Catholicism: What's That All About?

It's very difficult to like anything about the Catholic church. Historical tidbits like the Inquisition, Indian genocide, complicity with Italian fascism and keeping schtum on the holocaust aren't very endearing.

So there should be nothing surprising about them excommunicating a nun for approving an abortion that saved a mother's life. This kind of misanthropy fits in well with forbidding condoms in AIDS-ravaged Africa and the continuing policy of protecting priests who rape and torture kids.

I don't want to get all old-school persecutory, but the fact that the Supreme Court sports a Catholic majority - judges theoretically beholden to the Vatican whatever our secular constitution may say - is a tad troubling.