Viewpoint Antiabortion stance hurts Catholic
candidates
By THOMAS COFFEY
When Republican presidential hopeful
Bob Smith announced recently that he was so disillusioned with his party that
he was leaving it to seek an independent one that more properly fits his
conservative ideals, few Republicans stepped up to support him.
For one thing, Smith had virtually no chance of ever winning the
Republican nomination or rounding up enough votes to be a serious threat to
take the nationwide election. Second, George W. Bush has raised so much money
that it is becoming more and more inevitable that he will be the Republican
partys appointed front man going into 2000.
Nevertheless, one Republican who has publicly praised the courage
of Smiths decision is Pat Buchanan, who along with Smith has tried to
garner the support of the conservatives of his party and move it evermore to
the right. Buchanan has some traits in common with Smith, including the fact
that he himself has never really been more than a long shot to be the
Republican nominee, though he continues to try. However, a more interesting
similarity is that the two are Catholic. They are joined by Alan Keyes as the
only Catholics making a run at the presidency for the 2000 election.
The fact that these three ultra-conservatives are the only
Catholics in the bidding is a telling manifestation of the state of the
hierarchy of the church and elected Catholic public officials. Abortion is the
defining issue of each of these mens political platforms. Obviously,
abortion has a serious effect on how all potential candidates run for office,
but particularly for Catholics, for the U.S. bishops have basically called for
a no-tolerance stance on Catholic legislators who support abortion rights.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, though a Republican, supports abortion rights and
has been asked to refrain from speaking at Catholic functions. In the 1980s
Mario Cuomo had infamous run-ins with the archbishop of New York, Cardinal John
OConnor, over the same issue.
Undoubtedly Catholics seeking the White House must think twice
about running because of this, for how can they make believers of their fellow
citizens when their own religious leaders will outright oppose their candidacy?
Moreover, it seems inescapable that even if a Catholic were elected to the
highest office in the country today, unless he or she is antiabortion that very
Catholicism would be called into question by the bishops, and what then would
have been a triumph will be riddled with tension and embarrassment for
Catholics around the country.
Could this be why Catholics with political clout sit out amid
speculation about their potential ability to win?
Ray Flynn, the former mayor of Boston and ambassador to the
Vatican, admitted recently in a television interview that the dynamics of the
Catholic vote have changed since John F. Kennedy became the only Catholic to
occupy the White House, particularly in regard to how Catholic legislators and
voters respond to their bishops directives. In turn, the fact that
legislators dont have the support of their bishops does not signify that
they would not have the support of rank-and-file Catholics, for it was they who
provided the major swing in the election and re-election President Clinton, who
is adamantly in favor of legalized abortion.
Furthermore, the abortion stance of the bishops is disheartening
and puzzling to many old-school Catholics who wonder how such a position is
tenable because it is based solely on one issue while ignoring a
candidates voting record on such things as welfare reform and defense
spending. Indeed, Congressman Charles Rangel expressed such an opinion to
OConnor when the cardinal harshly criticized his and other Catholic
leaders position on the banning of a controversial late-term abortion
procedure.
It is conceivable that such dissension among rank and file
Catholics and legislators may one day provide a spark for a future Catholic
candidacy, or perhaps the bishops will find other issues more pressing. For
now, however, when the only Catholics seeking the presidency are those that
detest anything but an antiabortion stance, the U.S. bishops appear to have
been successful in not only deciding which Catholics will speak on behalf of
the faith, but also in defining what Catholics can hope for as far as a future
Catholic president.
With the chances of the three that are making a run for the year
2000, it appears that Catholics dont have much to hope for at all.
Thomas Coffey is a former Senate aide. He is currently studying
for a masters degree in religion.
National Catholic Reporter, October 8,
1999
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