Part of the IRC:
It should be noted, however, that many types of political activities that are not
“campaign activities” are permitted to some extent. The key distinction is that non-campaign political activities cannot support or oppose a particular candidate.
Permissible political activities under the IRC, so long as no candidate is endorsed or opposed, include: educational activities, such as conducting public forums at which social, political, and
international questions are considered; compiling voting records of Members of Congress, so long as the record is not widely distributed to the general public during an election campaign; publishing candidate responses to a questionnaire on a variety of subjects; issuing report cards that indicate whether legislators support or oppose the organization’s views; issue advertising(this is usually considered lobbying); nonpartisan public opinion polling; non-partisan voter registration drives meeting the requirements of IRC § 4945(f);
Thanks -- seems reasonable to me. It is clear the statute intent is to limit the "political" aspect.
For example, the Church's stance on abortion is based on pure moral grounds. But that is inextricably tied to the political world. That makes sense.
But for a Cardinal to tell people to break the law on supposed moral grounds is pure politics.