With the Vice Presidential debate now over, attention turns to the next presidential debate, which will take place in St. Louis -- the city where I grew up. Right now, the waters there have been roiled by a letter from the city's Catholic Archbishop Raymond Burke, who has displayed great courage by reminding Catholics that they can't simply ignore Church teaching when they vote.

Good for him -- even though I'm an Episcopalian myself (at least until the liberals succeed in expelling all the conservatives from the Church), I have long wondered why Catholic politicians seem to feel so free to ignore Church teaching (in fact, I once wrote a column about it). It's about time that someone joined Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput in taking a stand (who seems like a wonderful man. He actually who took the time to write back after I emailed to thank him for his stand, having heard about in on Hugh Hewitt's radio show).

An article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (a less celebrated practicioner of the agenda journalism familiar to the unfortunate readers of The Los Angeles Times), lays out a summary of the Archbishop's letter here.

To summarize the thrust of the letter as set forth in the article, "Burke says the only instance in which a Catholic may vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights or same-sex marriage is when none of the candidates running for a particular office agree completely with the church on issues Burke lays out as priorities for the Catholic voter: abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, cloning and same-sex marriage." If there is a candidate in the race who agrees with the Church on these issues, and a Catholic votes for his opponent, that Catholic has committed a "grave sin."

This, obviously, is bad news for Democrats -- especially insofar as Archbishop Burke makes it clear that opposition to the war and the death penalty are issues upon which Catholics can disagree . . . but not on the issues set forth above. This removes the easiest way for Catholic Democrats to rationalize their votes for John Kerry.

This could have great significance, not only for Archbishop Burke's willingness to call Catholics to account, but also because there are 550,000 Catholics in St. Louis -- the largest city in the swing state of Missouri. Many people think of St. Louis as a city full of people of German descent (home of Budweiser, etc.) but what's less known is that there are lots of French Catholics who take great pride in the fact that Pierre Chouteau, a French fur trader, was key to the founding of St. Louis (or so I remember from my grade school segment on local history).

But it's worth asking whether the impact this letter will have on the actual vote in Missouri may be limited. That's because most of the devout, Church-going Catholics probably already support President Bush; those who may identify themselves as Catholic but NEVER attend Church or confession may not be as worried about whether their voting constitutes a "grave sin." To the extent that they do worry about committing a grave sin, however, the Archbishop's letter may convince them just not to vote.

Even so, it's a shot across the bow of all the Ted Kennedy/Mario Cuomo-style Catholic politicians who want it both ways. More than anything, it's a sign that there are Church leaders willing to ask that their flocks actually live their faith, not just pay lip service to it -- hugely important to keeping any religion strong and vibrant.