Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (Washington, DC)
Photo by Shubert Ciencia
Posted on 08/24/2012 3:46:15 PM PDT by NYer
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (Washington, DC)
Photo by Shubert Ciencia
Catholics are a major voting block, and one that can’t be pigeonholed by Republicans or Democrats. A recent NPR segment compared Vice President Joe Biden with the presumptive Vice Presidential nominee, Congressman Paul Ryan. Both are Catholics, but their worldview is not the same.
Stephen Schneck, a political scientist at Catholic University, said that Biden comes from a more traditional generation of Catholics.
“This is the Catholicism of our old ethnic neighborhoods, and our union halls, and St. Christopher medals on the dashboard sort of thing,” Stephen says.
It is a working-class Catholicism, he says, where the Mass and the rosary are part of the warp and woof of daily life in places such as Scranton, Pa., Biden’s boyhood town. As Biden said when he visited Scranton in 2008, “This is where my family values and my faith melded.”
Those values — of the cop, the fireman, the union leader — placed Catholics solidly in the Democratic camp for decades. Schneck, who co-chairs Catholics for Obama, says these Catholics tend to have a positive attitude toward government.
“Think about John Kennedy’s famous ‘ask not’ lines here,” Schneck says. “For that generation of Catholics, it’s a recognition that government and civil society have a profoundly positive role to play.”
Robert George, a conservative Catholic and professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, says that generation is being supplanted by a younger generation that tends to be more conservative.
“We have a younger generation of Catholics who are more conservative, especially on moral and cultural issues,” he says.
George says these younger Catholics — who are sometimes called “intentional Catholics” — tend to be more committed to conservative parts of Catholic doctrine. Many, like Ryan, 42, came of age during the papacy of John Paul II. They see themselves in Ryan, who opposes same-sex marriage and abortion except when the mother’s life is in danger. In fact, Ryan sponsored a “personhood bill” that would define a fertilized egg as a human being.
Couple that NPR segment with a new poll commissioned by the American Life League which shows President Obama is losing support from Catholics. From an email I received this afternoon:
Between August 15-19 of this year, American Life League commissioned a nationwide telephone survey of 900 self-identified Catholic registered voters. The focus of the survey was Catholic perspectives on the Church and nation. Below are some of the results of the survey.
Only 27 percent of the Catholics surveyed support President Obama. Of those surveyed, 74 percent of Catholic men over the age of 50 do not support Obama, while Obama support among Catholic men under 50 years is only 25 percent. With Catholic women over the age of 50, the president’s support is only 23 percent, with just 31 percent among Catholic women under 50 years.
American Life League speculates that such a dramatic shift may be caused by Obama’s HHS mandates and ensuing legal battle over religious freedom, as 73 percent of Catholics polled believe that the mandates violate their religious freedom.
“This nationwide survey revealed surprising results that should cause our leaders to pause and consider the consequences of their decisions and the impact it has on their constituents. Can Obama’s support among Catholics be dwindling this fast?” said Paul E. Rondeau, ALL executive director. “One thing is certain: Catholics, like most Americans, feel strongly about their religious rights and are committed to defending their faith. Both Church and national leaders should heed this notice.”
The American Life League poll was conducted by ccAdvertising, Centreville, Virginia, which gives the margin of error as +/- 3 percent.
Winning or losing the Catholic vote can make or break a Presidential candidate.
Dorothy Day: "We believe that social security legislation, now hailled as a great victory for the poor and for the worker, is a great defeat for Christianity."
You've got your facts wrong here, my friend. Whatever Catholicism has devolved into (and I get your general picture) Dorothy Day had nothing to do with it. From her conversion to Cathjolicism in 1927 to her death in 1980, she at no point advocated "government-fed dependency" as you so eloquently put it.
For her, it was love in person in the name of Christ all the way --- not socialism.
Day certainly was an ex-denizen of the Socialist Left; but from the time of her conversion she was far, far more religious than political; in the same league as St. Francis of Assisi and on the opposite end of the Universe from both 'borts and Bolsheviks; and to the extent that she was residually political from her younger days, she was anarcho-personalist in her sympathies, not statist in the least.
I'm correcting the picture at such great length because I know Day is often invoked and distorted by the government-suckled Catholic Left. And this is so wrong.
One of Day's most-appreciated maxims was "The Church must never abandon the poor --- to Holy Mother the State."
Good news, it’s about time.
i don't believe thinking Catholics ever voted RAT... only the touchy feely CINO's
It could be argued that Nancy Pelosi is the most powerful proponent of abortion and infanticide on the planet.
It could be argued that the Pope is the most powerful advocate against abortion on the planet.
He for whatever reasons agreed to meet with her.
And yet as defiant as she was to highest authority in the Catholic Church there were no marks on her hands that he repeatedly rapped her knuckles with a ruler for her insubordination.
If I be Pope, Nancy be excommuinicated in a New York minute, and I'd kick out Chwissy Mathews for good measure as well.
It is my understanding that in times past many were excommunicated for lesser acts of defiance.
>>Now after the exposure of the belief in the magic spemacide/uterus I wish Catholics would retake the mantle.<<
Where are you that Catholics don’t head the Pro-Life movement? Have you ever been to a “March for Life”? Catholics are there by the thousands. I know, it’s not covered by the MSM, so how would you know?
We have three buses leaving from my parish alone in January to go to Washington. We meet up with many others and caravan.
Bet you didn’t see this on the evening news!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI8zcNYGKF4&feature=related
My kids are in a Yellow Life balloon group.
Ping!
“Believing, Mass going Catholics are still the most pro-life of any religion. When Roe v. Wade came out the
Catholic Church was about the only Christian church that was against abortion. Most protestants were pro-abortion. The Catholic Church has been pro-life for 2,000 years.”
True!
>>Facts are facts mam, the majority of Catholics voted for obammy previously and it will happen this time too.<<
Fact, A Catholic is required to attend mass every Sunday.
Fact, those who do not, continue to call themselves “Catholic”.
Fact, Church going Catholics (non-CINO) voted overwhelmingly for McCain.
So, in fact, non-attending of every denomination voted Obama, but those who are not Catholic in Name Only, did not vote for Obama.
Whoops, wrong Hussein. Ah, well... perhaps someone with Photoshop talent can make the necessary adjustment.
The results sound good, but I am curious how they did their poll. Was it truly a random sampling of Catholics, or was it skewed toward pro-life Catholics? ALL is a pro-life group.
I hope this poll is somewhat accurate.
The Church has been badly led since Vatican II. Most of the bad decisions were, of course, unintentional. But as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Luther, like the Catholic reformers, meant well, but as he found out, when you start a revolution, you risk losing control. Look what happened in the case of Carlstadt. He went of the deep end while Luther was in hiding. Who would have thought it form his past history. Eck could get no one to take Luther’s movement seriously. Of course, Luther should have been imprisoned in a monastery or executed, but he had friends in high places: in his order and in Germany. God knows how many lives would have been saved if his heresy had been successfully suppressed. Anyway, God has his plan, and we short-sighted little ants, can hardly see beyond the next grain of sand. Of course, we are, all in all, mighty little things who can move boulders with his help.
How can you describe something that has not happened yet as "fact"?
Any Catholic who votes Democratic should be excommunicated.
Get in their faces.
Urge your bishop to start telling their diocese that support of Democrats endangers their ability to receive Communion and endangers their very souls to the fires of Hell.
If that doesn’t work, just tell ‘em 0bama hates Notre Dame and always roots against them. They’ll run to the voting booth to vote for Romney......
Father Drinan should have got that mickey JPI drank.....
According to a friend of mine who’s with the CSX Railroad, the engineers and trainmen’s unions are supporting Romney this year because of Zero’s war on coal.
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