International Herald Tribune: Just one way to vote,
bishops tell Catholics |
Site last published: 01/06/10
International Herald Tribune: Just one way to vote, bishops tell Catholics
October 13,2004
By: David
D. Kirkpatrick and Laurie Goodstein
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: DENVER:
For Archbishop Charles Chaput, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic in Colorado, there is only one way for a faithful Catholic to vote in this presidential election. Without naming names, he makes it clear: for George W. Bush and against John Kerry.
"The church says abortion is a foundational issue," Chaput explained to a group of Catholic college students gathered in a sports bar here Friday night. He stopped short of telling them whom to vote for, but he reminded them of Kerry's support for abortion rights. And he pointed out the potential impact Bush's re-election could have on the Supreme Court decision in 1973 that legalized some abortions.
"Supreme Court cases can be overturned, right?" he asked.
Catholics make up about a quarter of the electorate, and many conservative Catholics are concentrated in swing states like Colorado, pollsters say. Organizers say they are working hard because the next president is quite likely to name at least one new justice to the Supreme Court.
Chaput, who has never explicitly endorsed a candidate, is part of a group of bishops intent on throwing the weight of the church into the elections. These bishops and like-minded Catholic groups are blanketing churches with a conservative guide identifying abortion, same-sex marriage and stem-cell research as among a handful of issues that are not negotiable.
To the dismay of some other bishops, church concerns about the death penalty or war are not mentioned in the guide, and many parishes are having free-for-alls over what materials to use in helping Catholics think through their choices. While some are using the conservative guide, others are using a document the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops developed last year that tells Catholic voters to consider a range of issues and vote their consciences.
In past elections, the main voter guide distributed in many Catholic churches was a list of candidates' stands on dozens of issues in response to a questionnaire from the bishops' conference. This year, conservative Catholic groups sought to derail the questionnaire, because it appeared to give equal weight to each issue. When neither the Bush nor Kerry campaigns responded to the questions by the deadline, the bishops' conference abandoned the effort.
Although Kerry, a Catholic, opposes same-sex marriage, he supports abortion rights and stem-cell research. In an interview, Chaput said a vote for a candidate with positions like Kerry's would be a sin that must be confessed before receiving holy communion.
"If you vote this way, are you cooperating in evil?" he asked. "And if you know you are cooperating in evil, should you go to confession? The answer is yes."
Chaput has discussed Catholic priorities in the election in 14 of his 28 columns in the diocesan newspaper this year. His archdiocese has organized voter registration drives in more than 40 of the largest parishes in the state and sent voter guides to churches throughout Colorado.
The efforts of Chaput and his allies are converging with a drive by the Bush campaign, which has spent four years cultivating Roman Catholic leaders, organizing more than 50,000 volunteers and hiring a corps of paid staff members to increase Catholic turnout. Bush is striving to break the longstanding allegiance of Catholics to the Democratic Party, an affiliation that began to crumble with Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Never before have so many bishops so explicitly warned Catholics so close to an election that to vote a certain way was to commit a sin. Less than two weeks ago, Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis issued just such a statement. Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Archbishop John Myers of Newark, New Jersey, have both recently declared that the obligation to oppose abortion outweighs any other issue.
It was only logical for the Republicans to view the church as a "natural ally" on cultural issues, Chaput said.
"We are not with the Republican Party," he said. "They are with us."
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: DENVER:
For Archbishop Charles Chaput, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic in Colorado, there is only one way for a faithful Catholic to vote in this presidential election. Without naming names, he makes it clear: for George W. Bush and against John Kerry.
"The church says abortion is a foundational issue," Chaput explained to a group of Catholic college students gathered in a sports bar here Friday night. He stopped short of telling them whom to vote for, but he reminded them of Kerry's support for abortion rights. And he pointed out the potential impact Bush's re-election could have on the Supreme Court decision in 1973 that legalized some abortions.
"Supreme Court cases can be overturned, right?" he asked.
Catholics make up about a quarter of the electorate, and many conservative Catholics are concentrated in swing states like Colorado, pollsters say. Organizers say they are working hard because the next president is quite likely to name at least one new justice to the Supreme Court.
Chaput, who has never explicitly endorsed a candidate, is part of a group of bishops intent on throwing the weight of the church into the elections. These bishops and like-minded Catholic groups are blanketing churches with a conservative guide identifying abortion, same-sex marriage and stem-cell research as among a handful of issues that are not negotiable.
To the dismay of some other bishops, church concerns about the death penalty or war are not mentioned in the guide, and many parishes are having free-for-alls over what materials to use in helping Catholics think through their choices. While some are using the conservative guide, others are using a document the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops developed last year that tells Catholic voters to consider a range of issues and vote their consciences.
In past elections, the main voter guide distributed in many Catholic churches was a list of candidates' stands on dozens of issues in response to a questionnaire from the bishops' conference. This year, conservative Catholic groups sought to derail the questionnaire, because it appeared to give equal weight to each issue. When neither the Bush nor Kerry campaigns responded to the questions by the deadline, the bishops' conference abandoned the effort.
Although Kerry, a Catholic, opposes same-sex marriage, he supports abortion rights and stem-cell research. In an interview, Chaput said a vote for a candidate with positions like Kerry's would be a sin that must be confessed before receiving holy communion.
"If you vote this way, are you cooperating in evil?" he asked. "And if you know you are cooperating in evil, should you go to confession? The answer is yes."
Chaput has discussed Catholic priorities in the election in 14 of his 28 columns in the diocesan newspaper this year. His archdiocese has organized voter registration drives in more than 40 of the largest parishes in the state and sent voter guides to churches throughout Colorado.
The efforts of Chaput and his allies are converging with a drive by the Bush campaign, which has spent four years cultivating Roman Catholic leaders, organizing more than 50,000 volunteers and hiring a corps of paid staff members to increase Catholic turnout. Bush is striving to break the longstanding allegiance of Catholics to the Democratic Party, an affiliation that began to crumble with Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Never before have so many bishops so explicitly warned Catholics so close to an election that to vote a certain way was to commit a sin. Less than two weeks ago, Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis issued just such a statement. Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Archbishop John Myers of Newark, New Jersey, have both recently declared that the obligation to oppose abortion outweighs any other issue.
It was only logical for the Republicans to view the church as a "natural ally" on cultural issues, Chaput said.
"We are not with the Republican Party," he said. "They are with us."