The cardinal, the archbishop and the pro-abortion Democrats

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver is 63 now, so the above photo of him must have been taken a while ago. But anyway, he's in the news now, and here's what's happening.

As you might know, the Democrats are holding their presidential convention in Denver, August 25-28. Well, I've never heard of a major political party not inviting the local bishop -- until now.

That's right: The Democrat convention in Denver won't invite the Archbishop of Denver. The Democrats are such lovers of aborting babies that they know they can't afford to let a prelate as anti-abortion as Archbishop Chaput anywhere near their abortion-fest confab.

It turns out that Archbishop Chaput has something else to do anyway: On the Democrats' opening night, he (click on this post's title) will take part in a big interfaith pro-life prayer vigil outside a giant Planned Parenthood abortion chamber in suburban Stapleton.

Cardinal Roger Mahony treated things differently when the Democrats held their convention in Los Angeles in 2000. He went to the confab and gave an invocation, kind of gently pro-life, if I recall correctly, at a sparsely attended morning session. I don't know if that shunting of him to non-prime time was the Democrats' idea or his.

Presumably Cardinal Mahony thought his invocation might influence some Democrats for the better. But wouldn't it have been great if he had told them he could not attend because they are such anti-lifers? And wouldn't it have been thrilling if Cardinal Mahony had organized an interfaith pro-life prayer vigil at one of L.A.'s many abortion mills during the confab?

What will it take for Cardinal Mahony and our other bishops to start thinking like Archbishop Chaput -- to realize they need to start fighting abortion loud and clear and out in public?