Politics & Power Quote by Carl Olson

The triple “Apparently” is doing a lot of work here: it’s faux-naive, a raised eyebrow masquerading as a shrug. Olson isn’t puzzling something out; he’s daring the reader to admit what the Church is implying. Repetition turns into a drumbeat of escalating stakes - from a practical warning (Communion matters) to a values hierarchy (sacred outranks political loyalty) to the ultimatum (Catholic identity isn’t a jersey you wear on game day).

As an athlete, Olson’s framing leans into the logic of commitment and rules. Sports culture understands eligibility, penalties, and the difference between claiming the team and playing by its standards. That’s the subtext: you don’t get to keep the perks of belonging while treating the core ritual like a photo op. Communion becomes the spiritual equivalent of crossing a line you can’t pretend you didn’t see.

The cultural context is the long-running collision between public Catholicism and public power: politicians invoking faith while supporting policies the Church deems gravely wrong, bishops debating whether to deny Communion, voters arguing whether religion should stay out of governance. Olson cuts through the usual “personal faith” soft-focus and insists on the institutional claim: Catholicism is a sacramental system with boundaries, not a private mood.

The closing “all or nothing” is the provocation. It’s meant to sting, because it reframes the controversy from partisan outrage to spiritual seriousness - and it challenges the comfortable idea that identity can be separated from consequence.