"Can Catholics Vote Democratic Anymore?"

A book review by Dennis E. Teti at The Claremont Institute, Dec. 20 (brackets and quoted ellipses in original):

.... Kennedy's efforts to assuage voters' concerns about his Catholicism were successful enough to get him elected, but his rhetoric opened the door to the religious-political problem of today. His well-known statement to Protestant ministers in Houston spoke of the

absolute… separation of church and state [in America] where no Catholic prelate would tell the President… how to act… [w]here no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope… where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials.

This pronouncement no doubt relieved some Protestants, but it disturbed serious Catholics. Father John Courtney Murray, a political liberal, wrote that "To make religion merely a private matter was idiocy." America's best-known prelate, Cardinal Spellman of New York, believed Kennedy had painted himself into a corner and that Nixon would be more open to Catholic views on parochial school funding, anti-communism, and sexual morality. In short, Kennedy drew so sharp a line between religious belief and public policy that some wondered whether the Catholic Church, or religion in general, would have any place in the public square.

Kennedy's election marked Catholicism's greatest political triumph in America. As Marlin shows, however, even before his assassination Catholics began to divide, a trend that has accelerated in the decades since. Today we should recognize not a solid "Catholic vote" but two opposed Catholic voting blocs. Practicing members tend to vote Republican and conservative; nominal, "cafeteria" Catholics vote liberal and Democratic, untroubled about choosing which Church teachings to obey or disregard, especially as respects contraception, abortion, and homosexuality. America's Catholic bishops stand by the Church's traditional teaching on the sinfulness of these practices, but they are far from united about what this should mean at the ballot box. Many retreat to their wonted stance, avoiding direct political involvement in controversial issues even though the very meaning of their faith is at stake. Marlin's book concludes by mentioning Catholic lay organizations that "may fill the void and lead a Catholic counter-revolution." ....

See also these.

(Thanks, Mark.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/23/04 06:41:01 PM
Categorized as Religious.