Assuming the IRS isn't violating US law, and the US Constitution, by launching a partisan witch hunt against a liberal church, we assume that the IRS will soon be threatening the tax status of the entire Catholic Church in America since Pope Ratzinger himself overtly tried to throw the US presidential election in favor of George Bush.
And I take you back to July 11, 2004:
American Catholic bishops are trying to defy secret advice from Rome that Communion should not be given to John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate.You'll recall that in the case of the liberal church, the IRS recently threatened to revoke the church's tax status simply based on a newspaper article's report of a sermon given in the church, a sermon critical of the war on terror. Clearly, a newspaper article stating that Pope Ratzinger intentionally crafted a memo on church doctrine in a way so that it would specifically take a swipe at the Democratic president candidate, is obviously against US tax law.
The advice is contained in an explosive memo - clearly directed at Sen Kerry - by Cardinal Ratzinger, the Pope's doctrinal advisor, who is head of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - the institutional heir to the Inquisition.
The memo was sent to the US Catholic Bishops' conference last month. With formidable clarity and force, it states that pro-abortion Catholic politicians should be warned by priests that they are not eligible for Communion. If the politician then "shows an obstinate persistence in grave sin", writes Cardinal Ratzinger, he or she should be turned away at the altar rail. Mr Kerry has consistently voted in favour of maintaining abortion rights during his 30-year senatorial career.
The tone and content of Cardinal Ratzinger's memo, which was leaked to an Italian magazine last week, leave little room for misunderstanding. Some passages appear to have been drafted specifically with Sen Kerry in mind.
"Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia," writes the Cardinal, "when a person's formal co-operation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his pastor should meet with him, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist."....
Last month the Pope delighted White House election strategists by agreeing to meet President Bush in Rome after repeated overtures from Washington. A senior religious advisor to the White House told The Telegraph that there was "no doubt" that the Pope preferred President Bush to Sen Kerry, even though the Vatican was strongly against the war in Iraq and the senator is a practising Catholic.
I can't wait for Bush's IRS to send a letter to every Catholic Church in America threatening their tax status. Perhaps we need to write the IRS and demand they do.
Here's the phone number for the IRS' national media office, since we are media and all:
202-622-4000.
Tell them you're looking forward to their investigating the Catholic Church's tax status, or do they only go after liberal churches
And here's the chief counsel's office:
202-622-3300
