Bush and the Bishops

News reports today suggest that President Bush encouraged Vatican officials to press American bishops to speak out more on political issues. According to the New York Times:

On his recent trip to Rome, President Bush asked a top Vatican official to push American bishops to speak out more about political issues, including same-sex marriage, according to a report in the National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper.

In a column posted Friday evening on the paper's Web site, John L. Allen Jr., its correspondent in Rome and the dean of Vatican journalists, wrote that Mr. Bush had made the request in a June 4 meeting with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state. Citing an unnamed Vatican official, Mr. Allen wrote: "Bush said, 'Not all the American bishops are with me' on the cultural issues. The implication was that he hoped the Vatican would nudge them toward more explicit activism."

Mr. Allen wrote that others in the meeting confirmed that the president had pledged aggressive efforts "on the cultural front, especially the battle against gay marriage, and asked for the Vatican's help in encouraging the U.S. bishops to be more outspoken." Cardinal Sodano did not respond, Mr. Allen reported, citing the same unnamed people.

The predictable objection to this news will be cries that the line between church and state has been crossed. I don't see much merit to that, as Bush's attempt to enlist the Vatican's faith-based advocacy for his own political purposes does not seem qualitatively different than a President enlisting churches in the civil rights cause, a war against poverty, or the battle against communism. Indeed, the very premise of Charitable Choice legislation is that faith-based action will facilitate the realization of a political agenda. The only difference between those cases and the current controversy is in the perceived nobility of the particular agenda.

President Bush's attempt, however (assuming that it did occur), does seem to implicate the one-dimensional nature of certain bishops' advocacy up to this point. Why should President Bush feel confident that a more outspoken political role for American bishops will help his candidacy?

Rob