As Catholic as the Pope?

While out and about today in the family car, I was behind a van at a red light that was displaying this bumper sticker:



Immediately, I thought of the blog posts Atrios ran a few weeks ago, pointing out that a lot of Catholics are trying to frame arguments about abortion so as to preclude a vote for Kerry. Some would even preclude Kerry from Catholicism. NPR had a really bad story that outraged Atrios.

Have you ever seen a bumper sticker saying you cannot be Catholic and for the death penalty? I googled and couldn't fine one. I did find this American Catholic Bishop's statement:

We maintain that abolition of the death penalty would promote values that are important to us as citizens and as Christians.

Didn't that Governor Bush of Texas put a lot of people to death?

Oh, and Pope John Paul II weighed in as well in 1995:

"...the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in case of absolute necessity: In other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.

Again, where's the bumper sticker?

Have you ever seen a bumper sticker saying you cannot be Catholic and favor the war in Iraq? After all, the Pope opposed it and the Vatican sent an envoy to the White House in hopes of avoiding "disaster."

I might add that the Iraq war wasn't just opposed by the Catholic faith. It was also opposed by the leaders of the "Episcopal, Evangelical Lutheran, United Methodist, Presbyterian (USA) and Orthodox churches." Bush, by the way, is a member of the United Methodist church.

Are members of his faith outraged?