FWIW, we agree on the charitable contribution issue being a concern. Is it enough to keep me from voting for him, or backing him for president? Not with the seriousness of the problems with Mitt Romney or Barack Obama.
For whatever it's worth, I do believe it is important when working with conservative Roman Catholics to recognize that their faith leads them to place an emphasis in places where I would not do so. Tithing is emphasized much more in evangelical circles than the Roman Catholic Church... not saying priests and bishops don't encourage charitable giving, just saying the emphasis is not there in the same way that would be found in many evangelical churches.
An additional factor — one probably not present in Santorum’s case — is that Scripture has some pretty strong words to say about publicly sounding trumpets to announce charitable giving. We do not necessarily know the full amount of a candidate's charitable giving and there are good reasons for that.
Matt 6:2-4: “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Exactly: it might be unpleasant if that were the full donation he gave to charity, but still not enough to prefer Romney.
And I agree, there is a possibility that he gave privately or anonymously and chose to not report it to the IRS.
I’d like to hear him rebut this article.