Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (Washington, DC)
Photo by Shubert Ciencia
Posted on 08/24/2012 3:46:15 PM PDT by NYer
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (Washington, DC)
Photo by Shubert Ciencia
Catholics are a major voting block, and one that can’t be pigeonholed by Republicans or Democrats. A recent NPR segment compared Vice President Joe Biden with the presumptive Vice Presidential nominee, Congressman Paul Ryan. Both are Catholics, but their worldview is not the same.
Stephen Schneck, a political scientist at Catholic University, said that Biden comes from a more traditional generation of Catholics.
“This is the Catholicism of our old ethnic neighborhoods, and our union halls, and St. Christopher medals on the dashboard sort of thing,” Stephen says.
It is a working-class Catholicism, he says, where the Mass and the rosary are part of the warp and woof of daily life in places such as Scranton, Pa., Biden’s boyhood town. As Biden said when he visited Scranton in 2008, “This is where my family values and my faith melded.”
Those values — of the cop, the fireman, the union leader — placed Catholics solidly in the Democratic camp for decades. Schneck, who co-chairs Catholics for Obama, says these Catholics tend to have a positive attitude toward government.
“Think about John Kennedy’s famous ‘ask not’ lines here,” Schneck says. “For that generation of Catholics, it’s a recognition that government and civil society have a profoundly positive role to play.”
Robert George, a conservative Catholic and professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, says that generation is being supplanted by a younger generation that tends to be more conservative.
“We have a younger generation of Catholics who are more conservative, especially on moral and cultural issues,” he says.
George says these younger Catholics — who are sometimes called “intentional Catholics” — tend to be more committed to conservative parts of Catholic doctrine. Many, like Ryan, 42, came of age during the papacy of John Paul II. They see themselves in Ryan, who opposes same-sex marriage and abortion except when the mother’s life is in danger. In fact, Ryan sponsored a “personhood bill” that would define a fertilized egg as a human being.
Couple that NPR segment with a new poll commissioned by the American Life League which shows President Obama is losing support from Catholics. From an email I received this afternoon:
Between August 15-19 of this year, American Life League commissioned a nationwide telephone survey of 900 self-identified Catholic registered voters. The focus of the survey was Catholic perspectives on the Church and nation. Below are some of the results of the survey.
Only 27 percent of the Catholics surveyed support President Obama. Of those surveyed, 74 percent of Catholic men over the age of 50 do not support Obama, while Obama support among Catholic men under 50 years is only 25 percent. With Catholic women over the age of 50, the president’s support is only 23 percent, with just 31 percent among Catholic women under 50 years.
American Life League speculates that such a dramatic shift may be caused by Obama’s HHS mandates and ensuing legal battle over religious freedom, as 73 percent of Catholics polled believe that the mandates violate their religious freedom.
“This nationwide survey revealed surprising results that should cause our leaders to pause and consider the consequences of their decisions and the impact it has on their constituents. Can Obama’s support among Catholics be dwindling this fast?” said Paul E. Rondeau, ALL executive director. “One thing is certain: Catholics, like most Americans, feel strongly about their religious rights and are committed to defending their faith. Both Church and national leaders should heed this notice.”
The American Life League poll was conducted by ccAdvertising, Centreville, Virginia, which gives the margin of error as +/- 3 percent.
Winning or losing the Catholic vote can make or break a Presidential candidate.
Donnafrflorida
you can take offense all you care to,
Facts are facts mam, the majority of Catholics voted for obammy previously and it will happen this time too.
Just the facts mam, just the facts.
Course you can work to change the minds of your fellow Cathilics.
Maybe 50 or 60 years ago. Since that time, that brand of Catholicism has devolved into a Dorothy-Day socialistic melange of 60's hippy-dippy communistic/socialistic feel-good government-fed dependency that the current DemocRAT party has been only too happy to accommodate.
I think a portion of the ones who voted for Obama - and still might - never listen to the magisterium regardless. Hopefully the faithful ones who got caught up in all the hoopla back in 2008 have since seen the light.
pbear8,
Please understand I am not trashing catholics, just stating facts.
I’m not even being judgemental, just stating facts.
The Catholic Church has its share of non-thinking drones. The 60s were very bad for the Church. I have hope that more and more are walking out of that era and like cave dwellers, exiting blinking into the light. Time will tell.
"women have been under attack - attack of the ignorant, attack of our male counterparts that cannot understand our bodies."The juxtaposition of "women" and "male counterparts" is a must-use for feminazis like this ignorant, sexist, racist bitch.
Actually, Catholics have become a swing vote. They no longer vote as a bloc for Democrats. The last presidential candidate to win more than 55% of the Catholic vote was Ronald Reagan in 1984, winning 56%.
You'll find that for the last few decades (since 1972) the winner of the popular vote in presidential elections nearly always secures a [small] majority of the Catholic vote.
GWBush took the majority by 5% in 2004.
Gore took a narrow majority in 2000.
Clinton received a plurality and a majority in his two elections.
Dukakis in ‘88 was the exception to the rule - he took a Catholic majority but lost anyway.
Reagan took Catholics twice.
Carter took Catholics in 1976.
Nixon took a very large majority of Catholics in 1972.
It's likely that whomever receives a majority of the Catholic vote this time around will probably win the popular vote.
And it isn't looking as good for the Kenyan anti-Christ this time around. What few polls I've seen suggest the anti-Christ losing about 10% of his Catholic support, falling from the low-to-mid 50s to the mid-40s.
Combined with losses with other demographics, it will be a much tougher election for Satan's bitch this time around.
sitetest
Believing, Mass going Catholics are still the most pro-life of any religion. When Roe v. Wade came out the
Catholic Church was about the only Christian church that was against abortion. Most protestants were pro-abortion. The Catholic Church has been pro-life for 2,000 years.
What does bother me is how the media lumps cafeteria catholics (small C), into any discussion of the Catholic faith. When the media says Obama got 54% of Catholic voters they never tell you that the majority of these catholics are not believers and have not been to Mass in years. The Cathacism is clear. You get be for abortion and homo marriage and still be Catholic, but these hypocrites still call themselves Catholic (along with the Pelosis, Bedin’s, Kennedy’s), and make REAL believing Catholics look bad. I think any Catholic politician that openly promotes that which causes great scandal in the Church (abortion and homo-marriage), should be excommunicated from the Church. Let them join the Episcopalians, who have no problem with sodomite marriage or abortion on demand. I am tired of cafeteria catholics making the rest of us look bad.
I don’t know if it’s really accurate to say that younger Catholics are more conservative, it’s just that the older generations were never confronted with — nor could have imagined being confronted with — so many non-conservative issues. Abortion was so “out there” that “decent” people didn’t discuss it. Gay rights??? Even the most dedicated Democrat prior to 1970 or 1980 wouldn’t have dreamed of “marriage” or any other such nonsense. So many issues we think of today as conservative were simply “assumed to be true”.... back in the day.
And sadly those older folks STAYED with the Democrats even though the changes in the party brought it directly into conflict with Catholic teachings. By that time, the voters were so wedded to the notion that the Democrats were for the 'little guy' that they never even listened when anyone tried to tell them something different.
Notice the slippery use of language here: pretending that government and civil society are the same thing. Leftists, and only leftists, believe that. They say "we must help the less fortunate", to which a conservative Christian of any confession would agree, interpreting "we" as civil society -- people organized into families, parishes, volunteer organizations, charitable foundations, . . . -- but what the leftist means by that is "government using tax revenues must help the less fortunate."
“Nixon took a very large majority of Catholics in 1972”.
Nixon took a large majority nearly everywhere in 72.
I’m hoping you are right and the marxist punk is sent packing.
“Nixon took a large majority nearly everywhere in 72.”
That's true. And it seems that in that year, the Catholic vote joined the ordinary politics of America, not as a large, monolithic group of voters that were in the bag for the Democrats, but rather a diverse group of voters that would give small, but important majorities to usually-winning candidates.
A lot can happen between now and November. However, I can tell you that the anti-Christ’s share of the vote among practicing Catholics (folks who show up for Mass at least semi-regularly) looks likely, at this time, to crater. That makes it likely that he will lose the Catholic vote to Gov. Romney this time out.
sitetest
That's absolutely true. They listen to the Bishops only when the Bishops are supporting their own Social Justice brand of Catholicism. If the Bishops start talking pro-life, or sexual sin, these folks simply ignore them.
I’m hoping and praying you are correct.
sitetest,
Is there any conservative areas in Maryland? Not trying to be mean, jsut curious?
Hopefully so; I’m thinking it may well be the case. Especially after all the Bishops and Priests became quite vocal in standing up against Obama’s forced birth control pill in Obamacare.
Dear Joe Boucher,
No offense taken. There are three hyper-liberal jurisdictions: Baltimore city, Montgomery County and Prince George’s County.
The remaining counties range from purplish to deep red.
Unfortunately, nearly half the state’s population lives in the three super liberal jurisdictions.
As well, there are many “old Democrats.”. Folks who are often culturally and even economically conservative, but their daddy voted Democrat, and their grandaddy and so on.
sitetest
St. Mary’s County (where the Catholic colony began in 1634) is still conservative but not sure how long that will last due to its proximity to DC (that’s where I’m from).
Dolan is closing the dim convention the last night... he claims it is not an endorsement... but his actions of the past would call into question the veracity of that claim. I am very confused by some in the Catholic Church. I am also in awe of some in the Church.
LLS
What are you talking about? Dolan was not invited to give the Benediction at the Dem convention.
He is giving it at the Republican convention.
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