Bishop Carlson and Senator Daschle

A couple of items concerning the dustup:

UPI has an excellent commentary by Uwe Siemon-Netto. The closing paragraphs are right on the money:

Carlson is first and foremost a pastor. He will and must not tell the rest of the world what he has told Daschle, although we can assume that it did not differ from the teachings of Ratzinger, Pope John Paul II, and the whole Church.

A brief statement from the bishop ends with a beautifully revealing paragraph: "Other than inviting people to pray for the Senator's conversion, I do not believe it is appropriate for me to discuss my pastoral relationship with the Senator. ... I would never break off dialogue or a pastoral relationship with anyone."

A pastor indeed!

Also interesting is this CNS piece. The article quotes Judie Brown -- never one to mince words when it comes to abortion, politics, and the church:

"I'm very proud of the courage of Bishop Carlson and I respect his privacy in this matter," she said. "He, I believe, is very upset about the fact that this was made public."

Brown said that, because she had not seen the letter, she did not want to comment on what Carlson might or might not have written to Daschle.

"I'm just going to say that [Carlson] is a very heroic bishop, who has repeatedly done everything he possibly could to be a good shepherd to Senator Daschle," she added.