Posted on 05/02/2008 7:27:52 PM PDT by Coleus
When Sen. Barack Obama recently announced the formation of his Catholic National Advisory Council, he said he was “deeply honored to have the support and counsel of these committed Catholic leaders, scholars and advocates.” Commenting on this group is Catholic League president Bill Donohue:
“The best advice I can give Sen. Obama about his Catholic National Advisory Council is to dissolve it immediately. Of the 26 Catholic former or current public office holders he has listed as either National Co-Chairs (5), or as members of the National Leadership Committee (21), there is not one who agrees with the Catholic Church on all three major public policy issues: abortion, embryonic stem cell research and school vouchers. “Indeed, on the issue of abortion, their record is disgraceful. Consider the scorecard as issued by the most radical pro-abortion organization in the nation—NARAL. Of the two National Co-Chairs who have a NARAL tally, one agrees with the extremist group 65 percent of the time and the other agrees 100 percent of the time. Of the 20 National Leadership Committee members with a NARAL score, 17 have earned a 100 percent rating. Of those who have less than a perfect score, not one is in favor of school vouchers. [Click here for the evidence.]
“Practicing Catholics have every right to be insulted by Obama’s advisory group. What is the purpose of having an advisory group about matters Catholic when most of its members reject the Catholic position? If Obama wanted input from gay leaders, would he choose those who don’t reflect the sentiments of the gay community? In short, to choose Catholic dissidents to advise him about Catholic concerns is mind-boggling. “If these are the best ‘committed Catholic leaders, scholars and advocates’ Obama can find, then it is evident that he has a ‘Wright’ problem when it comes to picking Catholic advisors.”
National Co-Chairs with a NARAL record:
Sen. Robert Casey: 65%
Rep. Patrick Murphy: 100%
National Leadership Committee with a NARAL record:
Former Sen. Majority Leader Tom Daschle: 50%
Sen. Richard Durbin: 100%
Sen. Edward Kennedy: 100%
Sen. John Kerry: 100%
Sen. Patrick Leahy: 100%
Rep. Xavier Becerra: 100%
Rep. Mike Capuano: 100%
Rep. Lacy Clay: 100%
Rep. Jerry Costello: 0%
Rep. Bill Delahunt: 100%
Rep. Rosa DeLauro: 100%
Rep. Anna Eshoo: 100%
Rep. Raul Grijalva: 100%
Rep. Patrick Kennedy: 100%
Rep. John Larson: 100%
Rep. George Miller: 100%
Rep. James Oberstar: 0%
Rep. Linda Sanchez: 100%
Rep. Carol Shea Porter: 100%
Rep. Peter Welch: 100%
Who Are Obama's Catholic Supporters?
Last Friday, the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama released the names on its Catholic National Advisory Council. The list contains three governors, six senators, and 16 House members, for a total of 25 elected officials. Twenty-two of the 25 are solidly pro-abortion politicians. Five senators and 13 House members have earned 100 percent pro-abortion ratings from NARAL. Of those remaining, Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA) gets a 65 percent rating -- rather surprising for a "pro-lifer." James Oberstar (D-MN) is at 50 percent, while only two are pro-life: Jerry Costello (D-IL) and George Miller (D-CA). (Former House member Tim Roemer (D-IL), a committee co-chair, is pro-life as well.) Notable for his absence is Prof. Doug Kmiec of Pepperdine University's School of Law, who shocked his friends and colleagues with his endorsement of Obama. Kmiec, who held positions in the White House Office of Legal Counsel under Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, was considered one of the most important pro-life Catholic jurists in the nation.
Does his name being missing from the list mean Kmiec is having second thoughts, or simply wants to take a lower profile in the campaign? Time will tell. In the meantime, those who are on the list tell us much about the Catholic advice being received by Obama and his strategists. Just as I wrote in my unsolicited memo to the Obama campaign, the left-wing, and sometimes dissenting, view of the Church is inaccurate and puts him at a disadvantage politically. The composition of the Catholic National Advisory Committee suggests the advice given to Obama will be no different than that given to Al Gore and John Kerry. Whatever kind of advice Obama receives, however, his campaign has put together a list of respected Catholic lay and religious leaders. These are people who collectively encompass the entire network of middle-to- left Catholic institutions and their leadership. They can give the Obama Catholic outreach tremendous heft and credibility in the eyes of elites, especially the media. These are individuals who, regardless of their politics and theology, can make inroads into the Catholic vote.
Included on the list are prominent academics such as Mary Jo Bane, Harvard; M. Shaun Copeland and Lisa Cahill, Boston College; Cathleen Kaveny and Vincent Rougeau, Notre Dame; Vincent Miller, Georgetown; and David O'Brien, Holy Cross. The religious orders are also represented: Sr. Catherine Pinkerton, Congregation of St. Joseph; and Margaret Gannon, IHM, a sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Several members have strong and recent ties to centers of power in the Catholic Church. Sharon Daly has been described as one of the highest-ranking lay women leaders in the Church, and was for many years vice-president for social policy at Catholic Charities USA. Ron Cruz, listed now as a consultant, was, only last year, director of the USCCB's Secretariat of Hispanic Affairs.
The biggest problem Obama's Catholic supporters face is the candidate himself. Only a few months ago he was on a charm offensive; now he is mired in one verbal gaffe after another. As the list of regrettable statements grows, it becomes more difficult for Obama supporters to make a case to Catholics. His candidacy is in danger of losing swing voters -- many of whom are Catholic -- who are starting to see a side of him that is both condescending and extreme. His now-famous comments at a San Francisco fundraiser are another example of the real Obama revealing himself in the glare of constant media attention. The attitude toward religion is shocking for someone who has made hope the focal point of campaign message. Describing the bitterness from loss of jobs he meets in "small towns" in Pennsylvania and the Midwest, Obama said, "And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Here Obama explicitly equates religion to gun ownership, nativism, and racism by assigning them a common motive. Wasn't religion supposed to be about hope in the future, not rancor toward the past? And barely a week earlier, Obama had equated unwanted pregnancy with punishment and sexually transmitted disease. Catholic outreach will not be helped by Obama's association with his parish, the Trinity Church of Christ in Chicago. The problems started by Rev. Jeremiah Wright are not likely to be left behind, if only because Wright's successor, Rev. Otis Moss III, is determined to restore Wright's reputation. In his Easter sermon, Reverend Moss called the treatment of Wright a lynching -- but he didn't leave it there. What followed was an echo of Reverend Wright's tirades:
The lynching was national news. The RNN, the Roman News Network, was reporting it and NPR, National Publican Radio had it on the radio. The Jerusalem Post and the Palestine Times all wanted exclusives, they searched out the young ministers, showed up unannounced at their houses, tried to talk with their families, called up their friends, wanted to get a quote on how do you feel about the lynching? A publican is the Jewish tax collector (mentioned in the parable of Luke 18:10-14). The entire statement verges on the anti-Semitic. Reverend Moss could become a bigger problem for Obama than Reverend Wright if he keeps up this line of thinking about who is responsible for the "lynching" of his predecessor. The Catholic National Advisory Council has some challenges ahead, but they have gathered a notable list of supporters to press Obama's case among Catholics. They will have to convince Catholics to vote for a pro-abortion candidate whose public comments disparage small town religion and the gift of life, and a candidate whose ministers, past and present, make deeply disturbing comments that awaken the most divisive prejudices and hatred in this country's history.
has the world gone MAD?
This Catholic isn't wasting his time being insulted by any such thing. Instead, he will vote.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.
the voices: “religion doesn’t matter...who listens to Catholics...God is dead...better get that Catholic vote!”
Yes.
Obama belongs to a congregation of Black Liberation theologists. I think that most Catholics know better than I what Liberation Theology is all about.
Liberation Theology rejects the hierarchy of the Catholic church and puts it in the same category as the US government as a hegemonic oppressor of the poor. It is laughable that Obama would appoint a Catholic advisory board.
They always try to put a democratic suffocating shrinkwrap on the non-democratic Catholic Church.
The Church is not a Democracy.
The fruit of thier moral relativism...blind arrogance.
Curious to see his numbers around Notre Dame this week.
What a total joke. How “committed” can these horrible people be to their faith when they break with the church on perhaps the most important issue??
How do they still call themselves Catholic when they take their marching orders from NARAL and support NO restrictions of any kind on abortion? I suspect most of them voted against the infants born alive act or other such legislation. They are just evil.
Must be a typo, I don’t see any real Catholics on that list! This must refer to Obama’s new National Advisory Council of Catholic Apostates and Heretics.
Yes, ND might very well prove interesting; but Hesberg’s been gone for a while, and Liberation Theology’s not quite the rage it once was.
The world hasn't gone mad, just these people.
In 2004 we at Catholics Against Kerry beat frenchie in important districts across the country. Genuine Catholics, not make believe ones, would not vote for frenchie because the KNEW he was a phony and NOT really “one of us” as frenchie held himself out to be. While barack mcgovern does not hold himself out to be a Catholic directly, stuff like this will be seen as his attempt to fool Catholics into thinking that if he isn’t “one of us” he is close enough. That will be viewed as an insult. But since no democrat really seems to understand actual religion because their church is secular humanism, this won’t register with them until the exit polls.
Eva,
As you probably know, the advisory board is merely a tool to deceive. Darkness is its cover and deception its motto.
How about Obama denounce the tenets of his church: marxism.
This list is about as Catholic as the Patriotic Catholic Church in China.
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