Traitors who think they’re martys

The Constitution forbids religious tests for public office. It doesn’t forbid religious tests for religions. There’s a difference — subtle and elusive, no doubt, but real, if you squint and look hard. An atheist has a perfectly good civil right to run for office. He has no right at all to claim membership in the Catholic Church . . . Why do so many advocates of the right to choose refuse to choose? Why do they insist on having it both ways? Why are they so covetous of the Catholic label they do so much to make meaningless? . . . What Cardinal O’Connor has done is simply to protect the integrity of the church against false labeling. Any organization, to subsist, must be able to define itself and to expel traitors. What’s amazing is that so many of the traitors think they are martyrs.

Joseph Sobran, June 1990, apparently after Cardinal O’Connor denied communion to Mario Cuomo