Fr. Tom Reese, S.J. has a great entry in the Washington Post OnFaith blog. It begins:

The arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in the middle of a presidential election is raising hopes among Republicans, fears among Democrats and excitement in the media. Republicans hope that the pope will strongly condemn abortion, gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research, while the Democrats fear that he will. The media is looking forward to covering the papal visit through this lens.

The most powerful section is midway in the article:

Let no one misunderstand me. The pope and the bishops are very concerned about abortion and do not consider it just one issue among many. The pope will speak to this issue and the media should cover it. What I object to is the ignoring of everything else of political significance that he will say on Iraq, terrorism, poverty, refugees, disarmament, the environment, third world debt and trade. On these issues he is usually to the left of Democrats.

This crystallizes what much of Catholic Democrats' message has been about. Yes, abortion is a serious issue, but there are others, and we can not loose sight of them.