Even worse for son of the Presbyterian manse Brown, the good Cardinal is backed up by some Scots henchmen who make the cheerleaders of the counter-reformation look mild in comparison.
I blame it all on Tony and Cherie, good Catholics both (eventually), but there you are. Whatever happened to the Scottish enlightenment?
The problem is the embryos bill about to go through Parliament, which the Catholics (including a big slug of government ministers) think tamper with the essence of human life, just as they think condoms do.
Brown and co think it will open up new vistas in medical research, which may help ameliorate horrible afflictions like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
I quite sympathise with him and his desire to tell this lot where to get off.
The trouble is he hasn't.
He should have allowed a free vote on the most contentious sections of the bill, to let his ministers like transport secretary and Opus Dei member Ruth Kelly off the hook. After all, he hired her in the first place.
He should also have made a good, firm speech telling these Catholic churchmen (who have no official status in the UK anyway, that's supposed to be the Anglicans) to get back in their box.
As it is, he's done neither and is stuck in a hell of a mess, having to call on health secretary Alan Johnson to tour the studios at the weekend promising some kind of compromise.
Prime Ministers need to run the establishment first, long before they start worrying about the voters or the running order on ‘News At Ten'.
This means keeping the bishops and the generals and mouthy members of the Royal Family and posh paper newspaper editors in the loop and (crucially) in line.
Otherwise, it looks like nobody is running the country.
His new consigliore Stephen Carter and Carter's recruits like WPP's David Muir presumably know this too.
But can they get the message across?
If Brown takes a powder on this one, and then compounds the felony by going for broke on his mad 42 days detention for "terrorists" notion, then he'll be out on his ear before the summer holidays.