Reporters in Tucson love to follow the Facebook feed of Gabriela Saucedo Mercer, the Republican candidate who is once again facing the Quixotic task of beating Raúl Grijalva.
Last campaign, she became famous more for her outrageous statements than her policy issues or campaign acumen. One was so bad that even Jan Brewer abandoned her.
Despite losing by nearly 20 points, Saucedo Mercer doesn't seem to have learned much from her previous campaign and has resorted to questioning Grijalva's faith.
Grijalva recently attended the funeral of Manny Herrera, who he's known for decades. Saucedo Mercer showed up for some reason and remarked on the experience in a post on Doug Ducey's primary victory on Facebook with this:
No Chris Kallmes, Raul Grijalva my opponent. Whom I ran into at a memorial service at a catholic church and witnessed him going for communion while he is a guilty of infanticide as Ryan Gosling, since you bring him up. The catholic church should excommunicate Grijalva on his many counts on the war against unborn children, Christians and their values.
The Ryan Gosling reference is only half wingnuttery, as a previous poster had brought him up. Gosling has drifted away from the Church of Later Day Saints, since we are talking about excommunication and such.
Needless to say, the family wasn't pleased with Saucedo Mercer making Manny's funeral into a political stunt. This from Manny's nephew, Richard, also from the same Facebook entry:
You are a disgusting human being Gabriela. You had no right to attend my uncle's funeral, which you arrived late to. And now you are trying to score political points by passing judgement on your opponent's religious practice which should be between him and God. Shame on you.
And this is from Manny's sister, Yolanda:
Three times Gabriela Saucedo Mercer has disrespected my family. She does NOT know us, she may know of us, not the same thing. To use my brother's memorial service for politics is beyond shameful but to hit me on the head while I was in prayer after receiving communion so I would notice her is beyond forgiveable. You overstepped, shame on you...my family is mourning. Congressman Grijalva knows my family and was a friend of my brother and was respectful during the service unlike you. Shame on anyone who votes for Mercer.
Of course, Grijalva
had to be a bit more measured:
My opponent, the Tea Party Republican Gabby Mercer, has just called for my excommunication from the Catholic Church because of crimes against the values of the church, infanticide and a variety of other things. I’m sure Mercer would love to bring back the Spanish Inquisition. Mercer saw me receiving my sacrament at a memorial service for a dear friend, Manny Herrera III, whom I graduated from high school with. Mr. Herrera was a friend, as is his family. The fact that she would bring politics and her campaign into the funeral service of Manny Herrera is shameful and quite frankly disgusting.
Grijalva goes on to quote Pope Francis's denunciations of Republican policies and asking if Saucedo Mercer is in agreement with the Pope.
I don't know that being in agreement with the Pope is that big of a deal for Saucedo Mercer because it is unclear if she is even Roman Catholic. Her Facebook page refers to her religion as "Christian." Yes, we RCs are Christian, but it is common for us to identify ourselves as Catholic to differentiate from the dominant Protestant culture. Her Facebook page has numerous references to visits at Evangelical churches, but never Catholic ones. I guess she's shown up at at least one, right?
I've asked a couple of Tucson reporters about this, and they had always assumed she was Evangelical. If this is the case, what business does she have calling out Grijalva?
If Yolanda's allegations are true, it doesn't even sound like she knows enough to be respectful of some basic traditions of the Mass. She certainly doesn't know what the sacrament is for if she was insulted by Grijalva receiving it.
As a card-carrying-Vatican-II-love-the-Paulists Catholic, I get called out all the time by conservative Catholics and conservative Evangelicals. Interestingly, it's the Evangelicals that tell me I should be excommunicated (nice of them, eh?) but never the Catholics. What's up with that?