And the Bishop he corners is Bishop Tobin — the one who denied Communion to Patrick Kennedy. Matthews clearly feels strongly about this here — watch this 11 minute segment:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV7xBh5Q8Lc[/youtube]
Matthews clearly takes Bishop Tobin to the woodshed and Tobin is really squirming at the end. Catholic legislators do have to legislate for everyone — not just their Bishops — and they have to live within the laws that are already on the books. It is pretty stupid for Catholic Bishops to rage away at legislators over abortion issues when they selectively punitive, for instance they certainly are not making an example of Rudy Guiliani who is pro-choice or supporters of the death penalty. But most importantly this Bishop’s interference in the legislative process is shown to be real hypocrisy — he is very comfortable punishing legislators for not following his instructions but not so quick to call for sanctions against the women who don’t follow his instructions. What Matthews knows here is that these Bishops are delighted to play their Catholic Teaching Theater with high profile legislators, but they’ll likely destroy the American church with a call for punishing the women who might get an abortion.
It is really a shame that the Catholic Church can’t be more constructive in this conversation, but I suppose that trending back to the tactics of the Spanish Inquisition is in the church’s DNA.