"...as a Catholic I earned a free pass to talk about socialism because others who have stood with us have died at the hands of socialists for the past two centuries."

I guess he must refer to those who died in the USSR or Eastern Europe or even Cuba (extreme socialists if you ask me.  IMHO communism represents socialism the way Ayn Rand laissez-faire represents capitalism). The Soviets mostly killed Eastern Orthodox believers rather than Catholics but Christian nevertheless. I don't remember Nazis persecuting Catholics except for Edith Stein who they considered Jewish.

"...whenever we have religious freedom stopped it is a hallmark of socialism and will never be compatible with Christianity for at least two reasons "personal choice" and "private property. Personal choice has to do with personal conscience because you are responsible and accountable for all the things that God has given to us and that allows us personal property [sic] so we can be generous and return it to our Lord and Saviour..."

So personal choice begat personal property, hmmmm???!!

"...socialists want to turn that responsibility away from us and that goes against our religion"

I guess that if a government charges taxes and uses it for education, health care or anything for that matter it goes against his interpretation of Catholicism (or is it neo-Republicanism, the new religion?)

"...we believe conciense and private property are not human ideas they come from God."

They cheered that one.

He then says a few more incoherencies involving the Constitution and then he finishes by saying;

"...socialism is a foreign threat to our democracy.  I am tired of this experiment and I am hoping you are tired too."

In not so silent whistle mode with "this experiment" he was obviously referring to the Obama Presidency.

One thing is to have a priest do an invocation.  Another thing is to have a priest become a partisan political leader and I believe that Father Andrew of the Saint Thomas More Parish has gone too far.

But there is one more thing.

Saint Thomas More Parish?  Thomas More?  Wooooow!  Wait a freaking second Father Andrew.  I may not be the most educated ex-Catholic out there but one thing I know is this; Thomas More (Sir or Saint) would NOT approve of your speech.

You see Father Andrew, Saint Thomas More  (canonized rather recently in 1935) is very famous, Henry VIII had him beheaded for not recognizing the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon (you see, the Spanish run the Catholic Church thanks to the Inca gold, but that is another story), he did a lot for women (by those days standards, he loved his daughtes), he was considered one of the greatest thinkers of his time.  But what Saint Thomas More is perhaps most remembered for is "Utopia".

More's Utopia is the 1st, he coined the term.  More's utopia is influenced by Greco-Roman literature and thought.  It is one of the most famous and controversial books ever written

The ideal civilization in Utopia has some unusual characteristics that obviously Father Andrew never understood (or ever read IMO), from Wikipedia;

There is no private ownership on Utopia, with goods being stored in warehouses and people requesting what they need. There are also no locks on the doors of the houses, which are rotated between the citizens every ten years. Agriculture is the most important job on the island. Every person is taught it and must live in the countryside, farming, for two years at a time, with women doing the same work as men. Parallel to this, every citizen must learn at least one of the other essential trades: weaving (mainly done by the women), carpentry, metalsmithing and masonry. There is deliberate simplicity about these trades; for instance, all people wear the same types of simple clothes and there are no dressmakers making fine apparel. All able-bodied citizens must work; thus unemployment is eradicated, and the length of the working day can be minimised: the people only have to work six hours a day (although many willingly work for longer). More does allow scholars in his society to become the ruling officials or priests, people picked during their primary education for their ability to learn. All other citizens are however encouraged to apply themselves to learning in their leisure time.

I believe that this Utopia of Saint Thomas More more approaches your dreaded "socialism" that anything written before and for a long time after.

I am aware of the countless controversies around Utopia, but I believe Father Andrew needs to polish up a bit.

Below all this there is one disturbing reality; religion in America has entered the realm of politics.  We have a Republican party that has become home not only for the Dominionist Evangelical Reconstructionist Fundamentalist Christians as James Dobson followers who don't get the separation of church and state in civilian or military government organizations (I am involved with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation)  but also by this new right wing within the Catholic Church best exemplified by Rick Santorum.  

So now we have all the right wing theocratic, misogynist, laissez-faire, homophobic clearly united in their hate of liberal, progressive ideas they see personified in President Obama.  The missing piece was the Mormon church and now not even that.

Until religious leaders start speaking on our side we face an unequal fight.  These people do not care about policy or any sort of wonkishness, they don't care about logic or pragmatism, they are true believers ignorant of their own history as is the case of one of their favorite Catholics, Father Andrew.

Saint Thomas More must be spinning in his grave.

(Also published in DailyKos)