Is ‘Catholic Republican’ an oxymoron?

Catholic bishops and right wing Republican politicians have joined in a strange embrace in recent years. While they are strongly committed to the same “bedroom issues," on just about everything else, they disagree. Consider the following positions, all of which represent the official Catholic party line:

• Universal health care should be the right of every American. Yes, the church opposes choice and birth control, but unlike the GOP, it considers health care a God-given right.

• The death penalty is a moral abomination. Tell that to Republicans in Texas, who seem to have a bloodlust for executions.

• Needy families deserve welfare as a basic condition of human dignity. Is that an idea that Rick Santorum — himself a Catholic — can endorse?

• America's national minimum wage should be increased. There's an idea that should send a shiver up Mitt Romney's spine — if he has one.

• Undocumented aliens should not be treated as criminals, and the contributions of undocumented immigrants should be recognized by all. Would Rush Limbaugh consider this a valid political idea?

• Workers have "basic rights" that include fair and decent wages, safe working conditions, and the right to unionize. Republicans have fought this principle since the New Deal of the 1930s.

• In the realm of foreign policy, preventative war is wrong and the invasion of Iraq was a travesty. So much for the Neocons.

It seems to me that the bishops’ embracing of Republicanism is another example of their hypocrisy. First there was the priest abuse scandal in which bishops all over the land chose to protect sexually abusing priests rather than their own Catholic youth. Now there is the political scandal in which by promoting Republican politicians they effectively advocate for the rejection of Catholic social doctrine and the civil protection of millions of their adherents. Pope Leo XIII is weeping today.