DALLAS - Catholics for Obama has just launched a web site as the Nov. 4 White House race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain enters its final laps.
Catholics, who account for close to a quarter of the U.S. adult population, comprise a key religious group that both sides have tried to woo. In closely contested swing states such as Ohio or Florida the Catholic vote could make a difference.
The web site is sure to stoke controversy in Catholic circles with this statement: “Is Barack Obama really pro-life? The answer is ‘yes.’ Looking through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, Senator Obama has spent his entire career striving for the common good. He supports health care programs that will cover all Americans, a living wage for working families, and solutions that allow distressed families to stay in their homes.”
It goes on to say that Obama, a strong advocate like his party of abortion rights, will reduce the number of abortions by promoting health care for pregnant women and infant care.
Abortion is one of the most polarizing issues in America and official Catholic doctrine on the matter is clear: the church regards it as murder.
Archbishop Raymond Burke, a senior American in the Vatican, recently said the Democratic Party risked “transforming itself definitively into a ‘party of death’” because of its choices on bioethical questions and abortion.
Echoing several U.S. bishops, Burke accused the Democratic Party’s most high-profile Catholics — vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — of misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion.
McCain and his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are both staunchly opposed to abortion rights and the Republican Party often does well with conservative Catholics who vote largely on this issue.
But the flock itself is far more divided on the issue which can help Obama build on the leads he already has in most national polls with Catholic voters.
Photo Credit: Reuters/Jim Young. Obama speaks at campaign rally in Miami, Oct. 21, 2008.
Trackback
61 comments so far
Previous | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Next
@anbudanrc2010, as Beth commented voting has to be done according to one’s conscious and one’s conscious is formed from one’s religion and world view. All people have a world view, including you.
The ancient Greek world was extremely pro-choice. Killing infants was okay in their world view and we have several ancient letters with cavalier instructions like “If it’s a boy, keep it. Otherwise, kill it”. Award winning Bio-ethicist Peter Singer asserts that infanticide is okay because partial birth abortions (which can happen only a few months before birth) are okay. That’s his world view and I expect he’d vote for anyone who promoted that extreme pro-choice party line. Most people would be horrorized at that world view, but he is consistent. The key question for most people really isn’t choice, it’s when does a fetus become a baby. It’s a hard problem. Pro-choicers say it doesn’t happen until late in the pregnancy while pro-lifers place it early. Who is right?
Fortunately former Pro-Choice Feminist, Frederica Mathewes-Green has found some common ground: “A woman wants an abortion like an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its leg. Abortion is not a sign that women are free, but a sign that they are desperate.”
This is a common point between Feminists on both sides of the issue. I challenge you to find a Feminist who would disagree. It sounds like Obama wants to attach himself to this idea, which is progress.
- Posted by Ronald DevinsCatholics and true conservatives should be voting for Bob Barr, not Obama or McCain
- Posted by EmzadCatholics and true conservatives should be voting for Bob Barr, not Obama or McCain.
- Posted by EmzadI’m a catholic; I just don’t think my church can tell me what or whom to vote as long as I obeyed and following the Ten Commandments and keep my faith in God. I’m support Barack Obama/Joe Biden .
- Posted by Mother of AutismScience has proven what we already knew - life begins at conception. This Country was founded as being one blessed by God. We can not turn our backs on the weakest class of all people, the unborn.
- Posted by Greg McGrathThe so called neo-conservatives, whom McCain bravely fought against in 2000 and later sold his soul to, do not stand for my values as a Catholic. Their support for a baseless war, torture and death penalty makes them the real party of death.
If anyone thinks Jesus is siding with the GOP against the marginalized millions—the unemployed man in Pennsylvania who got laid off and had to pack his machinery to be sent to China; the uninsured mother who was denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition; or a widowed mother grieving over a son lost in Iraq—it is you who has some serious explaining to do, not Kmiec. And to suggest that it is a duty of a Catholic to condemn Barack Obama and anyone who supports him is a betrayal of the same values that Jesus gave us.
- Posted by Issac CheriyathuCatholics who sneer at Barack Obama for being “pro-abortion” miss the point that his policies are more pro-life than any Neocon’s.
- Posted by Issac CheriyathuTo Rusty:
Obama is not for universal late term abortions, only ones in which the mother’s life may be in danger, or in the case of incest, which is also an abomination in the eyes of God. To condem Obama’s stance on this is backwards. If a mother’s life is in danger because of the baby in her womb, should we not do everything we can to save the mother, even if it means sacrificing the unborn baby? I agree with Obama on this. If a mother’s life is in danger, her life takes prescedence over the unborn child who will likely not survive anyway.
Best wishes to all! Let’s not be so polarized on this issue!
- Posted by AshTaylor Marshall brings in a host of Apostolic Fathers to make his case that abortion and Catholocism don’t go together.
- Posted by Justinhttp://culture11.com/blogs/credo/2008/10 /22/abortion-and-the-catholic-fathers-o f-the-church/
The gift of the founding fathers is the separation of church and state. We must worry when any religion tries to force its belief system upon the whole population. If you, in Catholic practice, choose not to have an abortion, that is your business and your right. But you have no right to dictate to others who may not share your values or beliefs what they can or cannot do. Pro-choice means exactly that, choice. Since the doctrine of abstinence doesn’t work (just ask Sarah Palin), greater emphasis upon and easier access to birth control would make abortion less likely of a choice as it wouldn’t be needed in the first place.
- Posted by PatrickThe question here is not whether Obama is a Catholic or not, or whether he follows the teachings of the Catholic Church or not, but whether Catholics who are morally obliged to oppose abortion (See John Paul II’s Gospel of Life) as an intrinsic evil are free to vote for a man who supports abortion at any time during pregnancy and who even voted in favor of infanticide (when an abortion fails, and the child is born alive, Obama said the living child should be left to die). Any Catholic who thinks this man is going to reduce the number of abortions is simply deluded.
- Posted by EdwardI don’t want to judge anybody (only God will), but my questions are:how can we consider ourselves as Catholics/
- Posted by BethChristians if our actions does not reflect Christian values? Is Christianity heading into a wrong direction?
Screw what the catholics believe.It’s a women’s right to keep the baby or not.Government is using religion to divide people.If religion is abolished you can see the unity within minds of people. God bless USA
- Posted by anbudanrc2010Catholics have little choice this election. On the one hand, they can either choose the McCain/Bush party that will start more wars and cause more killing but play lip service to abortion (Bush did nothing, even about partial birth abortions which is infanticide by any standards — read staunch humanist pro-choicer Peter Singer. Unlike Bush. McCain is pro-abortion. Palin holds no power.).
OTOH they can choose the Obama party which will hold the status quo but focus on peace and humanitarian issues that are important to Catholics.
It’s a no-brainer. Catholics will just need to find other avenues to push back on partial birth abortions, and use Aquinas-like reasoning to get people to understand why late term abortions are no different.
- Posted by Ronald DevinsI thought Christians were not supposed to judge people on their choices, as that is the sole job of God?
And if a person votes solely about abortion, it is a sad misguided vote.
If there is one thing for which we stand in this country, it is for complete religious freedom, and it is an emphatic negation of this right to cross-examine a man on his religion before being willing to support him for office.
- Posted by Dave– Theodore Roosevelt,
I am a Catholic and I support Obama! I am not alone. Many in my church also feel the same way that I do. In this election I see a vate for Obama as being more in line with Pro-Life than a vote for McCain.
- Posted by memberyFather John Dear, SJ is an antiwar Jesuit priest
- Posted by Anna Hridaayaspeaking around the world on themes covered in your
article.
This is one reason I no longer support Catholic or other Christian churches. They dwell on abortion rights yet ignore other human rights & support wars that cause much more loss of life. BULLETS STOP A BEATING HEART TOO !!!!
- Posted by RickRepublican policies are heartless, yet Church leaders promote them. Same old M.O. churches have followed for centuries …align with leaders that line their pockets the most, and make sure the flock follows them.
Isnt this rather hypocritical ?? Catholics who dont believe in abortion are now lining up for Obama who believes in all kinds of abortions and doesnt want his daughters “PUNISHED” with babies ??? You people are whats wrong with this country and why you will face the wrath of God. Just like Nancy Pelosi trying to say that the Catholic Church is not clear on abortion. Shame on all of you - you are not Christians, or Catholics - just a bunch of misguided people who pick what parts of religious doctrine you believe in and then try to justify your twisted views on the others. God help you for you know not what you do when you tell people to vote for this con artist.
- Posted by junglejim123Obama is for late term abortion! How can any Catholic vote for him? I am ashamed for any Catholic that votes for him. Biden and Pelosi call themselves Catholic, and yet they are for abortion, Health care for women is not the issue. Choice for convenience is the issue.
- Posted by Rusty