More on Sr. Prejean, Duluth Diocese

Well, I never did hear back from Democracy Now! However, I did find one news outlet which covered the story, the Duluth News Tribune. This afternoon I called the Catholic Diocese of Duluth to ask about the story. The person I spoke with confirmed that Sr. Prejean is not going to speak at the dinner on October 1st and the bishop's reasoning was that he wants to maintain a nonpartisan atmosphere, the separation of church and state and that the ad in which her name appeared on was quite inflammatory. I said "so it really was because of her opinion of Bush, and not because the ad supported abortion/contraception" and the spokesman said "well, that would have been another reason to withdraw our invitation but Sr. Prejean has disassociated herself with that statement." So it seems that Democracy Now! reported accurately.

Here is the ad [pdf].

Now, here's the question: How do you feel about this? Do you think that any person who makes a public statement like Sr. Prejean's should be labeled as a partisan figure? Webster's definitions of "partisan" in the political sphere include "a person who supports a political party or cause over other parties or causes" and "partial to a particular party or person, often political in nature." But denouncing the actions of a public figure without advocating a specific replacement, is that partisan? Another question, does it never matter how badly a politician acts, members of the Church can never specifically name that person and condemn his actions? This is probably somewhat like the controversy over giving pro-choice politicians communion. I'm not sure what to think, but I do get an uneasy feeling when I reflect over Sr. Prejean's situation.