The nomination of Judge John Roberts is driving some Democrats to distraction because he is probably ultimately un-Borkable. As my colleague Gene Healy wrote, Roberts' selling points include "[g]reat grades, stellar resume, nice posture, nice smile, [and] no doubt a firm handshake. But where he stands on anything is anyone's guess. What we've got here is a guy who, apparently, was genetically engineered and grown in a vat for the sole purpose of getting past the Senate Judiciary Committee." So people are looking for proxies to try to infer Roberts' opinions, and one of those proxies is religion. Roberts is a practicing Catholic, and plenty of attention is being focused on his parish of choice: Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Maryland. Beliefnet sent my friend and former colleague George Neumayr to the church in search of some clues into Roberts' true beliefs. Neumayr came away with certain impressions of the church and "its most famous parishioner." Little Flower, Neumayr writes, is a parish "that heterodox Catholics would regard as an outpost of traditional Catholicism."
To wit:
Little Flower displays the marks of a parish in conformity with official Catholic teaching: a large picture of Pope Benedict XVI at the moment of his papal election greets visitors as they enter the church; there is a Vatican flag on the altar; the bulletin board in the foyer announces the beginning of the canonization process for Pope John Paul II; pro-life literature is prominently available; the parish newsletter encourages congregants "to send your best wishes and prayer intentions to Pope Benedict XVI . . . by e-mail to benedictxvi@vatican.va."
If the Democrats really want to get nasty, they'll drag Roberts' priest into the proceedings. The Roberts clan was apparently so taken with Monsignor Peter J. Vaghi that it followed him to Little Flower when he moved from St. Patrick's in D.C. I hope the Dems flinch from dragging Vaghi's proclamations into the mix, but if they decide to do so, here's a preview:
Monsignor Peter J. Vaghi, upholds the Vatican’s teaching on artificial birth control, an issue American priests have tended to relativize, dismiss or ignore since Vatican II.
On the Church of the Little Flower’s website, which links to the Vatican and promotes traditional piety and devotions such as "Forty Hours of Eucharistic Adoration," Monsignor Vaghi has posted a meditation on chastity. Quoting the archbishop of Bologna, he said that every "sexual act performed outside marriage" is "gravely illicit," but "even within marriage there can be an exercise of sexuality that does not respect its moral value: when the conjugal act does not truly respect the dignity of the person of one's spouse, as well as when it is deprived, through a positive intervention of the spouses, of its natural capacity to give origin to new life."
In another meditation, Monsignor Vaghi staunchly defended the Church's teaching on abortion. "After all, since Roe v. Wade in l973, the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion, there have been over 44 million abortions, young children dying before they had the opportunity to enjoy life outside the womb as we enjoy life," he wrote. "Our church is always, and will always, be on the side of life, life from conception until natural death. And it is precisely because Jesus took on life, took on flesh and ennobled it by becoming man and like us in everything but sin that we value human life so much, that we were born in His image and reborn in Christ Jesus."