EDITORIAL
CARTER AND THE BISHOPS The confrontation between Jimmy Carter and the Catholic bishops on the abortion issue is dangerous for both sides. For Carter the perils are clear. Catholics constitute...
...Such issues were mentioned at the meeting with Mr...
...But when it comes to translating moral principles into public law, that is something else again, and on this the bishops do not necessarily speak for all Catholics or, in this case, even a majority, if the public opinion polls are accurate...
...And once this fact is known, how much influence will the bishops have on other public issues...
...human rights and foreign policy...
...Their political stance may help to persuade a few more people that they are indeed serious in their condemnation of abortion...
...If there is such a thing as a Catholic vote, on this issue at least we suspect it is highly fragmented: provided Carter does not seem in some way to be insulting the bishops, we are extremely dubious that they can in fact deliver it...
...The issue involved is not, we think, a simple one...
...But as they mount the economic ladder and move out to the suburbs, they may be less and less inevitably Democratic (especially if non-Catholic liberals seem to treat them with some contempt as "hard-hat ethnics"), and this would be especially true if Catholics got the impression that Carter was in any way slighting their views...
...education...
...But how should it be done in a pluralistic, democratic society like ours...
...In a statement entitled "Political Responsibility: Reflections on an Election Year" issued in February, the Administrative Board of the U.S...
...One danger is of arousing and strongly polarizing public opinion against Catholics on this and, by extension, other issues of importance to Catholics...
...That much may be obvious...
...Carter's position...
...But the Catholic bishops should realize that there are also other if more subtle dangers in this situation...
...It would be rash to view lightly their unanimous condemnation of abortion as a grave moral evil, and here we think Catholics in general do take the bishops very seriously...
...If Senator Kennedy were the candidate rather than Carter, it is difficult to believe that the bishops would pursue the same tactics with him, although his position on abortion and a constitutional amendment is not very different from Mr...
...housing...
...on the abortion issue that complexity, we think, is being ignored by the bishops...
...The Church does have a right and a duty to speak on moral issues confronting society...
...Rightly or wrongly, abortion tends to be seen as a "Catholic issue...
...mass media...
...In a situation such as this, a national pastoral council that was truly representative and that had organized scholarly input would be invaluable...
...The relationship between moral imperative and civil law is complex at best...
...Thus while Jimmy Carter may not be able to share the convictions of the Catholic bishops on abortion-or, rather, on the wisdom of a constitutional amendment, since he himself opposes abortion-he must handle the issue and Catholic leaders with great care...
...Finally, there is what must be the ultimate political danger for the bishops, the election results might very well reveal that on issues like this they are generals without very many troops-a possibility that a substantial number of politicians have already begun to suspect...
...No matter how strongly Catholics may feel about it, they have only to imagine the general public reaction, including that among Catholics, if Protestant leaders were having meetings with Carter in an effort to get him to come out for a constitutional amendment forbidding, say, the use of alcohol or the playing of bingo...
...One can in perfectly good conscience oppose abortion on moral grounds and yet think a constitutional amendment on the subject a bad idea-which indeed is Mr...
...Catholics thus stand somewhat on the left of the American political spectrum and are an important part of any liberal coalition...
...Some, like Father Greeley, are already convinced that Catholics are being ignored by Carter strategists...
...We make these points with considerable regret...
...Carter's...
...We would not want to be misunderstood on this point...
...Church leaders need not be overly timid about urging important Catholic views, but if they are identified in the public mind with narrow, one-issue sectarian pleading-as we think they are in this case-there could result a significant backlash against them and the entire Catholic community...
...The bishops apparently think they are in a strong position to change Carter's public posture because he is considered to be weak vis a vis Catholics...
...The bishops are taken with the utmost seriousness by Catholics as successors of the apostles and moral teachers...
...food policy, at home and abroad...
...military expenditures...
...Two recent front-page headlines in the New York Times summarize the situation: "Abortion Stand by Carter Vexes Catholic Bishops" and a few days later, "Ford Hopes Linked to Catholic Vote...
...Another danger is that the bishops have again concentrated attention exclusively on abortion as "the" Catholic issue...
...of this we are completely convinced...
...But do we really want history to record that Southern Baptist Carter was defeated by Roman Catholic votes...
...Catholic Conference reasserted the Church's obligation to speak out on public issues involving "human rights, social justice and the life of the Church in society," and urged voters to consider a broad range of issues which they called "central to the national debate...
...Carter but somewhere between February and the present the bishops seem to have decided to give short shrift to the rest of the alphabet in favor of major emphasis on A for abortion-a fact only underscored by their abortion-centered comments after meeting with President Ford...
...Because the issues were listed alphabetically, abortion came first, but the other issues included the economy, with particular reference to unemployment...
...In areas like the Northeast, they add up to more than one-third of the voters in urban centers crucial for Carter in November...
...In general, as Andrew Greeley and others have pointed out, Catholics tend to be more "liberal" than the rest of the population except Jews, especially on economic and racial issues...
...Catholics constitute almost one out of four in the population...
...Although more Catholics vote Democratic than Republican, they are not unshakable...
...One thing we are quite sure of: a simple episcopal fiat is not enough...
...Carter said he favored it...
...No matter how we try, though, we cannot see that the course they are pursuing will in fact promote greater public respect for efforts to bring moral strictures to bear on politics...
...Would, incidentally, a constitutional ban on abortion be one whit more likely if Mr...
...On this score it is a plus for Carter that he disavowed the Democratic platform plank which suggested that individuals were not free to work for a constitutional amendment if they so desired...
Vol. 103 • September 1976 • No. 20
