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So much for Kerry Catholicism. On Sunday, John Kerry showed up for the 10:30 Mass at Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church at 10:41 a.m. (The church had roped off two pews for the VIP.) Adding further insult, Kerry arrived noisily, fully outfitted for skiing, not dressed for a religious service. Compounding the insult -- this time to all Catholics in good standings -- Kerry received the sacrament of Holy Eucharist, even though he's not considered to be a Catholic in good standing.

"It was just a media-op," says a Kerry advance staffer. "We set it up with some reporters that we knew were going to be there."

Kerry, who claims to be a practicing Roman Catholic (though lately he's been playing up his partial Jewishness), has consistently voted in support of abortion as both a state politician in Massachusetts and in his time in Washington. He has also spoken in support of euthanasia. He has stated that he disagrees with the Catholic position in both areas.

Under church law, Kerry's very public support of abortion disqualifies him from the sacraments. He is not known to be a regular Mass attendee. In fact, some Roman Catholics in Boston have in the past pressed for the bishops there to excommunicate Kerry for his refusal to accept Catholic doctrine and canon law.

Sen. Tom Daschle is finding himself in a similar position in South Dakota, where the bishop there has been rumored for months to be mulling excommunicating Daschle for his liberal positions on abortion.

"Dean is going to allow this muzzling?"

This could get interesting, OF. Dean's primary campaign made it obvious to all but the most enthralled Deaniac, that the man is mentally disturbed. Given his now legendary lack of self-control and his desperate desire to be in the limelight, I don't see how this can work out for the Kerry campaign. Obviously, their internal polling showed them they were not attracting enough Deaniacs to their banner. I wonder what they promised him -- or threatened him with...