When Senators Sam Brownback (R, Kan.) and Bob Casey (D, Penn.) introduced an amendment this week “Welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to the United States and recognizing the unique insights his moral and spiritual reflections bring to the world stage,” they didn’t expect much push-back. It was “hot-lined” (queued up for unanimous approval) yesterday, and it cleared the Republican Conference.

Today, however, at least one Democratic Senator has objected to the resolution, blocking its unanimous approval, I am told by a Senate source. Reading through the language of the resolution, the most likely passages to raise Democratic ire are:

Whereas Pope Benedict XVI has spoken approvingly of the
vibrance of religious faith in the United States, a faith
nourished by a constitutional commitment to religious liberty
that neither attempts to strip our public spaces of
religious expression nor denies the ultimate source of our
rights and liberties;

or

Whereas Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out for the weak and
vulnerable, witnessing to the value of each and every
human life.

Decide for yourself, by reading the resolution here.