By Phil Lawler (bio - articles - email) | Feb 28, 2020

This weeks news was dominated by reports about the coronavirus. Even in Rome, when Pope Francis curtailed his schedule for a few days because of a slight indisposition, some overeager reporters questioned whether it was possible the Pontiff had somehow contracted the feared virus. Yes, its possible. But not at all probable. There was no report of an outbreak in Rome, and statements from Vatican officialswho were obviously being terse, to discourage speculationsuggested that in the Popes case the culprit was an ordinary winter flu.

By the way, questions about the Popes health will probably remain unanswered next week. After his scheduled public audience on Sunday, he is due to go into seclusion for a week, with the leaders of the Roman Curia, for the annual Lenten Retreat.

Otherwise it was a quiet week. But I was taken aback, I admit, by Archbishop Bernard Hebdas directive that priests and deacons in his St. Paul archdiocese should not vote in Minnesotas presidential primary. Why would a prelate discourage clerics from exercising their civic rightsand, some would say, their duties? Archbishop Hebda explained that voting could be seen as partisan political activity under new Minnesota rules for the primary, and canon law bars clerics from involvement in partisan causes.

The new rules in Minnesota are neither unusual nor extreme. They require primary voters to select the ballot of a particular political party; this is, after all, a primary, to determine the parties candidates. And records are kept of which voters chose which ballots. Pulling a ballot for one party does not necessarily mean that the voter endorses that partys platform or favors that partys candidate. The voter could, if he wished, write in a Republican candidates name on a Democratic party ballot, or vice versa. There is no public record of how the voter marked the ballotonly of which ballot he chose. So a clerics activity inside the voting booth would still be secret, and unlikely to embroil the Church in political disputes. But when a voter chooses not to vote in the primary, he forfeits any opportunity to influence the partysany partyschoices. So the archbishop is asking clerics not to make their voices heard in the political process. Again I wonder: why?

Maybe Im too cynical, but I wonder whether Archbishop Hebda knows that a solid majority of his priests would choose to vote in the Democratic primary. If so, its theoretically possible that some energetic researcher could search the voter rolls and determine which percentage of the local clergy chose to participate in the primary of a party whose leadership is firmly committed to legal abortion on demand, same-sex marriage, and gender ideology. We still wouldnt know how those priests voted. But the data would be interesting, wouldnt they?

This week also brought the news that the Diocese of Buffalo has filed for bankruptcy protection, the 22nd American diocese to take that step. (The neighboring Diocese of Ogdensburg will likely join the list soon.) I can still remember the time in 2002 when the finance council of the Boston archdiocese approved a move toward bankruptcy. At the time the decision was shocking. No American diocese had ever previously contemplated such a radical step, and as things happened the Boston archdiocese never took it. But now there are 22 on the list (23 if you include the Archdiocese of Agana in Guam, a US territory), and the list is sure to grow longer. Signs of unhappy times.

Before I sign off for the week, let me call attention to two noteworthy articles on other sites:

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.

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This week: Should clerics vote? Is bankruptcy a disgrace? And more. - Catholic Culture