Over the weekend, the Obama-supporting law professor Doug Kmiec reported that he had recently been berated for his political “heresy” and denied receipt of communion by an irate college chaplain. Earlier this month, Kansas City archbishop Joseph F. Naumann announced that he had asked Kansas governor Kathleen Sibelius not to present herself for communion because of her support for legalized abortion.
The standard view among Catholic prelates is that–I heard Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee say this the other day–excommunicating Catholic politicians is a great way to ensure that those politicians get elected; in other words, it is imprudent and ill-advised. But I suspect we’re going to see a good deal more of this kind of thing this election season.