Catholics on the fence once again

Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are running stories on the Catholic vote today. NYT is focusing on how abortion is again becoming the deciding issue in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. (The Tmes is even reporting that Biden's bishop, Michael Saltarelli of Wilmington, has forbidden Biden to receive Communion in the diocese because of his support for abortion rights, though I have been unable to confirm.) The Times reporter notes that five out of six former Hillary Clinton supporters are now voting for McCain–though his research seems only to extend to the small group around a single rectory table.

WsJ merely notes that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has requested meetings with the candidates, though both have yet to answer.

What's funny is that it is Catholic Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden who opened a new door on this issue by arguing that church teaching about the beginning of life has changed. They were right in their invocations of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas on the "quckening" of the fetus around the 14th week, but the bishops were equally right in responding that the church has still opposed abortion no matter when it thought a fetus got a soul.