For example, Ted Kennedy could have been used as an example by church leadership to show their denomination's members all that was was wrong with voting democrat, but how did they really treat America's most celebrated Roman Catholic, and greatest leftist of modern America?
What messages did they really use Ted Kennedy's Catholicsm, to send to the Catholic voters?
Growing up in the North-East, Going to the Church was a community networking function not a religious worship.
They believe in one thing, that they have to see and be seen who is going to their Church and to keep up respectability with their extended family.
This isn’t to say these people don’t believe in God, most of them most certainly do.
One of the reasons that you see Church attendance fall off in the Catholic Church is the fragmentation of multi-generational neighborhoods and the number of jobs that allow us to be socially isolated most of the day.
These people in this category don’t fully understand their own religion and are easily swayed to vote Democrat. If they knew their own religion, they might still vote Democrat but they have a lot harder time pulling that lever and usually show up to confession the next Sunday reporting it as a sin.