John Kerry in Harrisburg, PA, during the "Job First On the road to a stronger economy" tour. - Contributed
DEMOCRATIC MASSACHUSETTS Senator John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, was in 1960 elected President of the United States. Forty-four years later, John F. Kerry, a Democratic Massachusetts Senator, is seeking to become the second Roman Catholic to be elected President.
In the 1960 contest, John Kennedy campaigned to assure voters that he would not let his religion rule his presidency. John Kerry on the otherhand, is being criticised for not being religious enough. In fact, many believe that the positions of President George W. Bush, a Methodist, on a range of social and moral issues, make him more Roman Catholic than John Kerry.
In 1960, Catholics voted
overwhelmingly for Kennedy. Today, their votes are split down the middle between Kerry
and Bush.
CATHOLICS AND KERRY
There is little question that Kerry is in direct violation of clear Roman Catholic teachings on any number of controversial issues. A Time Magazine story earlier this year quoted a Vatican official who said, "People in Rome are becoming more and more aware that there's a problem with John Kerry, and a potential scandal with his apparent profession of his Catholic Faith and some of his stances, particularly abortion."
The Vatican went public in 1984 against Democratic candidate for the Vice Presidency, Geraldine Ferraro. The Congresswoman had claimed to be pro-life though she supported a pro-abortion political platform and had established a pro-abortion voting record in Congress.
KERRY IS PRO-CHOICE
ON ABORTION
John Kerry has consistently taken a pro-choice on abortion and has demonstrated a pro-homosexual line in policy options. In March, he voted against the anti-abortion legislation Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which became law on April 1. Though he claims to oppose same-sex marriage, he supports gay civil unions. He voted in 1996, against the Defence of Marriage Act. He also opposes President Bush's call for a constitutional amendment establishing marriage as a union of one man and one woman.
In recent years, the Vatican has strongly denounced Catholic politicians who violate Catholic morality in devising public policy. In 2002, the Vatican released Doctrinal Note. This document called on Catholic politicians to be "morally coherent" warning that "There cannot be two parallel lives in their existence: on the one hand, the so-called 'spiritual life', with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called 'secular' life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social responsibilities, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture."
Last year, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons. The document said: "All Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions" and that "Catholic politicians are obliged to do so in a particular way, in keeping with their responsibility as politicians. Faced with legislative proposals in favour of homosexual unions, Catholic politicians are to remain faithful to the teachings of the Church."
There is a developing story about Los Angeles based Canon lawyer, Marc Balestrieri, who has filed charges in June against Senator Kerry with the Archdiocese of Boston accusing him of bringing "a most serious scandal to the American public" by receiving communion as a pro-choice Catholic. Balestrieri's charges are posted at www.defide.com. He told the Washington Times, "Heresy is a public, ecclesiastical crime It affects entire communities. It is one of the greatest sins you can commit My goal is his repentance, not excommunication. By spreading heresy, he is endangering not just mine, but every Catholic's possession of the faith. I am inviting all baptised Catholics who feel injured by Kerry to join the suit as third parties." The suit, the Canon lawyer disclosed, does not seek monetary damages.
Kerry's pro-choice stand, prompted at least two Roman Catholic bishops to suggest
his ineligibility to receive
communion. First, St. Louis' Archbishop Raymond Burke warned him publicly not to present himself for communion. Then Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley, who had given Kerry communion in the past, warned that Catholic politicians who are out of line with the church's teachings "shouldn't dare come to
communion."
But Kerry seemingly defied these detractors and has continued to receive communion in the Roman Catholic Church. On June 18, Reuters reported that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in an apparent move to avoid political collision within their ranks, voted 183-6 to allow each diocese to decide for itself on whether to refuse communion to Catholic
politicians who support
abortion rights.
Meantime, reports surfaced in a June 18 edition of the Washington Times that Kerry's advisers are telling the candidate to steer clear of talking about religion.
POLITICS AND RELIGION
Steven Waldman, editor-in-chief of Beliefnet, a leading multi-faith spirituality and religion web site, in an article appearing on the June 29 edition of the online magazine Slate observed: " More Republicans do indeed go to church regularly, and the most secular folks are more likely to be Democrats. Both tendencies have, in fact, become more pronounced in recent years. But in general, most Republicans and most Democrats are pretty religious. The stark differences are at the extremes of each party, and, as so often is the case, the big question is whether the extremes will define the party as a whole. Most Republicans aren't conservative fundamentalists, although it sometimes seems that way given the proclivities of the leadership. And the Democrats have their own version of that same dilemma, and it's affecting the most important arena there is this year's presidential race: Will Kerry's Democrats act like the Party of Secularists even if they aren't?"
Waldman continued: "It may also be that Kerry is suffering from over-identification with John F. Kennedy. He seems to have decided that the best way to deal with religion in this campaign is the same way Kennedy (the last Catholic Democratic contender) did. John F. Kennedy emphasised the separation of church and state and so, therefore, should Kerry.
KERRY AND KENNEDY'S
DILEMMA
"If that's the case, Kerry is learning the wrong lessons
from that campaign. His and Kennedy's dilemmas were utterly different, requiring different solutions. Kennedy's problem was Protestants. Kerry's is Catholics. Kennedy had to prove that that he wasn't under the thumb of the Vatican in order to mollify anxious Protestants. Emphasising secularism made sense as a way of distancing himself from the church. Thanks to ethnic pride, he could do this without risking losing the Catholic vote (in fact, he won it by a staggering 50 points).
"Kerry's problems flow from within the Catholic world. Conservative Catholics, lay and official, have launched stinging attacks on him for being an 'iffy' Catholic because of his pro-choice stance -- If Kerry
doesn't define himself as a
sterling Catholic, he will be labelled by his critics a bad
one," Waldman said.
Meanwhile, it seems the Catholic vote is up for grabs, and the Bush campaign is making intense efforts to woo it.
While Kerry faced his religious detractors, the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported that President Bush on his visit to
the Vatican last month might have sought help from the Roman Catholic church to help him win the November Presidential election.
The French news agency cites the weekly publication, the National Catholic Reporter which reported that Bush asked Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano to push US Catholic Bishops to be more aggressive politically on issues like gay marriage, which the White House opposes.
