Anecdotal evidence suggests to me there will be a silver lining if Obama wins: Many Catholics will finally realize, and admit to, the power of the political left in their Church. This will lead to a stark red state, blue state divide among Catholics in the U.S., which will be wider and deeper than what we presently see.

The average Catholic has always been resistant to seeing the instutionalized dissent, political liberalism, and Democratic Party alignment that exists throughout the Church in this country. It exists in a network whose center is at the USCCB and extends through chanceries, universities (especially Jesuit), Catholic organizations, and Catholic media.

This network has become very adept at cloaking its dissent, its political intentions, and its disdain for the agenda of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. I won't go into details because it has been chronicled often, but there are a growing number of Catholics willing to believe it because of this election.

What are these anecdotes? You have priests touting the virtues of Obama from the pulpit. You have parishes where Respect Life Sunday was completely ignored. People are shaking their heads in disbelief as they leave Mass.

Yes, you have a record number of bishops speaking out in defense of the core principles of Catholic social teaching, but Catholics wonder about the rest, the other 200 or so.

I will have more to say about this phenomenon in my column tomorrow.