Those Catholic Church rules sure are confusing. Yesterday, Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans took a stand against gay marriage. Mind you, this is the same Archbishop Hughes who--when he was in Boston--chose to cover up dozens of cases of sexual abuse of children. Why he is permitted to be Archbishop of New Orleans is a holy mystery until itself.

So it's okay to permit massive sexual abuse of children, but not to let two adults who are committed to one another get married.

And there's more: In January,the Bishop of the La Crosse, Wisconsin diocese declared that public office-holders who support a woman's right to choose may no longer receive Holy Communion in his parish. This is interesting, since he didn't say that office-holders who support capital punishment--also against the teachings of the Catholic Church--would be denied Holy Communion.

Of course, it's no secret that church laws that suppress women are the most important church laws of all. But the rules are pretty confusing, aren't they? On my way home today, I was driving behind a truck with a bumper sticker that said Help the Defenseless: Vote Pro-Life. I would be willing to bet a very large amount of money that the driver of that truck went home and ate a dinner that consisted of tortured and slaughtered cows or chickens, and that he has products all over his house that have been horrifically tested on cats, mice and rabbits.