Just when you thought this was going to be a quiet week (and weekend) on the religion beat, there was an earthquake in Beltway land.
Anyone who has lived in Washington, D.C., knows that the job of Speaker of the House may be the single most overlooked piece in the puzzle that is the U.S. government, in terms of the public failing to understand how much power resides in that office.
So Speaker John A. Boehner, one of DC's most public Catholic voices, hit the exit door only hours after fulfilling his dream of seeing a pope address Congress. This also happened, of course, in the midst of fierce infighting over morality and money – to be specific, the mountains of tax dollars going into the coffers of an institution at the heart of what St. John Paul II liked to call "The Culture of Death."
All of Washington muttered, at the same time, this question: So, what's the link between the pope's visit and Boehner's exit?
At the very least, the timing became linked – on multiple levels – with the emotions of the Francis visit. I don't know what surprised me more, in the elite media coverage: the word "prayer" showing up high in such a blockbuster political story or The Washington Post admitting, in print, that The New York Times broke the story.
Oh, and the Post almost had the scoop – on the spiritual level. We will come back to that.
The Times managed to keep the pope out of the lede, but – after the political necessities – wrote faith into the equation.
