The oh-so-Catholic Supreme Court

■"Bush Picks U.S. Appeals Judge To Take O'Connor's Court Seat: Hailed By Right; Democrats Say Alito Presents Problems-Filibuster Seen," by Elisabeth Bumiller and Carl Hulse, New York Times, 1 November 2005, p. A1.

■"Potentially, the First Shot in All-Out Ideological War," by Todd S. Purdum, New York Times, 1 November 2005, p. A18.

■"Alito Could Be 5th Catholic On Current Supreme Court," by Lynette Clemetson, New York Times, 1 November 2005, p. A19.

Bush went conservative all right, and now we've really got our threat to Roe v. Wade. The American Catholic church has let itself become defined by this issue, which accounts for the increasingly conservative caste of both the clergy and faithful.

Now, with Alito likely to join Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, and moderate Kennedy on the bench, we're looking at a majority Catholic Supreme Court. It wasn't that long ago (my early years) that there was a single, dedicated "Catholic seat" on the Court.

Now, thanks to the divisive issue of abortion, the Catholics are running the Court more and more.

Really amazing when you think of it. When I was born, the great religious controversy was having the first (and to date, only) Catholic president, John Kennedy. Oh the concerns that the White House would be captured by the Vatican!

Well, the Vatican is coming awfully close to capturing the Supreme Court.

And as a moderate Catholic, I confess I am made nervous by this development.

Reversing Roe v. Wade is a chimera, a dream. With global connectivity, abortion can and will be outsourced to nations (like India, with its burgeoning medical tourism) on a low-cost basis. Our only alternative will be ultrasounds at airports to stop pregnant women from traveling abroad, which, quite frankly, will come off like some queer sci-fi future dystopia story or--worse--like some scene from a freaky socialist regime like old Nicolae Ceaucescu's Romania (that's how all those orphanages got filled up, my friends, not a pretty sight).

Still, what an opportunity for Bush to take the heat off his administration! Good call for him. Timing couldn't have been better.