EDITORIAL Time to rework politics of Catholic leaders
In the wake of the recent presidential election, one has to wonder
if certain bishops and their friends among the religious right will convene for
an assessment of what happened to the vaunted "Catholic vote."
It appears that once again all the gambles taken on behalf of
opposing abortion above everything else came up empty.
The bishops rallied in Washington and led a massive post card
campaign after President Bill Clinton vetoed the late-term abortion bill.
Cardinal John O'Connor of New York refused to invite Clinton, as
is the long-standing tradition, to the Al Smith dinner because of that
veto.
O'Connor and fellow Cardinal James Hickey of Washington lent their
weight to a conservative Catholic group, the Catholic Campaign for America,
which was basically organized to raise the antiabortion ante in the
presidential election. The Catholic Campaign, in turn, was intimately tied up
with the rather intolerant, radical right politics of Ralph Reed and the
Christian Coalition, the Protestant evangelical group that this year made a
highly touted but largely unsuccessful bid to lure in a contingent of Catholic
voters.
Reed, of course, runs the political arm of the theologically
fundamentalist empire of TV evangelist Pat Robertson. The good cardinals, along
with some other high profile and distinguished Catholic conservatives, were all
wrapped into this rather unseemly political juggernaut.
One presumes all of that helped set the atmosphere for extremists
like the priest who did radio spots or retired New Orleans Archbishop Philip
Hannan of Louisiana, who boldly pronounced that Catholics could not vote for
Clinton.
It all made for more embarrassing episodes of misspent political
capital and squandered moral authority.
In the end, Catholic voters largely ignored all the hot button
rhetoric and were one of the largest factors in the Clinton victory.
The vote does not mean that Catholic voters dislike their bishops,
or simply act contrary to whatever they say. It does not mean they are not
appalled at the number of abortions annually or the horror of late-term
abortions. It does not mean they are necessarily enamored of the Clinton
presidency.
What it means, however, is that they, along with much of the rest
of the populace, see little hope for any solution in the absolute legal
measures demanded by the radical right. Many Catholics once based their votes
on the abortion issue and helped put Presidents Reagan and Bush into office.
They got little for it and apparently no longer base their presidential choice
on that issue. They see little hope for any progress on abortion in the
political arena. And they have been given precious little leadership from their
bishops on how to counter abortion in other ways.
The '96 vote was but the latest episode in a lesson, now 23 years
long, on how the politics of the Catholic leadership has done little but
neutralize and marginalize the Catholic presence in U.S. society.
National Catholic Reporter, November 15,
1996
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