Posted on 10/15/2004 8:36:54 PM PDT by Salvation
On Wednesday, Georgetown University’s Catholic Studies Election Forum presented, “Why should a Catholic Vote Republican…Democratic?” The forum, moderated by Georgetown’s Father John Langan, S.J., featured a surrogate for President George W. Bush and for Senator John Kerry. Each campaign representative made the case for why he believes his candidate is the best choice for Catholics in November.
Father Langan, the Cardinal Bernardin Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown, kicked off the program by saying the election is the third most important conflict we currently face. The most important, he felt is the Iraqi war, and joked that this was followed by the Red Sox-Yankees baseball playoffs. He noted that a recent political program had identified Catholics and working women as voting blocs “still in play” for both candidates. Therefore, the purpose of the forum was to see which candidate makes the strongest case for Catholic support. Each surrogate had fifteen minutes to make his argument followed by questions and answers from the audience.
Leonard A. Leo, Executive Vice President of the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies in Washington, D.C, represented President Bush and spoke first. He stated emphatically that because Senator Kerry opposes the Church’s teaching on “culture of life issues,” Catholic voters must disqualify him. Therefore, the real question is can Catholics vote for President Bush based on Church teaching.
Leo said his rejection of Senator Kerry as an alternative for Catholics is not based on Kerry’s faith. The only objective criteria are the senator’s stated positions and voting record. This record must be examined in light of the Church’s social teachings. At the core of these teachings is the right to life, which is paramount to living the Gospel of Life.
He then presented Kerry’s scandalous abortion record. Kerry is against any sensible limits on the practice. He voted against the partial- birth abortion ban six times. He opposes parental notification laws, and he is the first presidential candidate Planned Parenthood has ever endorsed. He also supports human cloning and supports reversing President Bush’s ban on new lines for embryonic stem-cell research. He noted Kerry’s commitment to filibuster any judicial nominee who is pro-life, and pointed out how the senator voted against the unborn victims' act.
Leo also dismissed the senator’s claim in the second debate that while he personally opposes abortion, he is not going to impose his religious views on others. He noted religion takes a position on an issue like abortion not as an article of faith, but because it is inherently morally wrong. He also addressed another popular claim by Kerry and others on the Left that Kerry is more pro-life because of the social spending he supports, which somehow leads to a decrease in women relying on abortions. Leo said abortions have declined in America not because of social spending, but because people are waking up to the horrible nature of the procedure. He also noted that you cannot measure someone’s commitment to Catholic social teaching by how much money he spends on social programs.
After presenting why Catholics who take the Church’s social teachings seriously could not vote for Kerry, Leo made his case for President Bush. He said Catholics can support the president after examining three main areas: the culture of life, social policies, and the Iraq war.
About the culture of life, he noted that President Bush signed the partial- birth abortion ban and unborn victims' act, and supports parental notification legislation. The president has also tried to make abortion rarer by promoting abstinence and advocating adoption as an alternative. He has banned tax money for overseas abortions. The president has placed a ban on federal embryonic stem-cell research beyond those lines already in existence from previously destroyed embryos and he supports adult stem-cell research. He also opposes human cloning.
Leo then presented President Bush’s compassionate conservative social agenda. He noted that many of his conservative friends have bemoaned the fact that this administration has spent so much on social spending. He said President Bush has sought to lessen people’s tax burden, and introduced programs like prison counseling. He has also launched the faith-based initiative. Most of all, President Bush recognizes that when individuals are empowered to live their own lives, society recognizes their inherent dignity, which is the crux of Catholic social teaching.
Given the setting and the number of students in the audience fiercely opposed to the Iraq war, Leo’s toughest task was to present the president’s justification for the invasion. He said the war was the last resort for the administration. Saddam Hussein was a vicious butcher who represented a threat to his own people, the Middle East, the United States, and the entire world. Further, Hussein continually ignored the United Nations' 17 resolutions addressing the Iraq crisis.
Representing Senator Kerry was Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A., a Senior Health Scientist at RAND and a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business. He began by noting that Catholics are interested in all issues despite the fact that the media likes to portray them as a single bloc only interested in one or two issues.
Valedez said that political exploitation was at an all-time low and to distort Kerry’s position on moral issues was outrageous. He spoke of the Church’s spiritual renewal since Vatican II, which promotes religious liberty, human dignity, respect for an individual’s conscience, openness in policy, and the rights of all believers. He then took a shot at what he called “Pre-Vatican II” believers, whom he claims are in the business of rolling back reforms.
About Gospel values, he argued that John Kerry’s vision comes closest to that of Catholics. He said Kerry is the better of the two candidates on a whole spectrum of social justice issues, including abortion, the death penalty, and social spending. Valedez then claimed that moral theology is not stagnant nor was it set in stone a couple of thousands of years ago. He argued it is wrong to believe that we have already uncovered all the moral issues facing humanity. It is rather a constant search for the truth.
He then made a not-so-veiled attack on Evangelicals, including the president, who he believes use the Bible as a means of demonizing others to promote their own agenda. He labeled this the politics of exclusion and claimed Kerry’s view of the Gospel is one of openness, tolerance, and inclusion. He also said Kerry is someone who prays in secret and contrasted this to the Pharisee in the Gospel who seeks to bring attention to himself through ostentatious worship. The senator knows how to keep his faith and politics separate, he noted. Again, a not-so-subtle comparison to the president.
Valedez then launched a scathing attack on the President Bush’s economic policies. He said real GDP is the lowest in memory. Employment is contracted, bankruptcies are up sharply, the stock market is lower then when Bush took office, and the poverty rate is up. The income inequality has grown, the budget surplus has disappeared, and in its place is a huge deficit, he argued.
He closed by noting when policies are extreme, which go to the breaking points, they hurt everyone. This is clearly against the Church’s teaching on social justice. Kerry and Edwards are the right choice to restore the economic health of the country. More of the same isn’t going to work. Freedom, equality, justice, and humanity are the values represented by the Democratic ticket, he said.
In general, the questions were thoughtful, although some could not resist the opportunity to make political points, particularly when it came to opposing the war. Some raised the issue of capital punishment and President Bush’s support for the action, particularly as governor. Leo admitted this is one of the more vexing issues for him as a Catholic, but also noted that Kerry and the president share a similar position. Kerry has not made it a moral issue, according to Leo, because he is on record as supporting the use of capital punishment for terrorists.
As the election approaches, it is clear both campaigns are desperate for Catholic voters, as witnessed in the third debate in which Kerry employed Scripture, professed his Catholic faith, and mentioned his service as an altar boy. Now is decision time.
Catholics approaching the election have a clear choice. If they believe issues like abortion and euthanasia are non-negotiable, and that a candidate’s support for such positions disqualifies him for consideration, they must do as Leo suggests. They must reject Senator Kerry and support President Bush or not vote — a practice the Church does not encourage.
Alternatively, they can ignore the Church’s clear teaching on life and the primacy she places on it when it comes to voting, and support Senator Kerry. Before doing so, however, they should consider the words of Denver’s Archbishop Charles Chaput, who said recently that many Catholic Democrats “have used the ‘seamless garment’ as an excuse to sideline the abortion issue, making it one among many others. And, we can’t do that.” He noted that the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the dignity of human life are at the heart of Catholic theology. He warns Catholics not to violate this doctrine. “Whether it’s the creation of embryos for embryonic stem cell research or abortion, [these] are violations of the dignity of human beings, from our perspective. And you can never justify it.”
St. Thomas More, pray for us.
© Copyright 2004 Catholic Exchange
Craig Richardson is the founder of the recently launched Catholic Action Network, an organization committed to calling Catholics to authentic and faithful citizenship particularly on issues of life and family.
**I've met women in therapy who have chronic conditions that go on disability, the root cause being an abortion they can't undo. What percentage overall that constitutes I don't have any numbers for.**
This is so sad. Abortion is the root cause for all their ills.............
I guess I should have said: Having an abortion is the root cause for all their ills.............
Way too Soylent Green for me, and definitely unethical when adult stem cells can evidently be used to perform the same experiments.
I don't even think Kerry IS a Catholic. I mean the man pretended he was Irish, until he was called on it.
I'm objecting to people questioning how Catholics vote.
People vote for MANY different reasons.
My main concerns when I peruse a ballot is to see who will best benefit me fiscally! So, I guess THAT makes ME a bad Catholic.
Bush vs. Kerry: The Conscience Issues
http://www.ncregister.com/current/0912lead1.htm
Sept. 12-18, 2004
Using Church documents, Catholic Answers has written a guide citing "Five Non-Negotiable Issues" for Catholic voters.
"These five current issues concern actions that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by the law," says the guide. We used the guide as a starting point to compare each candidate’s positions.
1. Abortion
The Church teaches that, regarding a law permitting abortions, it is "never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it" (Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life, No. 73).
President Bush signed into law the partial-birth abortion ban and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and nominated several pro-life judges to the federal bench. He mentioned the importance of protecting the unborn in his convention speech.
Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts has voted at least six times to keep partial-birth abortion legal. He voted against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. He voted at least 25 times in favor of using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions. Kerry has vowed to keep pro-lifers out of judgeships — and the Supreme Court.
2. Euthanasia
"In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person" (Evangelium Vitae, No. 73).
President Bush’s justice department challenged Oregon’s assisted-suicide law in court.
John Kerry says he is personally opposed to assisted suicide but won’t challenge Oregon or any other state’s assisted-suicide laws.
3. Embryonic Stem-Cell Research
Human embryos are new lives from conception to eight weeks, with their own DNA, sex, life-expectancy — and right to life. "Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo" (Pontifical Council for the Family, Charter of the Rights of the Family, No. 4). Recent scientific advances show that medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells backfire in frightening ways. At the same time, effective treatments have been developed by using morally obtained adult stem cells instead.
President Bush’s embryonic stem-cell decision in August 2001 was criticized by many pro-life groups and praised by others. First Lady Laura Bush spoke at the GOP convention about the importance of respecting human life in stem-cell research.
John Kerry says he will end Bush’s block on funding embryonic stem-cell research. Ron Reagan Jr. spoke at the Democratic convention in favor of embryonic stem-cell research.
4. Human Cloning
"Attempts … for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through ‘twin fission,’ cloning or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union" (Charter of the Rights of the Family, No. I:6). Human cloning also involves abortion because the "rejected" or "unsuccessful" embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone is a human being.
President Bush has called human cloning "morally wrong" and called for a ban on all human cloning.
John Kerry voted against a ban on human cloning, and in 2004, he sponsored his own bill to make human cloning legal.
5. Homosexual "Marriage"
"When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral" (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons, No. 10).
President Bush supports a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
Sen. Kerry voted against the Defense of Marriage Act in the Senate and wouldn’t vote to even allow a debate on the federal marriage amendment.
Not only is he violating the Church's teachings, he is going against the will of God.
For some. I have no idea how many.
Your argument is fine enough as it stands, but it will eventually create a market for such tissue, and thus a market for 'unpersons.'
(At this point, a cringe in disgust and fear would be appropriate.)
I can find two faults with this statement. Who else can point them out?
Thank you for that article.
Well, while fiscal considerations are important, the protection of human life is paramount. There is simply no question about that, in Church doctrine.
Always a smart aleck -- I forgot the question mark in the title.
Make a choice.
Bush
Anyone that claims a relationship with Christ and votes for sKerry is sorely self-deceived...
I don't know about the Father Langan, but I winced when I saw the Bernardin mentioning. Is the other mistake Georgtown?
You got it! Thanks! (And I know the President thank you too.)
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