EDITORIAL
THE CATHOLIC ISSUES The so-called "religious issue" for American Catholics has moved into phase two: What kind of a constructive role can the Catholic community play in stressing the truly...
...He took a crack at rich people who send their children to private schools-although there is no reason to believe this was a reference to parochial schools...
...They include: the "right to eat," the redistribution of land ownership, policies to promote more food production, and comprehensive overseas food aid policy, a universal mandatory health insurance plan, full employment, inner-city rehabilitation, regulation of multi-national corporations, housing aid to moderate- and low-income families, strong handgun control, an end to capital punishment, and an end to the arms race which is a violation of the rights of the world's poor...
...Politicians who happen to be Catholics do not have national Catholic constituencies who follow them to the ballot boxes...
...But if these meetings do not symbolize the candidates' commitment, or at least openness, to the social-moral issues these men and women represent, the candidates' hypocrisy will be obvious to all...
...First, the discussion should not be conducted-as it has in the political columns and in the Catholic press so far-on whether Jimmy Carter has a "Catholic problem...
...Meanwhile, he identifies with urban blacks who are threatening to white ethnic Catholics...
...This was Ford's implied opposition to abortion...
...Sometimes gestures help...
...If this is the substance of the Carter-Catholic problem, American Catholics are less politically sophisticated than even their critics imagine...
...This in spite of the fact that President Ford does not favor a constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion...
...So too Ford and Carter might do well to associate themselves with or consult Catholic leaders and Catholic intellectuals...
...Catholic Conference to both the Democratic and Republican platform committees...
...THE CATHOLIC ISSUES The so-called "religious issue" for American Catholics has moved into phase two: What kind of a constructive role can the Catholic community play in stressing the truly important issues and determining the outcome of the election...
...He is cool to Teddy Kennedy who is cool to him...
...Thus Robert Kennedy once shared the Eucharist with Cesar Chavez...
...Unfortunately, abortion is the only one church leaders and most of the Catholic press really push-perhaps because, in their narrow vision, it seems to have an uncomplicated solution...
...Abortion policy is a moral issue and church leaders should address it...
...It endeared him to the bishops and the people...
...The other issues are summed up in the presence and addresses at the Eucharistic Congress of Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, Dom Helder Camara, Father Pedro Ar-rupe, S.J., and Bishop James Rausch, and in the testimony of Bishop James Malone on behalf of the U.S...
...He has offended what Rev...
...Third, the tragedy is that there are many authentically Catholic issues burning to be confronted in their religious and social dimensions by both the church and the candidates...
...Meanwhile, his remarks on the importance of the family were but me-too echoes of a talk Carter gave in New Hampshire, which itself-with the appointment of Catholic Joseph A. Califano, Jr., as special advisor on federal family policy-was a belated appeal for Catholic support...
...He pronounced Italians "EYE-talians...
...Second, politicians' "Catholic Problems" are not resolved by gestures, like making Catholics vice-presidential nominees...
...A Philadelphia monsignor picked it up: "Politically, it put him in, or at least certainly advanced him...
...Most of these are in the Democratic platform, but the bishops didn't like one item in the Democratic platform and boycotted the convention...
...Carter, it is charged, because he did not keep the no-constitutional-amendment plank out of the platform, is soft on abortion-in spite of his promise to use the powers of his office to minimize the number of abortions...
...He was throwing Catholics a bone...
...At the Republican convention a Catholic bishop is scheduled to give the final blessing...
...They are effective in so far as they sincerely communicate the candidate's concern for an issue...
...For example, there was a bad moment at the end of the recent Eucharistic Congress...
...When President Gerald R. Ford, in his pre-liturgy address to 100,000 worshippers (voters) said, "I share your appreciation [his text read "apprehension"] about increased irreverence for life," he received prolonged applause...
...He is from the deep South, an area some Catholics still associate with the Ku Klux Klan...
...Nor does Cardinal Cooke have a "constitutency" in the political sense, any more than the Pope-in Stalin's phrase-has "divisions" he can send into war...
...The measure of any group's political maturity is its ability to make a major judgment, such as supporting a presidential candidate, not on the basis of narrow, one-issue interest but on the interrelationship of several issues and their effect on the common welfare...
...Yet, to deal with this one issue as if it were the Catholic issue-the "price" of the "Catholic vote"-is an insult...
...Andrew Greeley calls "Cardinal Cooke's constituency...
Vol. 103 • August 1976 • No. 18
