With many American Catholics outraged that Notre Dame university has invited Barack Obama to deliver its commencement address -- a position the Pope himself apparently finds untroubling -- one wonders if America's Catholic conservatives are more concerned about politics than about any genuine religious doctrine. Indeed, the Vatican's own official publication, L'Osservatore Romano has labeled Obama's first three months in office as "One hundred days that didn't shake the world." Meanwhile, the American anti-abortion-rights group, National Right to Life Committee, has moved to criticize the Vatican's "surprisingly positive assessment" of President Obama's approach to life issues and called on Notre Dame university to rescind the Obama invitation. According to the NRLC, Notre Dame's invitation is "an affront to all who believe in the sanctity and dignity of human life." Since Pope Benedict does not seem to consider the Obama invitation "an affront," the NRLC would apparently exclude Pope Benedict from its list of those who believe in the sanctity and dignity of human life. If extremism like that informs America's Republican party, America's conservatives should perhaps anticipate a much longer period of Democratic rule. And for good reason.