New York blogger Patrick Sweeney, a pro-war Catholic, has some worthwhile comments on his site regarding the Vatican’s opposition to the Iraq war (scroll down to read them). I especially liked this observation about the visit this week of papal envoy Cardinal Pio Laghi, who is coming at the Pope’s instigation to try to talk President Bush out of attacking Saddam:
Imagine if the current President were Catholic. Could there even be the merest thought that the Pope would make a great public show of sending a Cardinal to influence the Catholic President on a matter of national security and war?
The images of Thomas Nast’s alligators transforming themselves into bishops as they climb out of the Atlantic. It would trigger a Gangs of New York nativist moment — from Bob Jones University to the editorial room of the New York Times.