The recent decision by some Roman Catholic bishops to deny communion to pro-choice politicians has set off a firestorm of criticism in this country. The brouhaha was magnified following the ban's endorsement by Cardinal Joseph Arinze of Nigeria, head of the Vatican secretariat that oversees sacramental observance and a front-runner to be the next pope.

Critics of this policy include: the allegedly-incensed Congressional Catholics in their letter to the highest ranking American prelate, Cardinal McCarrick; of course, the New York Times; and Al Hunt of the Wall Street Journal. All of these detractors regularly trot out two counter-arguments: why doesn't the Church likewise deny communion to supporters of the death penalty and the Iraq war? And isn't the Church violating the American church-state separation ban? Both of these objections are rooted in ignorance of Catholic teachings and quite possibly in the knee-jerk opposition of much of the American intelligentsia to Roman Catholicism.

None of those who advance the death penalty and (Iraq) war issues as somehow analogous to abortion, and thus equally worthy of condemnation by the Catholic episcopate, seem to have taken the time to open the most recent Catechism of the Catholic Church (1995). Regarding the death penalty, the Catechism says "the traditional teaching of the Church has acknowledged as well-founded the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of etreme gravity, the death penalty" (section 2266). As for war, it was the Catholic Church in ancient times that devised the famous conditions for just war, which are spelled out in the Catechism: 1) an aggressor must have inflicted "lasting, grave and serious damage;" 2) non-violent means must have proved "impractical or ineffective;" 3) there must be "serious prospects of success;" and 4) the conflict "must not produce evils...graver than the evil to be eliminated" (section 2309). Now while many Catholic bishops, priests and laypeople oppose the death penalty and the Iraq war, arguing that just war conditions were not met--and in fact, Pope John Paul II himself spoke out against the U.S. invasion of Iraq--the point is that official Catholic doctrine is not ipso facto against execution or war.

Contrast that with what the Catechism says regarding abortion: "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable....Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against humanity" (section 2272). Abortion, then--contrary to what critics say--is qualitatively different under Catholic doctrine from the other two issues. No exception has ever been allowed for abortion, whereas capital punishment and warfare are sometimes morally justified.

The question of what constitutes "formal cooperation in an abortion" brings up the interference in American church-state relations of which the Catholic bishops are accused. Is it "formal cooperation" when John Kerry publicly and loudly defends a "woman's right to choose?" Probably not. But what about if he votes against a ban on partial-birth abortions? That one is more problematic and awfully close to facilitating what, in Catholicism, is a grave sin.

But isn't this, ultimately, an in-house Catholic debate? How is a bishop denying communion to a pro-choice politician during Mass violating the separation of church and state? He's not trying to impose Catholic views on Baptists, Mormons, Jews or Muslims. The bishop is simply telling Senator X or Representative Y that they are in hot water with their own denomination and instructing them on how to avoid making this an eternal condition. Church leaders, whether they wear a collar or a tie, have that right and, indeed, responsibility. In fact, the criticism of the Catholic bishops by ignorant Catholic politicians and their willing media accomplices comes much closer to the state meddlling in the affairs of the Roman Cathlic Church, rather than vice-versa.