Posted on 06/25/2002 6:44:43 PM PDT by Zack Nguyen
For Democrats, faith, politics can clash Diocese bars Sanchez, Sharp from speaking because of their support for abortion rights
By Ken Herman
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, June 25, 2002
The brief, silent pause between the end of the question and the start of the answer spoke volumes about the delicate balance between religious piety and party loyalty.
"That's a very difficult question," Democratic governor candidate Tony Sanchez said when asked if Catholicism, his religion, is wrong on abortion. "But I think the only thing that is really important to me is how I think about abortion. I consider myself a devout Catholic. I go to Mass and communion a couple of times a week. I don't feel I'm wrong in my position."
Sanchez, like Democratic lieutenant governor candidate John Sharp, is a Catholic who personally opposes abortion but does not favor additional legal restrictions on the procedure.
On Monday, the bishop of the South Texas diocese in which Sanchez grew up said Sanchez and Sharp are banned from speaking at church facilities in that region because of their position on abortion.
"That's being schizophrenic about it," Bishop Edmond Carmody of Corpus Christi said of Catholics who personally oppose abortion but support abortion rights. "That's saying, `In my own home, I respect life, but when I'm in public office, I'm going to go with the pack.' "
Sharp and Sanchez on Monday offered no reaction to Carmody's comments.
In a Monday statement, Sharp, who once carried legislation to restrict abortion rights, said, "I am absolutely opposed to abortion, but unlike the people who wrote the Republican platform, I do not believe in using government to make other people adopt my moral position."
Under "pastoral guidelines" in effect in the Corpus Christi diocese since 1999, that makes Sharp unwelcome to speak at churches in that part of the state. The guidelines say Catholics who declare themselves in support of abortion rights cannot hold church positions or speak at any Catholic institutions in the region.
Helen Osman, spokeswoman for the Austin diocese, said there is no similar ban at Central Texas Catholic churches. Bill Ryan, spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he knows of no widespread enactment of such bans.
The Corpus Christi diocese includes 11 counties and part of another. Webb County, where Sanchez lives, was part of the diocese until 2000.
The Corpus Christi guidelines say the intent is to draw Catholics who favor abortion rights to a "reconsideration of their pro-choice positions and be brought to a real conversion of heart so that they may accept wholeheartedly the truth of Christ as taught by the church."
In a year when Democrats' chances of winning statewide elections may depend upon their ability to attract a record number of Hispanic voters, the top candidates' split with their religion could be important because the Catholic Church is influential in many Hispanic communities. Historically, however, Texas Hispanics have overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates, almost all of whom have been in favor of abortion rights.
Sanchez has declined to pass judgment on the church.
"I'm not going to comment on my opinion on different positions the church has taken over the last many centuries, particularly over the last two or three years," he said. "I think that is something that church officials need to do on their own, and we as Catholics can either agree with them nor not agree with them."
Sharp's position on government's role in abortions has changed. In 1985, he sponsored a Senate bill that would have banned state funds for abortion unless the woman's life was in danger, required minors to get parental consent for abortions and forced married women to notify their husbands before having an abortion.
Several years later, Sharp said he still opposed abortion but no longer believed "you can get there by imposing my religious beliefs on anybody else."
The Catholic hierarchy has been unwavering in its position.
"We urge those Catholic officials who choose to depart from church teaching on the inviolability of human life in their public life to consider the consequences for their own spiritual well-being, as well as the scandal they risk by leading others into serious sin," U.S. bishops said in a 1998 pastoral statement. The statement also said that Catholics in "public leadership positions" are obliged to "place their faith at the heart of their public service."
Abortion stances
Twice in the past 10 days, Sanchez declared his support for abortion rights.
At an Austin Women's Leadership luncheon last week, he said "some in my faith are opposed to abortion."
"But I want each and every woman in this room to know, and across Texas, that I will veto any legislation that interferes with a woman's right to make her own decisions and make her own choices."
As the applause died down, Sanchez continued: "I believe that decision, as profound as it is, should be between a woman, her god, her doctor and, for heaven's sake, not involve any politicians in that decision."
In El Paso a few days earlier, at the Texas Democratic Convention, Sanchez drew a standing ovation with similar comments.
A 1999 nationwide Gallup Poll showed that 50 percent of Catholic respondents called themselves "pro-choice," while 46 percent identified themselves as "pro-life."
Ed Shirley, a professor of religious studies at St. Edward's University, said Sanchez's position seems defensible against that kind of backdrop.
"He is not arguing for the morality of abortion," Shirley said. "He is arguing for what is the best political action to take at this point. I don't know that every Catholic, including the hierarchy, would necessarily say now is the time to push for a law outlawing all abortion."
But on the morning after his convention speech, Texas GOP Chairwoman Susan Weddington, whose party a week earlier approved a platform calling for a ban on abortions, wondered aloud about a politician who is not true to his religion.
"How can you trust someone who will compromise their own fundamental principles as deeply as those regarding the sanctity of life?" she said. "How can you trust him on anything else he says?"
Republican Gov. Rick Perry believes abortion should be legal only in cases involving rape or incest or in situations where carrying a pregnancy to term would threaten the woman's life. Land Commissioner David Dewhurst, the GOP's candidate for lieutenant governor, believes abortion should be legal only for pregnancies that threaten the woman's life.
Catholic Democrats
Sanchez and Sharp, whose support of the death penalty also puts them at odds with the Catholic Church, are not the first politicians to have to reconcile their religious and political beliefs.
In 2000, Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman had to deal with the fact that women in his Orthodox Jewish congregation are not allowed to sit with male congregants and are not counted toward the quorum needed to pray. Orthodox Judaism also believes abortion should be allowed only when pregnancy threatens a woman's life. Lieberman offered his record in the U.S. Senate as evidence of his differences with his denomination on some issues.
In Pennsylvania, former Gov. Tom Ridge, a Catholic who supports abortion rights, was banned from speaking at Catholic events in his home diocese.
In Texas, 1998 Democratic governor nominee Garry Mauro, a Catholic who supports abortion rights, sees no conflict between religious teachings and party platform.
"Here's the difference," he said. "I can personally oppose abortion, which I do. But that doesn't mean I support the government opposing abortion."
Mauro likened it to an Orthodox Jew arguing that the law should require all people to eat kosher food.
"The church can't decide what ought to be in the law," he said. "That's when they cross the line and move into the Christian Coalition area."
The Catholic diocese in South Texas is right to ban both of these people. They both claim to be Catholic and have both refused Scriptural teaching on the sanctity of human life.
John Sharp: "I am absolutely opposed to abortion, but unlike the people who wrote the Republican platform, I do not believe in using government to make other people adopt my moral position."
Ah, so I suppose as Lt. Governor you won't be enforcing laws against rape, thievery, or murder, as these may conflict with your personal moral views but you can't bring those to bear in your decision-making, huh? Argh!
No....really?
Good start. Next, deny them communion. Last (really last), tell their relatives to get some underemployed "mainline Protestant" preacher to put their corpses 6 feet under because they won't be getting a Christian burial service in a Catholic church.
Stuff like this opens doors for Republicans to do outreach to the hispanic community.
/john
Beautifully Orwellian. He personally believes that babies have a right to life but that government has no business defending the unalienable right to life. Probably because government is too busy with taxes and political correctness indoctrination to be bothered with unalienable rights. Putz.
Who can someone vote for if you don't vote for Perry and don't vote for Sanchez. Everybody else is off the radar screen, in real world politics.
Machine politicians in this city were recently told to get out in an election that left some real conservatives in office. It took a lot of grass root efforts by folks that normally sit on the sidelines and complain.
I would like to see a link to exactly what Gov. Perry promised (not that the gov. in Texas has a lot of power to deliver).
/john
Am I going to have to log in every time I post? I had to this time.
I'm not telling you anything, just offering something what you can expect. As for me...another election year will be going by without my even bothering.
No, it's real hard to vote for Perry, especially after he does things like speaking at a Houston muslim "cultural center", and saying ""...You have practiced love while speaking out against hatred..."
What bullsh*t!
Name for me the first muslim leader to "speak out" against terrorism?
Still, I'll hold my nose and vote for Perry, though; what smells worse, the skunk or the 3-day-old dead fish?
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