder, why give communion to (or accept donations from) anyone who finds abortion acceptable?

* And if this is about unwavering moral law, why are only pro-choice Democrats being targeted?