Posted on 04/20/2005 8:13:14 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON, April 20 - The election of an unstintingly conservative pope could inject a powerful new force into the intense conflicts in American politics over abortion and other social issues, which put many Catholic elected officials at odds with their church.
Pope Benedict XVI ascends to power at a tumultuous time for his church in American politics: Catholic voters, long overwhelmingly Democratic, have become a critical swing vote. Republicans have become increasingly successful at winning the support of more traditional Catholics by appealing to what President Bush calls the "culture of life" issues, including abortion, euthanasia and research on embryonic stem cells. Mr. Bush carried 56 percent of the white Catholic vote in 2004, up from 51 percent in 2000 - a formidable part of his conservative coalition.
At the same time, some American bishops have become more assertive in urging their congregations to vote in accord with Catholic teachings on those issues - and in moving to chastise Catholic officials who disagree, in a few cases by threatening to deny them Communion. The bishops acted with the support and encouragement of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the new pope, who at the time headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
This standoff has pitted church leaders against some of the leading Democrats in the country, and came to a boil last year around the presidential candidacy of Senator John Kerry. He is a Catholic who supports abortion rights, and argued that he could not impose "my article of faith" on others who did not share it.
Analysts on the right and the left say it is impossible to predict a papacy, and on Wednesday Benedict XVI was clearly seeking a softer, more inclusive tone than some had expected. But they say he shows all the indications of wanting to preserve a bright line around orthodoxy, around what is an acceptable position for a Catholic and what is not.
"I hate to pre-judge, but based on the record I would say Ratzinger is a very serious Catholic and he's going to say things like, 'Beware of falsehood in advertising,' " said Michael Novak, an expert on the Vatican at the American Enterprise Institute. "If you say you're a Catholic, be a Catholic."
Senator Rick Santorum, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate and a conservative Catholic, said: "If you're an active Catholic in America, you know the name Cardinal Ratzinger. He's known as very much in line with the doctrine of the church and a strong enforcer of that doctrine."
But, Mr. Santorum added, "the question is how much emphasis will he put on it" as pope, noting that such matters are often left to local bishops.
Many Catholic Democrats are still angry over the treatment by some bishops of Mr. Kerry and some other prominent Democrats last year. A generation of Democrats still traces its political approach to religion back to John F. Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic president of the United States, who declared during the 1960 campaign, "I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me."
But John Green, a specialist in religion and politics at the University of Akron, noted that the social and values-related issues that roil American politics today were simply not on the agenda in 1960.
Mario M. Cuomo, the former governor of New York, says that in the current climate, Catholic Democrats cannot shrink from a debate over values, even if it means debating their bishops.
"You say to the bishops, look, I respect you, I want to stay in the club, I try to live by your rules, but let's not be selective." He noted that church teaching also includes opposition to the death penalty and the war in Iraq, as well as a strong agenda of social justice for the poor, and he asserts that Catholic Republicans ought to be judged by those standards.
Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and prominent Catholic, agreed: "American bishops always have been involved in politics and been very selective. If you are a Republican who is for the death penalty, that is O.K., but if you are a Democrat for choice, that is not O.K."
Conservatives counter that such Democrats cannot have it both ways: claiming to be good Catholics and being staunch supporters of abortion rights. They say the "life" issues - led by abortion - occupy a central place in church teaching.
Professor Green said the new pope was unlikely to disappoint those conservative American Catholics. "The new pope is very much likely to continue the policies of the late pope," he said. "This developing alliance of religious traditionalists will continue, with the blessing of the Catholic hierarchy. Also, I think we'll see the Catholic hierarchy continue to be very visible and active on political issues, with the 'life' issues and the marriage issue front and center."
Some Catholic liberals say such an aggressive approach risks a backlash. Many Catholic voters, they say, dislike the idea of having their clerics weigh in too heavily on how they should vote, particularly since polls indicate that many American Catholics disagree with church teaching on a range of issues, including birth control and the legality of abortion.
For now, though, liberal Catholics say they are hoping for the best.
"I will give him the benefit of the doubt," said Terry McAuliffe, a Catholic who is the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and was a sharp critic of the treatment of Mr. Kerry last year. "He was the enforcer before. He's not the enforcer now. Now he has to be the unifier around the world, and it's a different role."
But the Rev. Richard McBrien, a liberal theologian at Notre Dame, said in an interview conducted by e-mail that he wondered how much the new pope understood the more liberal strain of American Catholicism represented by leaders like Mr. Kerry or Mr. Cuomo. "I doubt if he understands it as well as he should, but then, whom does he speak with who might enlighten him, without giving a conservative spin to the explanation?" Father McBrien asked.
David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting for this article.
Personally, I agree with some FReepers who've suggested that Terri Shiavo is the RATS' solution to Social Security. If they're disabled and inconvenient, get rid of them. "Logan's Run" isn't far off if they succeed.
The Devil is in the details.
I had to laugh at your post #3.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
The slippery slope, indeed.
It isn't like folks weren't warned.
Deja Vu.. History repeating itself,, yada yada.
Film at 11
Wow. It's almost like Leahy understands. Almost ....
...."the club"....that's all the Catholic Church is to him...."the club". Mario the Pius, as Rush calls him, just showed his hand.
ROFL -- he's only been dealing with dissenters and heretics for the past 20 years, I THINK HE UNDERSTANDS THEM PRETTY WELL!
This Pope will take absolutely no nonsense from "Catholic" pro-abort politicians. Excellent!
The number of abortions went from about 250,000 to more than 1,000,000 in the year after Roe. If those babies, or the majority of them had been allowed to live and grow up, there would be no call for Mexican immigration.
"It's so like the NYT to put the word "life" in quotation marks,..."
Consider: these are the same folks that gave us 'artificial nutrition' in lieu of "food".
Ah, God??
The media is generally clueless about religion, science or anything with deep intellectual content.
They do, however, know what the hottest fashion trends are!/extreme sarcasm off
Oh, thank you for saying that; I've been sitting here reading that one sentence over and over, trying to get a handle on it.
I almost had to diagram it!
Let's all imagine saying that to your boss, much less your priest or minister. "I'll try?"
The club? THE CLUB!?!
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