The election is still a long way off, so who knows what we might find on the ground in November. However, at this moment, with many devout Catholics, Obama is persona non grata.
As I've posted elsewhere on FR, I was at a large meeting of Knights of Columbus earlier this month. It is a meeting that I've attended every May for over a decade, including during several election years. It is something of a taboo to talk serious politics at these meetings, and I'd never heard much political talk in years past. Maybe a quiet conversation here or there, but it is a written rule of the Order to leave politics out of our work and deliberations.
This year, I heard many, many folks loudly denouncing the Kenyan anti-Christ. In fact, we listened to a message from our Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, and our Supreme Chaplain Archbishop Lori all but denouncing Obama by name, stating that his regime is a direct threat to religious liberty and our freedom as Catholics.
There is a new movie coming out next month, For Greater Glory, about the Cristiada War in Mexico where the atheist-inspired government tried to eliminate the religious liberties of Catholics and then to wipe out the Catholic Church, and murdered upwards of 30,000 Catholics, including many priests. This movie was heavily promoted at our meeting, and it was clear just what was the context.
I was chatting with one of my friends, and said something interpreted as hostile to the anti-Christ. An African-American gentleman sitting in front of me overheard our conversation, turned around, and vehemently agreed with me.
I think that Church-going Catholics may break sharply for Romney this year.
We should all pray for that final result.
My wife and I have seen that in her parish also. Four years ago, there were all kinds of Obama stickers on the cars in the parking lot, and people handing out flyers after church.
After the abortion mandate, all those stickers went away.
Don't churchgoing Catholics always break sharply for the presidential candidate less aligned with baby killing?
I think if there's a sharper turn than usual, it'll be because the economy's in the toilet. Here in the Philly burbs, even the diehard union folk are beginning to badmouth Obama. These days, a smaller subset of them are practicing Catholics than in days gone by, but these guys are breaking towards Romney and it has nothing to do with the contraception mandate or abortion. For them, it's always been about their own pockets and a hazy perception that the Dem is out to protect the little guy.
There's a long anti-political tradition at the local church. The only one I remember overtly was collecting signatures to overturn Granholm's veto of a partial birth abortion ban.