I'm about to do something I'm not used to doing: criticize an act of church-based political activism for not focusing enough on the single issue of abortion.

The headline in the Scranton Times-Tribune today: "Anti-health-reform flier distributed in Church bulletin." The Times-Tribune's website has a just-legible scan of the flier, which is signed "Susan Cirba, Education Director" and bears the logo of Pennsylvanians for Human Life. Follow that link and you'll find this description: "Pennsylvanians for Human Life is a non-sectarian, non-partisan, non-profit organization that educates the public on life issues in an informative, non-judgemental [sic] manner."

These are all important values for any organization that wants to distribute literature at Mass. Unfortunately, the flier that parishioners at St. John the Evangelist got in their bulletin wasn't exactly "non-partisan" or "non-judgmental." The paper quotes one parishioner who describes it more accurately: "It's lies and it's inflammatory." What most surprised me when I read it was how little of it is related—even very distantly—to abortion, and specifically to the genuine concerns about abortion funding that have been articulated, for example, by the USCCB. In fact, it bears no relation at all to the U.S. Bishops' stated position on health-care reform. Instead, it's full of claims like this: "The bill establishes mandatory 'end of life counseling' for those age 65 and older that we suspect will promote assisted suicide and euthanasia. This is not far fetched."

The flier directs folks to prolifescranton.org, the Web site of the Scranton chapter of Pennsylvanians for Human Life, for more "information" ("Please click on the assisted suicide navigation bar," it says), as well as to Cirba's blog and a few other sites (but not the one set up by the USCCB to educate Catholics about health-care-reform-related issues).

The impetus for distributing the flier in this location last Sunday was evidently to get folks to turn out to a "town hall meeting" with U.S. Rep. Chris Carney (D) on Monday. (Carney, I see, had moved the location of that meeting "to make sure that everyone who wants to be heard has a voice in the process." I wonder whether he regretted it.)

The Times-Tribune seems to have done a good job covering this—and explaining why it's odd. As for how it got in the bulletin:

Mrs. Cirba said Tuesday that she did not send the letter directly to St. John's or any other church. Instead, she sent it to members of her organization in Honesdale and Carbondale before Mr. Carney's meeting and, "I guess the pastor felt it was important enough to put in the bulletin," she said.

Efforts to contact the pastor, the Rev. William J. P. Langan, were unsuccessful Tuesday. A Diocese of Scranton spokesman who was given a copy of the letter Tuesday did not respond to requests for comment.

This isn't the first time St. John the Evangelist in Honesdale, PA, has found itself at the center of the church-and-politics debate. You may recall the discussion forum held there last October—the one where Bishop Joseph Martino reportedly declared, "No USCCB document is relevant in this diocese." The document he was dismissing at that time was "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," so it will be interesting to hear whether he considers this weekend's bulletin insert any more relevant or worthy of discussion. I'm also hoping to learn more about whether the pastor, Fr. Langan, really did approve the distribution of this material in the bulletin, as Cirba supposes he did. It may or may not be significant that Fr. Langan is brand-new at St. John's—he was assigned there, and the previous pastor was reassigned, by Bishop Martino in July.