Where does the Church belong?

Separation of the Church and State? America has long had its own specific approach to this: Churches are fully separate from the State (understandably as the country was founded by "Nonconformists" who had to flee England because of religious persecution...) - but religion is everywhere (including a lot of swearing on the Bible, or on other holy books...). This is well known, so nothing new here...But what struck me recently is this:
- several Catholic bishops and priests, in their Sunday (and other) preaches, warned their flock against voting for Barack Obama
- some of them even hinted such voters could be in a state of sin, and thus unable to approach the communion
- and since the election this has continued - several Catholic columnists et.al. say that Obama's election is a sign of Catholic moral collapse etc.

I am not sure what is the most stupefying:
(1) that this can happen at all? I have to say that ANYWHERE in Western Europe (except maybe Ireland) this would be impossible to imagine - and not only in France (where the Revolution and the 1905 Separation of Church and State left the Catholic Church in relatively weak standing) but even in Italy (where the Church is powerful, active in politics, and strident about abortion)...such an intervention, in France, would certainly add an immediate 10% of the vote to the politician under attack...and result in the clergymen being sacked on the spot by their hierarchy...
(2) the reason why it happens? the only and exclusive issue is abortion. Now, we all know that abortion is everywhere in this Pope's (and the previous's) speeches and edicts, but not always in the Church's discourse in Europe. They also speak about social justice, peace, helping foreigners, and what not...Seeing the Church (rather: part of it, but still, during the preach) taking such a stance on the basis of abortion exclusively is impressive.

Which brings us to: this strange obsessive debate about abortion...