Surely Fr. Martin does not mean to suggest that support for the death penalty for heinous criminals — a practice the Catholic Church has supported (and enacted!) in various moments in its history — is comparable to supporting the slaughter of unborn children. Neither, one imagines, could he possibly be suggesting that excessive use of air conditioning, or failing to recycle plastic goods, as outlined in Pope Francis’s environmental encyclical “Laudato Si,” are acts of similar moral gravity as a politician publicly supporting abortion rights.

Surely that’s not what he means. Right?