the one thing I'm pretty sure the Pope's against is birth control and abortion. I would posit that the Pope (note the capital "P") is much more liberal when it comes to "people" issues than most conservatives are; for instance Catholics are generally more inclined to support assisting the needy (read: they're more likely to be OK with state-sponsored welfare) than are your run-of-the-mill conservatives. Cliff's: Catholics (generally) are fiscally conservative, socially liberal, except for abortion and birth control. Yes, you'll find Catholics that are OK with birth control, but those are what the Church's leaders would call "Cafeteria Catholics". But I digress... Birth control itself (the pill, love gloves, et al) are not really conservative issues - at least I haven't heard it discussed in conservative circles. Where conservatives have issues is with abortion, and with forcing those that are against birth control (Roman Catholic employers as one example) to pay for birth control. By the way, since when did birth control become a right, an entitlement, that people should be able to get "for free"? What's next? "I'd sure like a drink, but can't afford/don't want to spend money, so the gub-ment needs to buy it for me" ?