If you were wondering whether their squishy editorial celebrating The One’s “common ground” nonsense at Notre Dame might have been mistranslated, rest assured that it wasn’t.

I don’t know what to say anymore, guys.

In the interview with Rodari, Editor-in-chief Gian Maria Vian discussed his thoughts on President Obama at the University of Notre Dame. “Obama has not upset the world,” he said. “His speech at Notre Dame has been respectful toward every position. He tried to engage the debate stepping out from every ideological position and outside every ‘confrontational mentality.’ To this extent his speech is to be appreciated.”

Vian continued, “Let me be clear, L’Osservatore stands where the American bishops are: we consider abortion a disaster. We must promote, always and at every level a ‘culture of life’.”

“What I want to stress is that yesterday, on this precise and very delicate issue, the President said that the approval of the new law on abortion is not a priority of his administration. The fact that he said that is very reassuring to me. It also underlines my own clear belief: Obama is not a pro-abortion president,” he told Rodari.

Abortion’s a “disaster,” and Obama’s almost certainly the most comfortable with it of any president in American history, and all it takes to let him off the hook is the fact that he’s not terribly eager to expand the policy further? By that same logic, a legislator who voted to legalize rape would only be considered “pro-rape” if he supported commission of the deed itself, never mind the incentives involved in lifting penalties for it. In fairness to Benedict and his staff, other Catholic commentators have stressed that the paper isn’t exactly a house organ for the Church and so its position shouldn’t be confused with the position of the Holy See. The Church can replace the editor, though, can’t it? Why’s he still there, then?