Election 2008: Pope Benedict and the Catholic Vote

From the New York Times:

Many years have passed since the Democratic Party was as much a part of American Catholic identity as weekly Mass and parochial school. But it still came as a shock to many Democrats to lose the Catholic vote, a key group in must-win states like Ohio, in the 2004 presidential election.

It is an experience they are determined not to repeat.

I think that opening sentence is awful.

At one time, more Catholics voted for Democrats than Republicans. OK, but don't say that affiliation with the Dems was as integral to American Catholic identity as weekly Mass. It never was.

That's terrible. Identity as a Catholic has no politics. Catholic values can affect one's politics but that's not the same as one's identity as a Catholic.

The presidential candidates are in the middle of an escalating battle for Catholic voters — most immediately between Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, but also between the two parties as they look ahead to the general election. This struggle is an important part of the backdrop for Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to the United States starting Tuesday, which has drawn gestures of respect from all of the presidential contenders.

There is widespread agreement that American Catholic voters are far more diverse than monolithic. Even so, both the Clinton and the Obama campaigns have hired Catholic outreach directors, deployed an army of prominent Catholic surrogates testifying on their behalf and created mailings that highlight their commitment to Catholic social teachings on economic justice and the common good.

Dismayed at losing so many Catholic and other religious voters to the Republicans in 2004, Democrats talk far more often, and more comfortably, about their values and the importance of their own faith these days.

Essentially, they have tried to broaden the definition of “values” issues beyond abortion rights, on which they disagree with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and many religious conservatives.

There is no way for any candidate to devise a plan to win over Catholic voters. As a group, we are far too diverse.

Furthermore, I'm not viewing Pope Benedict's visit to the U.S. in terms of the presidential election. I don't associate the Holy Father with Obama or Hillary or McCain. The Pope isn't coming here to address American politics.

...Mrs. Clinton, a Methodist, carried the Catholic vote overwhelmingly in Ohio, Texas and several other major states that have held primaries and caucuses this year, according to surveys of voters leaving the polls; she hopes to do so again in Pennsylvania, which holds its primary next week. (Aides say she is particularly popular among nuns.) In an open letter to Pennsylvania Catholics, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., two children of Robert F. Kennedy, wrote, “Catholics have a partner in Hillary Clinton, one who will work to advance the common good of all Pennsylvanians and all Americans.”

Catholics certainly don't have a partner in Hillary Clinton if they're interested in advancing the common good for all unborn Americans.

...[O]n Friday, the Obama campaign unveiled its national advisory council of prominent Catholics, including elected officials, theologians, academics, nuns and social advocates. On a conference call, Representative Patrick J. Murphy — who represents Bucks County, Pa., and prefaced his remarks by noting that he was St. Anselm’s Altar Boy of the Year in 1987 — said that Mr. Obama spoke “to the better angels in all of us.”

Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, another prominent Catholic supporting Mr. Obama, noted: “I don’t agree with him on some issues. We disagree on abortion.” But Mr. Casey said he believed that Mr. Obama, as president, would advocate for “the least, the last and the lost.”

Obama is so radical when it comes to abortion that he refused to take a stand against infanticide. He's very much like Russ Feingold in that respect.

Casey's assertion that Obama would be an advocate for "the least, the last and the lost" isn't true. Obama selects only some of "the least, the last and the lost" to defend. He doesn't want to protect the unborn. He wouldn't even agree to protect a child "accidentally" born during a botched partial birth abortion. Obama would not protect the disabled, like Terri Schiavo.

...“We’re going to devote substantial resources to winning the Catholic vote,” said Frank Donatelli, deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee. “I think the natural home of Catholics is the Republican Party.”

The campaign of Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, recently rolled out his National Catholics for McCain Committee, with Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, as a co-chairman.

Mr. Brownback’s chief of staff, Rob Wasinger, said Mr. McCain was “the full package” for Catholics, with his opposition to abortion and his support for overhauling immigration laws, a major issue for Hispanic Catholics. Against this backdrop, the pope’s words and gestures will be scrutinized not just by the faithful and the theologians, but also by political professionals in both parties.

By far, McCain's position on prolife issues makes him a superior candidate compared to Hillary and Obama, but he's not quite the full package. McCain has repeatedly voted to increase taxpayer funded embryonic stem cell research.

“The Republicans are just hoping and praying he’ll say something about abortion and gay marriage, and the Democrats are terrified he will,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow and political scientist at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. “But at the United Nations, he will also say a lot of things to the left of Hillary and Obama.”

In fact, some conservatives worry that the war in Iraq, opposed by the Catholic Church from its inception, is hurting the Republican Party among Catholic voters — just as it is with other independent and swing voters.

“There’s one big question mark hanging over the Catholic vote, and that’s the Iraq war,” said Deal Hudson, an informal adviser to Mr. McCain and a longtime adviser to President Bush on Catholic matters.

There's no "one big question mark hanging over the Catholic vote."

Of course, the war in Iraq is of great concern to most Americans. It's an issue that's sure to factor into this election. However, I don't think it will determine the Catholic vote, mainly because I don't think there is a "Catholic" vote.

Catholics are far too diverse to be defined as a voting bloc.

In spite of how the media are approaching the Pope's visit, he isn't coming to America to endorse a candidate for president. I don't think Catholics in America are looking for that. The Pope is on a spiritual mission. He wants to encourage change and give us hope. (He sounds like a candidate, doesn't he?)

Whatever the Holy Father says to Americans, I'm sure he won't pander.