Frances Kissling, go-to gal for media quotes about all things Catholic, has stepped down as head of Catholics for a Free Choice. Religion reporting just got a whole lot harder.
Catholics for a Free Choice is a Catholic group of abortion activists' dreams. If you hit the CFFC Web site, you'll read: "Ask Pope Benedict to Lift the Ban on Condoms!" And in a closing salvo in the group's magazine, "Conscience," Kissling asks, "Is abortion a morally neutral act? Is it, as some have said, an unambiguous moral good?" Usually a group with the word "Catholic" in its name would be clear on those kinds of questions.
But Catholics for a Free Choice is not a Catholic group; it's a "Catholic" group, one whose Catholic identity doesn't go much deeper than the name on its letterhead. In reality, it's something much closer to a liberal-Democratic group – who it comes closest to speaking for – than anything else.