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.

[Paleoguy]

The democrats cannot address Catholic issues, because doing so would alienate too many of the democratic party's core constituency groups (esp the feminists)

[hunter112]

Thanks for the invite, but I'm completely through with any organized religion. No being powerful enough to create the universe, and set up all the mechanisms necessary to keep it running, needs me to do, say, or believe anything to keep it all going.

As far as changes in the Catholic church go, do they still teach that people go to hell for masturbation? They still would have a massive problem with my three divorces!

[Cicero]

He was Ambassador to the Vatican under clinton, as I recall, but was forced to resign when his pro-life stances became too outspoken.

[Arthur McGowan]

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.

These men did not understand what a sin really is. The sin was not confined to the day they had the vasectomy. Every time they congratulated themselves on their cleverness, and were glad that they'd had the vasectomy, they were ratifying the sin. In a sense, they were committing it over again each time they ratified it again with their will.

[Arthur McGowan]

I say let the Dems keep their link to Catholics for a Free Choice. All these attempts to nibble away at the Dem Party around the edges are misguided. The Dem Party is the party of committed baby-killers. It cannot be reformed. It must be destroyed. Does anybody go around in a funk because the Nazi Party has objectionable links on their website (as they no doubt do)?

[mware]

I say let the Dems keep their link to Catholics for a Free Choice

I hear what you are saying but I do not like the idea of my religion being misrepresented by another organization, especially one like, Catholics For Free Choice.

[Dutch Boy]

The dems do not ignore Catholics, they have chosen sides. The dems directly oppose the Vatican's stance on abortion. The dems have determined that they would rather have the support of the feminist left rather than strict Catholics. As said earlier - freedom of choice.

[luvbach1]

Seems Flynn is threatening he will not deliver the Catholic vote.

[Clintonfatigued]

The 'Rats are too controlled by militant secularists to be serious about Catholics before the November elections.

[winker]

Christian Dean wouldn't! sarcasm!

[Just Lori]

Is this the best we can expect from the "Boston Herald"? I doubt we are the most significant voting bloc in the country, but we ARE as varied as any group out there (which makes me wonder if we ARE a group when it comes to politics.) My sister is a Catholic. I am a Catholic. When we come to worship, we are as one. The rest of the time....... nope. We all have to live according to our own conscience, all the while remembering that this life is not the end of the line.

[xzins]

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.

If Dean said this then he is truly a whacko. Five or six counties in Missouri have more farms than Vermont has square mileage.

Vermont is a tiny state.

[FormerACLUmember]

On the home page of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) website, democrats.org, there is a link to organizations of interest. Last week, under the “Catholic” heading, there was one group listed, Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC).

Catholic League president William Donohue spoke to this matter today: “I have written to DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe imploring him to ‘act quickly and decisively by removing Catholics for a Free Choice from the DNC’s links of interest organizations.’ The very fact that this group was the only Catholic listing on its website until this week is mind-boggling: it suggests that the DNC believes its Catholic base is led by Frances Kissling. The DNC knows CFFC is bogus yet continues to provide cover for it.

“It is flatly wrong to tag CFFC as merely a ‘pro-choice’ group of ex-Catholics. Kissling has openly admitted that it is her goal to ‘overthrow’ the Catholic Church. That is why she works so hard to subvert the Church by attempting to get the Holy See kicked out of the U.N. Twice the U.S. bishops have condemned CFFC as a fraud, yet the DNC amazingly gives legitimacy to this anti-Catholic front group.

[onyx]

Flynn's been a democrat all his life, but in 2000 he endorsed Bush.

No Catholic belongs in the democrat party and voting for a democrat is beyond this Catholic's comprehension.

[Salvation]

Apparently you have never seen this site.

Scroll down to check the number of dead -- it can change right before your eyes.

[Salvation]

Very well said!

[Salvation]

Have you gone to Our Lady's Warriors to check out the dissident organizations? Outstanding site.

http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/

[Salvation]

Catholics for a Free Choice is a dissenting organization.

Go to dissent -- http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/

Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) Promotes artificial contraceptive "rights," including abortion. Their focus is the "intersection of Catholic teaching and public policy." Bishop Bruskewitz excommunicated those that belong to this group in his Diocese. Member of Catholic Organizations for Renewal. They have been condemned by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB).

[sr4402]

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

That is correct, I went to the DNC website for the first time, clicked Links, Religious and found "Catholics for a Free Choice". So it seems like the Democrats are Only interested in Pro-Abortion Catholics.

It follows then, those not following the Pope vote Democrat. Hmmm, shouldn't the church make efforts to correct those not following the Pope, including our Politicians?

[NYer]

I believe we will see more Catholics (remember -- the Church (with the younger people) is getting more conservative.) voting Republican more and more!

My daughter turns 18 this year and is looking forward to voting in the Fall. She can't stand the Democrats!