If Catholics stopped being welcome in the Democratic Party, rightst fundies would soon go unchecked.

[Tom Rinaldo]

45. The American people didn't stop George W. bush from invading Iraq or being re-installed after he did

And we have more tools at our disposal for changing our governments policies and practices relatively quickly than do members of most large organized religions, let alone the Catholic Church wit a couple of centuries worth of inertia behind it. None of can usually say with any real knowledge what an individual Catholic has or has not done to press their disagreement with anything that goes on in their own parish or the whole Catholic Church. At the very least I think it wrong to presume that many Catholics who remain in the Church do not actively work toward social justice both inside and outside of their Church in ways that they feel able to. It could also be said that everyone who voted against George W. Bush could have done more to stop him if they were not willing to committ acts of civil disobedience against his war also, for example.

Again, I am not Catholic and I have trouble with all organized religions. But it is central to almost all religions that prayer of some sort can change the course of history, on both the personal and global scale. I myself chose to be a political activist active on the material plane, so to speak, but when one discusses the faithful - and that includeds the majoirity of human beings on this planet, work on a spiritual plane is thought meaningful also. There are millions of Catholics who pray for changes in the Catholic Church along lines you would likely favor. I'm not saying that is all they do, but they attempt to appeal to God itself that justice may prevail on this earth, over the heads of Church leaders if need be. Personally I have no problem with anyone urging practicing Catholics to fight hard against injustice within the Church itself - I draw the line on presuming individual catholics are complicit with injustice if they do not leave that Church.