Hey Catholics,
What is up with your denoms politics? I know the ones on this forum are likely conservatives. But all the major cities (which voted Dem) are largely Catholic.
You must have missed Bubba and Jimma's memo..
Except for the relatively recent surge in Latino farm worker immigration, the traditional Catholic ethnics indeed preferred cities, as for the unpropertied a city presents greater labor opportunities. Think Irish cop, Italian cook, Polish autoworker. Historically, working class mindset would also dictate socialist sympathies.
All this has changed in the latter quarter of the past century, as the Democrats transitioned from a working class party to a secular moral license party. While an ethnic autoworker may find a lot in common with Democrats' trade unionism, he will find nothing in common with the parrty of gay and abortion "rights". Still, old allegiances linger.
Another aspect is that one has to distinguish nominal Catholicism from the life in the Catholic Church. The poll takers count someone who self-identifies as Catholic based on the church of his baptism and occasional Mass visit on big holidays and funerals, together with someone who obeys the Church (including her difficult and deeply countercultural teaching on family life and contraception), goes to confession often and takes communion weekly. If, however, the depth of one's Catholicism is tested, a different picture emerges. Nominal Catholics basically vote all accross the map and their numbers track the US averages. This time, for example, the US average swung left, so the nominal Catholics swung left. They are, incidentally, in the majority: if Catholic practices were to count for the pollsters rather that nominal affiliation, the serious Catholics would not be anywhere near the number you see on these maps.
Serious Catholics vote primarily pro-life. To the extent that the GOP is identified with pro-life they vote GOP. The serious Catholics (identified by frequent Mass attendance) are often cited as the swing group that handed the GOP its victory in 2004. It is possible that they, too, swung left this time, as the lackluster GOP performance advancing pro-life legislation while they had the majorities and the presidency, as well as the concern for the war in Iraq, took its toll.
The Church distinguishes between "non-negotiables" broadly associated with the pro-life movement, and teachings where a Catholic may take either position. The five non-negotiables are
Of course, other intrinsic evils exist (e.g. blasphemy, murder, contraception or adultery), but these are not in the arena of public debate at this point.
At the same time, there are things that the Church may have a preference for, but the opposing view also has merits. For example, some wars are considered just and Catholics may support them, even if the Church would prefer the war not to be waged. Typically, the Church would refrain from definitive judgement on whether a particular war is just, even as it might urge more diplomacy (as was the case with Iraq lately). in another example, death penalty is something we'd like eliminated through better justice and prison system, but we understand that given the present realities it is only prudent to execute some criminals.
The Catholic Church being the worldwide embodiment of Christendom has a special concern for Christian minorities everywhere, Catholic or otherwise. Our acute concern is for the Christians of the Middle East, that seems to be on the receiving end of every act of war lately, and their numbers dwindle precipitously.