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COMMENTARY Why the Catholics
pick on Democrats
BY RANDY YEIP
Of The Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News
As a young parochial school pupil growing up in heavily Catholic Detroit, I was mesmerized by the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. Twice weekly — Friday mornings as part of the school curriculum and again on Sundays with the family — I sat reverently in St. Ladislaus, awestruck by the pomp and splendor of Mass. Seen through my 7-year-old eyes, it was mystical.
The mystery unraveled the next year when I answered the call that nearly all Catholic schoolboys hear: I became an altar boy.
Suddenly I felt like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz." I had come to the end of this yellow-brick road, having faced and accomplished the three challenges put to me thus far — baptism, holy communion and reconciliation — and been rewarded with entry into the Emerald City. But like "The Great and Powerful Oz," what was behind the curtain couldn't live up to what I, in my blissful ignorance, had imagined was there.
In those once hidden chambers of the church, I learned the mechanical nature of performing Mass. What once had seemed like a movement of the spirit, I now learned was rehearsed. Actions and phrases were not divinely inspired; they were scripted. Suddenly it was all quite ordinary.
Like my experience of two decades ago, the curtain of the Catholic Church has again been lifted, revealing the very human nature of those who pull the strings. And this time their political stripes are showing.
In December — well ahead of John Kerry's ascension to front-runner status in the Democratic presidential sweepstakes — Wisconsin Bishop Raymond L. Burke chided Catholic state lawmakers for legislative votes that don't mirror official church doctrine. "I would simply have to ask them not to present themselves to receive the sacraments because they would not be Catholics in good standing," he told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Burke, now the archbishop of St. Louis, was later joined by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Nebraska in condemning such politicians. They are the only two bishops to formally declare they would refuse communion to those who favor abortion rights. A smattering of other church leaders nationwide has joined the chorus, though none has officially ordered the Eucharist be withheld from church members who honor their secular governmental duty.
The archbishops of Newark, N.J., and Colorado Springs, Colo., have even gone so far as to suggest that merely voting for a pro-choice politician could be reason enough to bar Catholics from receiving Communion.
Besides abortion, the debate over same-sex marriage has led church leaders to wage a political tug-of-war with the Holy Host. And in the most extreme example to date, New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey was recently pressured to announce he would no longer receive Communion because he failed to seek an annulment before remarrying. All of this is in response to an edict issued last year by the Vatican that said Catholic politicians have a duty to uphold "nonnegotiable ethical principles."
U.S. bishops have formed a task force to examine whether the church should sanction Catholic politicians who hold positions that contradict church doctrine.
The most noteworthy facet of this canonical debate? All of the high-profile targets thus far have been Democrats. That's a remarkable circumstance considering it was not so long ago when Catholic voters were overwhelmingly Democrats.
But it offers clear evidence that the dividing line between the two major parties has shifted considerably to social issues. It's a comfortable environment for the Roman Catholic Church, an institution built upon clearly defined and unwavering moral imperatives.
This dichotomous doctrine is echoed in even the subtlest ways, like the cassock I wore as an altar boy: There is black and there is white; there is good and there is evil. The sole symbol of ambivalence in the Catholic Church is that vaguely defined cosmic waiting room called purgatory.
In truth, the church has unwittingly tiptoed into a decidedly gray area. When will we see church leaders admonish Republican politicians who champion ideas that run counter to Catholic teaching?
Consider California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, New York Gov. George Pataki, Sen. Rick Santorum and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge — all Republicans, all Catholics. And, not to be overlooked, all supporters of the death penalty and the war in Iraq.
Catholic doctrine strongly discourages the death penalty in nearly all cases, and the current pope in particular has frequently spoken out against capital punishment in the strongest possible terms.
What's more, the Roman Catholic Church, led by Pope John Paul II, was especially vocal in opposing the war in Iraq. Even after the capture of Saddam Hussein, the Vatican reiterated its position when Cardinal Renato R. Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said Saddam's capture did not change the fact that "the war was useless and served no purpose."
That lumps Schwarzenegger, Giuliani, Pataki, Santorum and Ridge alongside Kerry and McGreevey as "Catholics not in good standing," to use Archbishop Burke's words. But no Catholic leader has asked any of these Republican figures to abstain from participating in the sacraments.
The likely reason is that the Roman Catholic Church recognizes this as a potentially decisive moment on several hot-button issues, abortion and gay rights chief among them. America's cultural war is reaching a climax, and shrewd Catholic leaders know this year's elections — presidential and congressional — could result in legislative decisions of far-reaching consequence and permanence.
The battle over gay rights has never before been so tenuous, and the issue of abortion is at its most contentious since Roe v. Wade. That gives those issues priority over capital punishment, which is not being seriously debated anywhere in this country, and the war in Iraq, an issue that has become too political to be a matter of theology anymore.
The final piece of the puzzle in this Catholic-Republican juggernaut? George W. Bush. Though a devout United Methodist, President Bush has built a loyal following among Catholics. In a December poll by Le Moyne College/Zogby International Contemporary Catholic Trends, those most likely to favor Bush's re-election were Catholics who attend Mass more frequently.
Santorum has gone so far as to say that he regards Bush as "the first Catholic president of the United States" — a curious statement given the president's zealousness for military action and his enthusiasm for the death penalty.
No doubt Catholic Republicans were confounded even further last month when two Democratic House members — Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Rick Lampson of Texas — revealed the results of an internal research paper suggesting that Catholic Democrats are more in line with church teaching than their Republican brethren.
The "scorecard" compared the votes of Catholic House members with policy positions taken by American Catholic bishops on cloning, partial-birth abortion, taxes, gay marriage, the minimum wage and other issues. In the survey, the 67 House Democrats who are Catholics voted in accordance with church positions an average of 76 percent of the time, while the 49 Catholic Republicans averaged 64 percent. It appears that when it comes to doctrinal adherence, Catholic Republicans are on wafer-thin ice.
RANDY YEIP: 255-8431 or ryeip@patriot-news.com
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