For year, this Catholic winced at the wishy-washiness that characterized what seemed like the great majority of American bishops -- flinching from instruct their flocks in their Faith in the face of errors, and failing to crack down on immorality and abuse within the Church.

It's refreshing to see that changing, especially the willingness of more and more bishops to admonish Catholic politicians that their "personally opposed" pro-choice stances are nonsense, contrary to being a faithful Catholic, and help lead other Catholics astray.

One the best, Archbishop Raymond Burke -- now head of the Vatican's version of the Supreme Court -- recently spoke out again on this topic:

Burke, who was named prefect of the Vatican's Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature in June, told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire that the U.S. Democratic Party risked "transforming itself definitively into a party of death for its decisions on bioethical issues." He then attacked two of the party's most high profile Catholics -- vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- for misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion.

He said Biden and Pelosi, "while presenting themselves as good Catholics, have presented Church doctrine on abortion in a false and tendentious way.

You go, Your Grace.
I'm a partisan Republican, but i know a goodly number of anti-abortion Catholic Democrats, and it is a shame and a tragedy out how thoroughly the culture of death has taken hold of the Democratic Party. It is virtually impossible to advance to the top ranks if a Democrat is pro-life. Al Gore and Dick Gephardt were pro-life...until they decided they wanted to be President, at which point they accommodated their consciences to their ambition and became pro-choice.

The nomination of Barack Obama deepens that hold. Obama is the most extreme pro-choice nominee of a major party ever. Ever.

Obama is smart enough to recognize that he is far out of step with maiinstream America on this issue. The man who thinks he has the answer to everything professes sudden ignorance oon the question of when life begins. He has lied about his opposition to "born-alive" legislation while in the Illinois legislature.

The mainstream media has absolutely no interest in exploring Obama's exteeme pro-choice views. For one thing, those views don't striek them as extreme. Iin their world, that is the mainstream viewpoint.

But back to the point of this post. I'm heartened by what seems to be a rising tide among American bishops to confidently speak the truth of Catholic teaching to Catholic politicians who need to hear it.