Chris Short is tracking some interesting discussion and reports that John Kerry may be excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Yesterday Chris delved into a report from the Catholic World News that put it succinctly

A consultant to the Vatican has said Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has incurred the penalty of excommunication from the Catholic Church.

That says it pretty straight and clear to me. Powerline has other commentary and is reporting that the unofficial response is as follows.

The Vatican's response is by Father Basil Cole, a Dominican theologian based in Washington, DC, who said he had been assigned to give an unofficial response to the question that Balestrieri had submitted. He answers two questions that Balestrieri had posed, both affirmatively. His letter concludes:

Consequently, if a Catholic publicly and obstinately supports the civil right to abortion, knowing that the Church teaches officially against that legislation, he or she commits that heresy envisioned by Can. 751 of the Code. Provided that the presumptions of knowledge of the law and penalty and imputability are not rebutted in the external forum, one is automatically excommunicated according to Can. 1364, Sec. 1.

I'm not Mr. Religion, but could this affect his candidacy? I wouldn't think so as Democrats don't seem too wrapped up in what the religious orders think of their social decisions. I don't particularly care myself as I'm not Catholic and my social outlook is pretty liberal including pro-choice, civil unions and mandatory orgies (ok that one I made up).

It could lose him some votes however and in the end that could be a big difference in the election.

BLogicus has excellent coverage and I-Magery has some very excellent points as well.

Others also covering the story:

| Evangelical Outpost | Sidesspot | Backcountry Conservative | Right on Red | Phony Kerry | The Blog Hill | Wes Roth | Pennywit.com | Secure Liberty |