Flynn: Dems ignore Catholics

Boston Herald ^ | December 31, 2003 | David R. Guarino

[NYer]

Former Vatican Ambassador Raymond L. Flynn yesterday accused Democrats of ignoring a ``swing'' bloc of Catholic voters who could hand President Bush re-election next year.

     As Democratic presidential candidates spent another day criticizing Howard Dean as ill-prepared for the White House, Flynn chastised them for ``ducking'' real issues such as abortion and gay marriage.
     ``There is a forum for the black voters, there's another forum for the feminists and women voters, there's another candidate forum for organized labor,'' Flynn told the Herald. ``That doesn't happen with the most significant voting bloc in the country, the Catholic vote.''
     Flynn, in an opinion column published in the Manchester Union-Leader, said Democrats are writing off more than 40 percent of the Granite State's voters by ignoring Catholics.
     He said the Democrats skirt delicate issues such as government aid to parochial schools. ``They don't want these kinds of issues raised in a political campaign, so they ignore it,'' Flynn said.
     But Andrew Smith of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center said, ``Catholics don't vote as a bloc, they are as varied as Protestant voters or any other voters.''
     Meanwhile, Democratic challengers to Dean spent another day nit-picking the leader of the pack. In Iowa, U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry slammed Dean for mischaracterizing a vote he took on farm subsidies - claiming Dean mixed up Kerry with ex-Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska.
     And U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt took on the former Vermont governor's claim to be the only candidate from a ``farm state'' - noting that his native Missouri has far more farms than Vermont.

[Texas Eagle]

Is Flynn new to this planet?

[NYer]

Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility

Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list

[Salvation]

And then we have the Catholics in Name Only. (CINO)

Posting a politician and Catholic list of articles.

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

.....claiming Dean mixed up John Kerry with ex-Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska.....

That's understandable.

Similarly, some people are confusing Howard Dean with James Dean.......both strange, excentric rebels with a cult-like followings.

[Salvation]

The Deadly Dozen

Canadian Prime Minister Taunts Church: "I Am A Catholic And For Abortion"
Catholic Church asks Tom Daschle to stop calling himself a Catholic
On Catholic Politicians and Faith
Vatican Urges Catholic Politicians to Vote Along Church Lines
Senator Santorum on Being Catholic and a Politician
William E. Simon, Sr. and Jr. Devout Catholics, Philanthropists and Politicians
Deadly Dozen senator taken to task over claims of Catholicism
THE BISHOP AND THE SENATOR [author links to FR thread regarding Daschle in her online column]
Blood On Their Hands: Exposing Pro-abortion Catholic Politicians
MI Gov Granholm Proclaims June "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month"
Colorado Governor To Media:'WE LOVE OUR CHURCH' [Gov. Bill Owens
U.S. Senator Brownback and Commentator Dick Morris Join Catholic Church
PRIEST REFUSES COMMUNION TO KNEELING PRO-LIFE POLITICIAN [Richard Black, Virginia]
Kerry [Catholic} says he'll filibuster Supreme Court nominees who do not support abortion rights
Pope to MPs: Stop gay marriage
Vatican - Considerations regarding ... homosexual persons
CONFUSIONS ABOUT POLITICAL JUDGMENT AND THE MORAL LAW
Prelate says politicians who back abortion shouldn't go to Communion
Bishop draws fire for targeting Chrétien
Kennedy likens Vatican stance on gay unions to 'bigotry' (oh, go get a job, you little creep)
Ignorance or Malicious Intent? "No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to..."
George Weigel on Authentic Catholic Citizenship, and the Duty of Catholic Politicians to Behave as Catholics
Conservative Catholics urge Church to challenge "dissenters"
[Robert F., Jr.] Kennedy to speak at Festival of Faiths (Environmentalism as religion)
Faithful Catholic Politicians
Catholic Bishops Eye Possible Crackdown of Pro-Abortion Pols
PETITION TO EX-COMMUNICATE PRO-ABORTION CATHOLIC ELECTED OFFICIALS
It is Time to Excommunicate the Politicians
Church vows to fight gay marriage: Catholics pressure pols
Should politicians toe their church line?
Church May Penalize Politicans
Catholic politicians facing dogmatic threat
Bishop appeals to Catholic lawmakers [Wisconsin]
New St. Louis Catholic Archbishop Warns Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians of Excommunication.
Bishop Objected to AIDS Walk
Wisconsin Catholic Lawmakers Seek Victim Status In Feud With Bishop
Bishop Burke discusses the letters he sent to Catholic politicians
Congressman Places Internal Pro-Abortion Docs in Congressional Record
Flynn: Dems ignore Catholics

[FormerACLUmember]

The only Catholic Link on the DNC site is to a virulently anti-Catholic cult!!!!

How anyone with moral values of any religious background can vote for the rats is mysterious.

[Salvation]

** ``There is a forum for the black voters, there's another forum for the feminists and women voters, there's another candidate forum for organized labor,'' Flynn told the Herald. ``That doesn't happen with the most significant voting bloc in the country, the Catholic vote.''**

It will be interesting to track, but I think Flynn is wrong here. I believe we will see more Catholics (remember -- the Church (with the younger people) is getting more conservative.) voting Republican more and more!

[mware]

Flynn is one of those near extinct, conservative Democrats.

A decent man in my opinion.

[hunter112]

Is Flynn new to this planet?

He's apparently new to the idea that Catholics don't listen to the hierarchy any more, at least not as much as they used to. Back when he was an alter boy, the Pope and the cardinals and bishops exerted a mighty force over their flocks, it started falling apart in the 1970's. By the time I last attended a Catholic church as a member, I knew more Catholic men with a vasectomy (like myself) than non-Catholic men with one. One older guy at a Knights of Columbus after-meeting function (in the lounge of the local Mexican restaurant) acknowledged that a lot of the guys had rationalized it this way: better for them to commit one sin, one time, than to have their wives commit a little sin every day by taking the Pill.

Older Catholics who still think that JFK is President (or at least that's the way it oughta be) are firmly in the Rats' pockets, they don't stop long enough to think about abortion. As long as those nasty, Protestant Republicans are stopped at the polls, they don't care what Rat politicians do. I've met more that way than I care to count up.

[Cicero]

Flynn belongs to a vanishing species: Irish Catholic politicians from Massachusetts who are loyal to their faith. God bless him. He is publishing this article only to annoy, because he knows that the Democrats can't even understand what he's talking about.

"What?" they'll say. "Isn't Teddy Kennedy a Catholic? Are we ignoring him?"

[CWOJackson]

They don't ignore Catholic voters, they just take the for granted and often for good reason.

[Torie]

Flynn, in an opinion column published in the Manchester Union-Leader, said Democrats are writing off more than 40 percent of the Granite State's voters by ignoring Catholics.

Stupid comment. Actually Catholics tend to be more pro gay marriage and pro abortion that Protestants do (although in the latter instance, the numbers are about even), at least if you count all nominal Catholics as Catholics, which clearly the 40% Catholic figure in New Hampshire that Flynn cited includes.

Is Flynn still drinking?

[Salvation]

**The only Catholic Link on the DNC site is to a virulently anti-Catholic cult!!!!**

It figures!

[Little Bill]

If a life long Rat, like Raybo, smells the decaying politics of the Rat party listen, Ray may be a fool in some ways, but he is a good indicator of which way the political winds are blowing, he knows his constituency.

[Salvation]

Have you checked out the changes in Vatican II.

You are always welcome to come back to the Church. Many things have changed; I can't go into detail here, but I would recommend attending a returning Catholics group in your area.

We sponsor one called "Catholics Can Come Home Again."

[mware]

I recall when he was interviewed by EWTN, he really went after Gore and Clinton for their stand on the life issue.

[doug from upland]

Thanks for the great links.

[mware]

**The only Catholic Link on the DNC site is to a virulently anti-Catholic cult!!!!**

The Catholic League has been trying for months to get the DNC to take Catholics For Free Choice off their web site as a Catholic site.

[Bluntpoint]

Dear Mr. Flynn, spend less time on you abhorrent Pro-Life nonsense and maybe rethink the benefits of having a few more pedophile priests.

Then the Dems will pay you guys a little more attention.