Wonder how they will score Kerry.
Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
Posted on 04/13/2004 5:06:16 PM PDT by MegaSilver
House Democrats are preparing a “Catholic Voting Scorecard” in an effort to show that Catholic Democratic lawmakers have adhered more closely to the position of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy on key issues than their Catholic Republican counterparts.
Democratic sources say Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Nicholas Lampson (D-Texas), both Catholics, are spearheading the project, which will compare the votes of Catholic members of both parties on a number of key issues that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops identified as its legislative priorities. Nearly 27 percent of House members are Catholic.
The votes, some of which go back several Congresses, include partial-birth abortion, human cloning, child tax credit refunds, the Defense of Marriage Act, global AIDS relief and HIV/AIDS funding, assistance to needy families and raising the minimum wage.
“Under the misconception that single issues such as choice or gay rights best represent their interests, Catholics are voting for Republican candidates with increasing frequency,” a document accompanying the scorecard stated. The document concluded that “Democratic House members vote with the Catholic interest much more often than their Republican counterparts.”
A preliminary copy of the scorecard obtained by The Hill, which a Lampson aide emphasized is still unfinished, shows that the 67 Catholic House Democrats received an average score of 76 percent, while the 49 Catholic Republican members averaged 64 percent.
Republican Catholic members were quick to criticize the scorecard.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said both the bishops and the Democrats are confusing means with motives. “Many of the issues they’re talking about really have nothing to do with actual Catholic teaching or religion,” he said. “It is interpretation of economic policy.”
He added, “For the most part, certainly on social issues and foreign policy issues, the Catholic bishops pretty much speak just for the Catholic bishops. I would say that they are considerably more liberal than the average Catholic voter is. Many of the issues they’re talking about really have nothing to do with actually Catholic teaching or religion. It is interpretation of economic policy.”
King said the Democrats are “attempting to make liberal Democrats look like mainstream Catholics.”
Frank Monahan, director of government liaison for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said his organization had nothing to do with the scorecard and doesn’t rank lawmakers.
“It looks like a fairly accurate list of issues, certainly not a complete list, of issues where we have taken position,” Monahan added.
Several prominent Catholic bishops and lay leaders recently have criticized the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), and other Catholic politicians, such as Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), for their support of abortion rights, stem-cell research, same-sex marriages and other issues that contradict Catholic teaching.
The issue was highlighted on Easter Sunday when Kerry took Holy Communion at a Catholic church in Boston despite the suggestion by Boston’s Catholic archbishop, Sean O’Malley, that Catholic politicians whose views deviate from Catholic doctrine should abstain from receiving communion.
In February, the archbishop of St. Louis, Raymond L. Burke, publicly stated that he would not allow Kerry to receive Communion, and last April, Bishop Robert Carlson of Sioux Falls, S.D., refused to confirm or deny a report that he had directed Daschle to refrain from calling himself a Catholic in his official biography because of his support for abortion rights.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, told “Fox News Sunday” that he is reluctant to deprive a Catholic politician who deviates from Catholic teaching of Communion and would only do so as a last resort.
Monahan said a task force in the conference has been assembled to develop a policy for dealing with Catholic politicians whose positions do not reflect Catholic teaching.
But in a report published in March, the conference stated that Catholics should not become single-issue voters: “The Christian faith is an integral unity, and thus it is incoherent to isolate some particular element to the detriment of the whole of Catholic doctrine.”
The task force “is looking at everything,” said Monahan, adding, “It’s not formed around Senator Kerry or members of Congress. It’s dealing with Catholic politicians at all levels. Everything is on the table. They haven’t got too far down the line in their work yet. You’re dealing with a lot of bishops and a lot of points of view.”
Terry Carmack, chief of staff for Rep. Anne Northup (R-Ky.), noted that the preliminary scorecard obtained by The Hill does not include Republican issues such as school vouchers or faith-based initiatives. “I seriously doubt that a cherry-picked scorecard from our opponents will have any impact on Catholic voters in Louisville,” Carmack said.
Stating that the authors of the scorecard “believe that you have to be a liberal Catholic to be a good Catholic,” he added, “I can only speak for my boss. As a Catholic, she certainly understands that [Catholicism] is a worldwide religion. And you can be more liberal or more conservative and still be a member of the worldwide religion.”
Neither DeLauro nor Lampson would comment on the scorecards.
“We’re not ready to present this to the press,” said Aaron Schmidt, a spokesman for Lampson. “This project is still getting off the ground and won’t be ready for a couple of months. The members don’t want to discuss it with the press. They’d like to talk with the Catholic bishops first.”
Seven Democrats received 100 percent ratings on the preliminary scorecard: Reps. Jerry Costello (Ill.), Mike Doyle (Pa.), Dale Kildee (Mich.), James Langevin (Maine), Michael McNulty (N.Y.), Michael Michaud (Maine) and Tim Ryan (Ohio). Six others had scores of 90 percent or better, while Rep. Ellen Tauscher (Calif.) scored the lowest, at 60 percent, only slightly lower than Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who had 63.6 percent.
Rep. Chris Smith (N.J.), a leading opponent of abortion-rights legislation, had the highest score among Republicans, 72.7 percent, Only two other Republicans, Michael Ferguson (N.J.) and John McHugh (N.Y.) scored 70 percent or better, while Ginny Brown-Waite (Fla.) had the lowest score, 28.6 percent.
This is not accurate. The Paulists are an order of priests founded by Isaac Hecker, a 19th-century Catholic convert in the Boston area. They are definitely Catholic, and they run the Paulist Center.
I'm quite certain this is not true. Do you have evidence to support this claim?
Let's stop right there. If the bishops had any sense we wouldn't need to be having this discussion.
No, it's not a joke, and the Democrats don't need to spin it. The reality is that pro-abortion Democrat politicians are much closer to the positions of the American bishops than Republicans are. The bishops have succeeded in making all issues equally trivial by raising welfare support to the same moral level as abortion. It is the bishops who have created this situation, not the politicians.
Just to take one example, at a Catholic high school you're a lot more likely to see "Dead Man Walking" than "Silent Scream." In their hearts they care a lot more about the death penalty than they do about abortion. And after all, when pope John Paul II visited St. Louis and had his "youth convention" at the sports arena, he talked about the death penalty, not about abortion.
1. It's not just Catholics who vote this way. Catholics vote in roughly the same percentages as non-Catholics.
2. I have no control over the behavior of the bishops.
3. Ultimately there is no justification. The bishops have turned apostate and renounced traditional Catholicism.
Comparing the similarity between democratic legislators and Catholic bishops - that is indeed another story.
In recent history, there has been a greater concern about the death penalty, wrongly so, than about abortion. You are correct. To my great appreciation, in my parish, however, one of our priests is a leader in the pro-life movement.
If I come across it, I'll post it here.
Daschle made himself ineligible for Communion by remarrying without an annulment for his first marriage. Of course, as John Kerry demonstrates, that doesn't necessarily mean that he's stopped receiving Communion. Last year, though, word got out that he was ordered to remove all documentation referring to himself as a Catholic because he voted "no" on the partial-birth abortion ban. His bishop was asked if this was true, and would not answer the question directly, saying that it was between him and Daschle, but would say that he had talked to Daschle about the abortion issue.
Of course you're right that they should all be consided excommunicated and shouldn't be going to communion. The question is whether the bishops will enforce the rules, and so far it looks like the answer is "No" with possibly 1 or 2 exceptions.
Wonder how they will score Kerry.
Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
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