A look inside John Kerry's preferred place of worship, the Paulist Center. It's where people who hate the Church go to church.
KERRY'S CATHOLICISM has put him in a bizarre position. Kerry is Catholic. As such, he is, by his own proclamation, personally opposed to abortion. He does not allow this opposition to get in the way of supporting abortion rights as a matter of public policy. Nor do his personal convictions prevent him from vigorously courting the support of explicitly pro-abortion groups. "Abortion should be rare, but it should be safe and legal, and the government should stay out of the bedroom," Kerry said recently as he accepted the Planned Parenthood Action Fund's endorsement. According the Los Angeles Times, the assembled Planned Parenthood Crowd "whooped" and "chanted" their approval. The eagerness with which Kerry stumps for abortion suggests that putting aside his "personal" convictions does not cause him a heavy heart.
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The ideology which brings people to the Paulist Center is best explained by the Center's Mission Statement which declares, "Attentive to the Holy Spirit, we are a Catholic community that welcomes all, liberates the voice of each and goes forth to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ." (Before Mass, this Mission Statement is projected, in large type, onto the wall above the altar, on either side of the statue of Christ.) In their Vision Statement, the Center goes on to explain that they aspire to serve "those persons searching for a spiritual home and those who have been alienated from the Catholic Church."
The subtext here--with talk of liberating voices and welcoming people alienated from those other mean Catholic churches--is that the Paulist Center is Catholic, but not really: more Episcopal lite; or orthodox Unitarian.
The practical consequence of this attitude is that if John Kerry isn't the least bit conflicted about stumping for abortion and taking communion, the people at the Paulist Center are even less conflicted about giving him the Host.
