Liebe Blogozesanen, es ist Zeit, sich mit Rick Santorum zu befassen. Denn er ist Katholik, und was für einer!

It is easy to discover from Wikipedia, for instance, that he usually attends a Latin Mass with his family (he has seven children, which ought to have given the game away even to the BBC) at St Catherine of Siena, Great Falls, Virginia, near Washington DC, a parish where it seems they take the sacraments seriously. They go in for regular adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; they announce on their website, under the heading “Sacrament of Holy Matrimony”, that “couples must contact a priest and begin preparation at least six months prior to the wedding” and that “living together before marriage is sinful and harmful to future marriage. Couples who are living together will be asked to live separately during the preparation time.”

This policy no doubt has the support of the parish’s best-known parishioner. Santorum is clearly well known as a committed Catholic who has made it clear that he is 100 per cent in support of the Magisterium. He is involved in the affairs of his Church. He and his wife are, inter alia, a Knight and Dame of Magistral Grace of the Knights of Malta.

I don’t know if he’s a member of Opus Dei, but he obviously supports it: in 2002 he spoke in Rome at a centenary celebration of the birth of St Josemaría Escrivá. In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter on that occasion, Santorum said (controversially it seems, though why I’m not sure) that the distinction between private religious conviction and public responsibility, espoused by President John F Kennedy, had caused “great harm in America”.

“All of us have heard people say [he declared] ‘I privately am against abortion, homosexual marriage, stem cell research, cloning. But who am I to decide that it’s not right for somebody else?’ It sounds good, but it is the corruption of freedom of conscience.” He had, specifically, been critical of Teddy Kennedy’s support for a “woman’s right to choose” abortion; and as a result was attacked by Kennedy himself, in the US Senate, for his bigotry. I have to say that he sounds to me like something of a good egg.

Er wäre der erste Katholik seit Kennedy im Oval Office. Was es schon ziemlich unwahrscheinlich erscheinen lässt, dass er tatsächlich Präsident würde.