Posted on 03/14/2004 3:55:56 PM PST by Salvation
In the 2000 election, Bush made large gains among Catholic voters. According to Voter News Service exit polls, Bush lost the Catholic vote to Al Gore by three percentage points, 50 to 47. By contrast, Bill Clinton's margin among Catholics was 16 percentage points in 1996 and nine points in 1992.Wagner said those gains were largely the result of Bush's success among the 42 percent of Catholics who regularly attend mass.
"Among religiously active Catholics, who have a discernible political identity in contrast to the nonreligiously active, Bush won by 55 percent to Gore's 24 percent," Wagner wrote, citing private polling by his firm, QEV Analytics, and Penn Schoen & Berland Associates Inc. "This was the best Catholic showing for a Republican presidential candidate since 1972, equal to Ronald Reagan's 1984 showing and better than his 1980 showing."
Wagner's findings are supported by broader trends: The more religious a voter is (based on church attendance), the more likely the voter is to be a Republican. At the two extremes, voters who attend services more than once a week voted for Bush by 63 percent to 36 percent, according to the Voter News Service, while those who never attend services voted for Gore, 61 percent to 32 percent.
So, can Kerry receive communion? Is he receiving communion when he's not supposed to?
Kerry's hometown archbishop, Sean O'Malley of Boston, has in the past given Kerry Communion but recently said, "These politicians should know that if they're not voting correctly on these life issues that they shouldn't dare come to communion."
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