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.
This may seem beyond the pale, but about a year and a half ago one of the priests at the parish I used to belong to started giving a homily about social justice that threw the guilt and tacked way to the left.
I had enough, and if you know me, you know I speak my mind. I stood up in church during his homily and interrupted him. I told him what he was preaching was communism, anti-Americanism, and treason.
Many in the congregation were shocked, and I got some scattered applause as I marched out of that church never to return, I’ve found another parish now.
But when priests start spewing this crap they need called on it immediately, Whether in the middle of Holy Mass or not.
He, unfortunately, was not alone. Something was brewing before the Council. Priests such as Father Hesbergh were determined to delink the Church and higher education. They wanted to join the national elites, for Catholic collages to become more like Harvard and Yale. Well, it happened.
The fly in the ointment is less the old unions than the public employee unions.
With all due respect, nobody in my Catholic family is voting for the Marxist, either..
Just like some people who post nonsense at FR.
Biden masquerades as a Catholic. Ryan is the real McCoy.
Good,
So your family has it together.
Oh my!!!!!! you have no idea how many times i have wanted to stand up in the middle of mass and yell out to get them to talk about what is happenng to our country!!!!
Evil prevails when good men stay silent.
i applaud you for your courage sir.
LLS
LLS
Any Catholic who vote for Obama is nuts.
Any Jew who votes for Obama is nuts.
Any white person who votes for Obama is nuts.
Let me simplify - any person who wants to remain free and who votes for Obama is nuts.
That’s the crew that’s gonna put you all in chains, the Democrats.
LLS
Pelosi biden ted kennedy are catholic but they are abominations. it makes me sick that they call themselves catholic. They have/had alot of power and scream from the mountain tops that they are CATHOLIC. what are the religions of the rest of the liberal dems? they dont wear their religion on their sleeve but they are just as evil.
abortion is the silent holocast. if anyone gets a chance go to you tube and look up gianna jennson abortion survivor.
you want to see a first hand miracle by God? check her out. if you continue to support abortion after her amazing story you have no heart nor a soul.
I’m a catholic and would have to be killed to be kept from opposing the Obama junta. My Jewish friends mostly HATE Obama as well.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Akin is obviously hardcore RTL, although a bit soft on some elements ~ from my point of view, but so is your local bishop.
Most of the guys in the hierarchy never call out for the death penalty for rapists, nor for abortionists, yet i think you have to add that to the RTL side or you are not consistent with the "protect the innocent' doctrines.
The issue Akin raised (the magic spemacide/uterus) really isn't relevant to the issue ~ which is why you'll see so many asking why he even said that ~ and if he had been truly consistent in his RTL positions he'd not even found himself inartfully grasping for that concept ~ he could have simply said, "we don't kill babies' and toss it all back to his interrogator!
Economic status is part of it, as is whether or not they are professional people or college educated technicians like RNs and school teachers.
If they own a business they are as likely to be Republican voters as non-Catholics.
Then there are the seriously devout and they will vote Republican on the RTL question ~ right along with their Evangelical cousins.
What's happening is the popularity of the candidates. That drives turnout for the various Catholic factions.
I Suspect this time the latino business owners who thought they heard something about tax relief and reduced medical insurance costs will not vote for Obama. Will they vote for the Republican? That remains to be seen, but I"m pretty sure that class' turnout has been suppressed!
“We have a younger generation of Catholics who are more conservative, especially on moral and cultural issues,” he says.
&&&
Please, God, make it true. I don’t see how the pendulum can swing any farther toward evil than it has in recent years.
Why the Church fails to vigorously condemn their likes baffles me???
Here in South Florida we have large Jewish enclaves where the vast majority would die before voting pubbie.
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