Posted on 04/17/2004 8:33:15 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
Salazar: Chaput over line
By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News
April 16, 2004
Attorney General Ken Salazar, the leading Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate and a former seminarian, said Thursday Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput went "beyond the line" by criticizing Catholic politicians who fail to follow church teaching in their public lives.
Salazar was responding to a column in this week's Denver Catholic Register, the archdiocesan newspaper, in which Chaput called the actions of such politicians "phony."
"Candidates who claim to be 'Catholic' but who publicly ignore Catholic teaching about the sanctity of human life are offering a dishonest public witness," Chaput said.
"They may try to look Catholic and sound Catholic, but unless they act Catholic in their public service and political choices, they're really a very different kind of creature.
"And real Catholics should vote accordingly."
In response, Salazar said, "The archbishop can have his point of view as leader of a church, but I think when the archbishop tries to influence the outcome of elections and get involved in government and directing voters, he's gone beyond the line of what should not be breached in our American democracy, where we believe fundamentally in the separation of church and state."
Salazar also said Chaput has invited him to a meeting to discuss the issues, and he plans to accept the invitation.
Salazar supports abortion rights but is more in line with Catholic teaching on same-sex issues. He opposes gay adoption and believes marriage should remain only between a man and woman, though he is against the proposed constitutional amendment on the issue.
The other two major U.S. Senate candiates, Republicans Pete Coors and Bob Schaffer, also are Catholic.
On Thursday, Coors, through a spokeswoman, praised Chaput's column.
"(Coors) believes the archbishop was correct in his opinion and he believes in the sanctity of life - he's pro life," said Cinamon Watson. Coors also supports marriage as an institution exclusively between a man and a woman. His support for same-sex benefits while head of Coors Brewing Co. stems from his belief in "equal treatment in the workplace," Watson said.
Schaffer's campaign did not return phone calls seeking comment. However, his record as a U.S. representative is strongly against abortion, including a vote in 2000 to ban the procedure known as partial-birth abortion. He also supports preserving man/woman marriage.
Chaput's column marked the second time this week religion and politics stirred controversy.
On Tuesday, a priest from the Colorado Springs diocese, delivering the traditional morning prayer on the floor of the state House, urged lawmakers to let religious faith guide their votes and "be the antithesis of John Kennedy," who pledged to separate his religion from politics.
Chaput, who has written extensively about Catholics and politics for several years, lamented before the 2000 election that the effect of the Kennedy manifesto has been to erode any meaningful "Catholic" position in political circles, especially in the Democratic Party.
In this week's column, Chaput again took up the theme, saying, "We've come a long way from John F. Kennedy, who merely locked his faith in the closet. Now we have Catholic senators who take pride in arguing for legislation that threatens and destroys life - and who then also take Communion."
However, Chaput is still considering whether such politicians should be refused Communion in the Denver archdiocese, as several of the nation's bishops have done.
Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
Sorta like algore? Another dem who can't finish what they start.
Pete Coors is on the right side of this issue.
Wonder if J. F. Kerry will also be claiming to have been a seminarian.
Salazar supports abortion rights...
Who would have thought.
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