More Attacks on Giuliani's Catholicism

This Associated Press article is agenda-driven. It's a follow-up to an article published on August 7.

It clearly attempts to paint Rudy Giuliani as a hypocrite, an opportunist, a pandering weasel, and a seriously lapsed Catholic.

The article picks apart Giuliani's past to support the notion that Giuliani has reason to want to avoid specific questions about his faith.

WASHINGTON -- Rudy Giuliani evokes his Catholic upbringing as he campaigns for president, yet he refuses to say whether he is a practicing Catholic.

When a voter asked this week if he is a "traditional, practicing Roman Catholic," Giuliani insisted his faith should be private.

...It would be difficult for him to answer yes. Someone who, like Giuliani, divorces and remarries without getting an annulment from the church cannot receive communion or other church sacraments.

Religion plays an influential role in presidential elections. John F. Kennedy's Roman Catholic faith provoked curiosity and concern when he was elected president in 1960. Today, Republican Mitt Romney is facing similar questions about his Mormon faith.

Candidates try hard to woo religious voters. Surveys show that people who go to church weekly are more likely to vote; that is especially true of Republicans and even more true of Catholics.

Faith is not necessarily their main concern. In an Associated Press-Ipsos poll in March, 4 percent of those surveyed said faith or belief in God was an important quality in a presidential candidate; among Republicans, the number was 8 percent, while among Democrats, the number was 1 percent.

There's an important point. It almost renders the rest of the article moot.

The vast majority of voters aren't hung up on a presidential candidate's faith.

Nonetheless, AP writer Libby Quaid goes forward, giving a history of Giuliani's devout Catholic boyhood, listing occasions when he later strayed or was at odds with the Catholic Church.

Quaid even goes so far as to discuss the sullied past of Giuliani's "close friend."

At key moments in his church life, Giuliani's close friend, Monsignor Alan Placa, has been at his side. Placa was best man at Giuliani's first wedding, officiated at the second and baptized Giuliani's son and daughter.

Placa was barred from the ministry after he was accused of sexual abuse, but he received special permission to preside at the funeral of Giuilani's mother, Helen, in 2002. Placa has been working for his friend's consulting business, Giuliani Partners, despite the urging of abuse victims that he be terminated.

What's that about?

Rudy the enabler?

Quaid continues:

Giulani's third wedding, to Judith Nathan, took place at the mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion, in 2003, after the nasty and public fight waged over his 2002 divorce from Hanover. Hanover learned that Giuliani wanted to split when he announced his decision at a news conference.

His marital history puts him in a different position than Kerry, who obtained an annulment before marrying his second wife, Teresa Heinz, and regularly attends Mass.

Good grief.

Translation: John Kerry is a good Catholic compared to Giuliani.

Kerry's not in the race. Who cares???

He lost in '04. These libs just can't give it up.

...Some of Giuliani's critics, such as conservative blogger Stephen Dillard, believe his marital history is fair game. Dillard started a "Catholics Against Rudy" Web site that raises that issue, among several others.

"The way he treated his wife gives us insight into how he views the role of family, how he views marriage, how he views the church's teaching on adultery and divorce," Dillard said.

Religious scholars say that Giuliani's willingness to talk about some, but not all, aspects of his faith is inconsistent.

"If you identify yourself that way in a public forum and then try to shut down any questions, that's not going to work," said the Rev. James Heft, religion professor and president of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California.

I'm a practicing Catholic and a conservative and a blogger.

I'm not against Giuliani.

If Stephen Dillard and like-minded Catholics want to level attacks against Giuliani and pass judgment on his standing in the Church, that's their business.

They have the right to cast stones at whomever they wish.

Check this out, from the website, catholicsagainstrudy.com:

Catholics Against Rudy is holding a contest to see who can produce the best political advertisement video for CAR based on the substance of this website. You won’t receive any money if you win, but you will be recognized here for your efforts, and perhaps elsewhere (keep in mind that CAR’s founder has already appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews and CAR has been mentioned by several major publications and blogs recently). More importantly, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you played a key role in helping to prevent Rudy from receiving the GOP presidential nomination. And what could be better than that! :)

The contest starts today, and will end on August 17, 2007. The winner will be announced on August 27, 2007.

This doesn't sit well with me at all.

Yes, a candidate's belief in God, or lack thereof, says something about that individual.

A candidate's character matters to me.

BUT--

It seems to me that this in-your-face attack from Catholics runs counter to the faith they profess.

Still, I'm not going to be throwing any stones.