Thanks, Maureen

I'll confess: Maureen Dowd is not my favorite columnist at the NY Times. (Thomas Freidman is. Yes, I'm a globalization geek, I know.)

But I was raised as a Catholic. That's why this morning's column by Dowd is so important to me. I've been so absoultely disgusted with the so-called leadership at my church I don't go anymore. Those who were raised as I was understand how personally difficult it is to challenge your church leaders. I've long wanted a spiritual outlet, and I've often wanted it to be the church in which I grew up. Now of course, for reasons that make no moral sense to me, I feel excluded.

Catholic leaders tell me that if I support, as Dowd puts it, "the Catholic candidate and one-time Boston altar boy who carries a rosary and a Bible with him on the trail" I'm not a Catholic. If I support the war-mongering liar who supports executing mentally-ill 16-year-olds and guts funding for things like domestic violence prevention and welfare, I'm suddenly a good Catholic again.

It's no secret that the leadership of the Catholic church is still suffering from a credibility gap with many of its followers. I'm sure that some leaders in that church believe they still have an obligation to provide moral and spiritual guidance to their followers, regardless of current events. But when that guidance is so twisted, so obviously hypocritical as it is today, I'm even more convinced that the same arrogance and flawed judgement that allowed them to shield pedophiles and shame victims into silence is at work today, supporting the incumbent.

They've learned nothing.