Free Republic

On Wednesday, Georgetown University’s Catholic Studies Election Forum presented, “Why should a Catholic Vote Republican…Democratic?” The forum, moderated by Georgetown’s Father John Langan, S.J., featured a surrogate for President George W. Bush and for Senator John Kerry. Each campaign representative made the case for why he believes his candidate is the best choice for Catholics in November. Father Langan, the Cardinal Bernardin Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown, kicked off the program by saying the election is the third most important conflict we currently face. The most important, he felt is the Iraqi war, and joked that this was...

And other moral issues. Why John Kerry has trouble making the moral argumentWEB EXCLUSIVE By Melinda Henneberger Newsweek Updated: 2:08 p.m. ET Sept. 24, 2004Sept. 23 - The Democrats are likely to lose the Catholic vote in November—and John Kerry could well lose the election as a result. It’s about abortion, stupid. And “choice,” make no mistake, is killing the Democratic Party. A recent Zogby poll shows that in key battleground states including Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, Catholic voters are far more likely than the general public to vote for President George W. Bush over Kerry. In...

Wheeling, WV (LifeNews.com) -- A leading newspaper in the key presidential battleground state of West Virginia says Democratic nominee John Kerry, who backs abortion, is misleading the voters there. The Wheeling News-Register says Kerry "doesn't seem to be able to provide a straight answer to a simple question." The pro-abortion candidate is attempting to conceal his views, the newspaper alleges, "because Kerry wants voters to see in him what they want to see, regardless of how he really stands on important issues."In its editorial, the Wheeling newspaper cites Kerry's response to a questionnaire from the Associated Press as example of...

LOS ANGELES, September 27, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Democratic Presidential candidate, John Kerry, granted an exclusive interview to the national homosexual activist magazine, The Advocate, on September 16. In the preamble, Advocate writer Chris Bull describes Kerry as "an ardent gay rights supporter." "One of the original cosponsors of legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation," he continues, "Kerry has achieved a nearly unblemished voting record on the issue. In 1996 he was the only senator up for re-election to vote against the antigay Defense of Marriage Act. Three years earlier he went before the Senate Armed Services Committee to testify...

IN LABELING John Kerry "wrong for Catholics," the Republican National Committee is lying about the meaning of Catholic faith, insulting Kerry, and moving the political exploitation of religion to a new low. The Globe's Michael Kranish reported Sunday on the RNC plot to target Kerry's religious unworthiness as a Catholic. Not only do the Republicans distort Kerry's positions on complicated moral questions; they misrepresent the current state of Catholic ethical thought. General outrage is the proper response to this strategy, but Catholics in particular should repudiate it.

JOHN KERRY: CATHOLIC ISSUES OVERVIEWMarriage PenaltyKerry Voted Against Marriage Penalty Relief At Least 22 Times. (S. Con. Res. 13, CQ Vote # 178: Rejected 31-69: R 31-23; D 0-46, 5/23/95, Kerry Voted Nay; S. 1357, CQ Vote #552: Motion Agreed To 53-46: R 50-3; D 3-43, 10/27/95, Kerry Voted Nay; H.R. 2491, CQ Vote #556: Passed 52-47: R 52-1; D 0-46, 10/28/95, Kerry Voted Nay; H.R. 2491, CQ Vote #584: Motion Agreed To 52-47: R 52-1; D 0-46, 11/18/95, Kerry Voted Nay; S. 1415, CQ Vote #154: Rejected 48-50: R 5-49; D 43-1, 6/10/98, Kerry Voted Yea; S. 2312, CQ...

When President Bush scored an enormous hit with a campaign appearance this month before a Catholic men's organization, he was preaching to the choir as he basked in the approval of an enthusiastic subset of Catholic voters that both he and Sen. John Kerry covet. But neither can definitively claim those voters. ...[snip] A recent Time magazine poll found that likely voters who considered themselves "very religious," regardless of faith, favored Bush over Kerry by 59 percent to 35 percent. Those who considered themselves "not religious" favored Kerry 69 percent to 22 percent.