The 'Catholic vote'
O'Brien, David J.
DAVID ].O'BRIEN For Catholics, 1980 is a rough political year. Whatever their persuasion, Catholics are finding it hard to locate a presidential candidate for whom they can vote with...
...Baroni's Center gradually won greater consideration for neighborhood concern's, but there was no other significant organizational advancement among Catholics in these years...
...The ultimate arbiter of military planning is Commonweal: 556...
...OZBRIENteaches history at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.49-51 percent who voted for him in 1956...
...But in almost any version, in 1980 the "Catholic vote" has no place to go...
...Novak went furthest, despairing of the major parties and calling for a new "Christian Democratic party--or at least a caucus within the major parties...
...At the other extreme, the bishops' political respons.ibility statements, and the many statements on specific issues on which they are based, do in fact speak directly to the economic interests and liberal ideals which predominate among Catholics...
...The contrast between the words "disappointed" and "encouraged" sparked a fire storm of controversy in the press, with many commentators stating flatly that the bishops had all but endorsed Ford...
...But I think abortion is wrong and that government ought not ever do anything to encourage it...
...Archbishop Joseph Bernardin of Cincinatti, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), denounced the plank and called candidate Jimmy Carter's position supporting it "deeply disturbing...
...Carter and Ford, for their part, continued to seek Catholic votes...
...One can think of nothing more necessary to restoring the vitality of American politics than a courageous pursuit of the real issues of the contemporary world in a context of dialogue and accountability between public officials and the electorate...
...Stimulated by the hard working staff of their Office of International Justice and Peace, the bishops took strong stands in favor of arms reduction, a more humane food policy, and human rights in nations like Chile and Rhodesia...
...Monsignor Geno Baroni's National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs spearheaded the ethnic revival and attempted to redirect attention toward coalition-building among poor and working-class Americans...
...As for the bishops, they will undoubtedly be more circumspect this year...
...When the Democratic party convened in July, it adopted a platform plank supporting freedom of choice on abortion...
...i iedhachch leadeha e beenooimid in making known he poli ical and ocial impe ai e of he Go pel . Ea ly lamon h, one ch ch leade H mbe o Ca dinal Medei o of Bo on, cho e o mo e him elf, andhe efo ehe chch, in ohehick of hing poli ical . He ied, a pa o al le e wa ning ha legi - la owhoppoed legalized aboionha edin he g il and blame in ol ed in aboion...
...The great open questions of nuclear weapons--what to point them at, and why?--were finally answered by the world's military men, not the civilian strategists who had long sought paradoxical shelter in the prospect of Armageddon...
...Given the need of both candidates for Catholic support, it seemed an excellent opportunity to exert real influence on party platform and election positions...
...Unfortunately these positions are often placed at one remove from the abortion issue...
...He addressed the 1972 convention of the National Catholic Educational Association and promised aid to parochial schools...
...In a prepared statement Bernardin challenged Carter on the abortion issue while noting that the Democratic platform "addressed well" other issues of concern to the bishops...
...In a statement prepared on behalf of the committee, he attempted to correct "public misperceptions" of the bishops' position...
...Their "Pastoral Plan on Pro-Life Activities" linked abortion to other life-and-death issues like nuclear weapons, capital punishment, and world hunger, but notable cardinals and archbishops left little doubt that abortion was their number-one issue...
...His regular reelection showed that his confidence in the people of his district was not misplaced...
...Peace bishop Thomas Gumbleton endorsed McGovern while the Catholic Committee on Urban Ministry committed itself to McGovern's election...
...The new strategic policy, laid out in a document called Presidential Directive 59, comes in response to a decade of debate about Soviet military intentions, but its real cause is not a sudden revival of early Cold War fears of global ambition in Moscow...
...Ca holic a e p ominen and ac i e a all le el of Ame ican poli ic . The ch ch i p e en in he midof e e y p e ing ie conf on inghe na ion, inban cen eand b ban de elopmen , among he Black and Hi panic poo , in nion , in Appalachia, in ol n a y agencie and mo emenof all kind , Ca holic and non-Ca holic . I i inconcei - able ha fo m co ld be c ea ed wi hinhe chch,h o gh ni e i ieoeligioin ie , fohe exchange of info - ma ion and de elopmenof commona egie ? Co ld no Ne wo k be de eloped in o a la ge , e en mo e effec i e lobbying agency on a n mbeofelec ed ie , onhe model of he F iend Commiee on Na ional Legi la ion...
...The bishops have continued to take advanced positions on a variety of public issues, and organizations like Network, the Center of Concern, and the National Conference of Catholic Charities are actively promoting these positions before the Congress...
...Mayor Rizzo and Philadelphia's John Cardinal Krol joined him on the Atlantic City convention platform...
...Richard Nixon took note of all this and began actively courting Catholic voters...
...rarely is that interest capitalized upon to inform the public of the basis and implications of church teaching on matters of public significance...
...Whatever their persuasion, Catholics are finding it hard to locate a presidential candidate for whom they can vote with conviction...
...At the same time, they warned of the perils of single-issue politics, angering their pro-life supporters...
...For those attracted to that strategy, there is no alternative to the Republicans, but the price of that vote in terms of other issues will be very high...
...More open, professional, and creative public relations work at the USCC and NCCB would be a good place to start...
...George Wallace gained another 8 percent of the Catholic vote...
...It is a long and honorable tradition of Catholic politics that particular justice requires general justice, that specific reforms of economic, social, and cultural life depend upon and relate to the overall structure of economics, politics, and culture, the way of life, within which that structure exists...
...With a note of desperation, he called for "thousands of Catholic speakers, organizers, and canvassers who will concentrate upon Catholic neighborhoods and make people aware of their personal concern that the vote in November be Democratic and for McGovern...
...For that example, all Americans have reason to be grateful to Drinan...
...Catholics in the peace and justice movements were also active...
...Critics noted that the active effort by the bishops to broadcast the Catholic stance on abortion and their forward action to eliminate it contrasted with the lack of action which invariably followed publication of their progressive statements on other national issues...
...Jimmy Carter, in trying to restore the Democratic majority, clearly needed the crucial Catholic vote in the industrial states of the northeast and north-central regions of the country...
...So far, the most notable Catholic event of the campaign was the suppression of Father Robert Drinan...
...Specters are in the eye of the beholder...
...W,HATLESSONScan be drawn from all this...
...Earlier, following the convention, Carter had given Catholic columnist Jim Castelli an exclusive interview in which he said: "I do not favor a constitutional amendment which would prohibit abortion or which would give states local option...
...On the domestic side, the bishops backed the food stamp program, called for health insurance and decent housing as a matter of right, endorsed gun control, and opposed capital punishment, all positions far in advance of national policy and opinion...
...Andrew Greeley, who had been appalled by the 1972 Democratic convention's rebuff to Mayor Richard Daley, documented the continued progressiveness of Catholic opinion on economic and social issues and warned that revival of a Democratic majority would require closer attention to the economic interests and religious and cultural sensitivities of ethnic Catholics...
...while Carter has been attentive to the concerns of many minorities, he has shown almost no interest in the abortion issue or parochial school aid, while his white House Conference on Families served mainly to irritate many Catholic participants...
...Following a closed door meeting of the administrative committee, Bernardin again met the press...
...To some the "Catholic vote" means the cultural conservatism, centered around opposition to abortion and sexual permissiveness, that the New Right sees as the basis of a new majority...
...If they will open themselves to the possibilities contained in their tradition and in the rich human resources of the contemporary church, perhaps they can reshape those options and the entire landscape of American political'culture...
...In any case, Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, is far less political than Archbishop Bemardin...
...To the new language of human rights and liberation which comes to them from the church universal, they must add the traditional language of the common good, once the central theme in discussions of social justice...
...Only Senator Kennedy spoke to the traditional bread-and-butter economic concerns of many Catholic voters...
...As president, Jimmy Carter has been remarkably insensitive to Catholic concerns...
...They can do so only if they transcend single issue politics and demonstrate concern for the public interest across a wide variety of issues In a very real way, the challenge of the 1980s for Catholics in the United States is situated at the intersection of faith and politics...
...In ping ie like efo m of he c iminal code and h man ighin La in Ame ica, D inan challenged he people of hidiico go beyondhei own na ow in e eand he p o ided an example of a p blic official g ided byome hing mo e han poll oo e analy i . (Con in ed on page 556) Commonweal: 554HE SC AniT LETTER UESTIONS FOR CATHOLIC LIBERALS LIBERAL AND RADICAL CATHOLICha elong...
...A major speech supporting the family, visits to heavily Catholic neighborhoods, and an increasing emphasis on bread-and-butter economic issues, all indicated Carter's preoccupation with Catholic voters...
...like the many specific statements on which they rest, they remain unread, even unnoticed...
...Richard Nixon's 33 percent in 1968 was 11 percent above his vote in 1960...
...Accurate MIRVs have...
...The bishops argued that they had a responsibility to participate in shaping the public moral consensus and in encouraging voters to consider the moral issues involved in their choice of policies and candidates...
...Ronald Reagan is a vocal opponent of abortion, to be sure, but even hardened right-to-lifers must have qualms about his nationalism and militarism, while his pro-life credentials are tarnished by his record as governor of California...
...President Carter, as ambivalent on abortion today as he was in 1976, seems to have abandoned the Democratic party's long commitment to the interests of working-class, ethnic Americans...
...Andrew Greeley and Michael Novak continue to argue convincinglythat Catholics are conservative on cultural issues and liberal on social and economic issues...
...In the past, Catholic activists could await the emergence of an acceptable progressivism in society at large and then build bridges to it from the Catholic community...
...To give weight to these words, the press was handed a long document prepared by the USCC comparing positions taken by the bishops on a variety of issues with those of the major party platforms...
...Bernardin offered to meet with the candidates...
...changed nuclear weapons from the hammer-like to the rapier-like--if anything with such pronounced side-effects (called "collateral damage" by the military) can be likened to a rapier...
...Howa d Phillip . he head ofhe Con ea i e Ca c,aid wi h glee hahe ca dinal had joined he Mo al Majo i y . Thep oble n E. . DIONNE, JR , q ee ,U iboo Commonweal...
...In her recontly published Catholics and American Politics (Harvard University Press, 1979), Mary Hanna notes the great amount of lobbying activity by Catholic groups on a range of issues far greater than in the past...
...More important, his economic policies run directly counter to the historic liberalism of Catholic voters...
...A generation ago, John Cogley asked if Catholics were always to be standing in judgment on their country, as if its failures were not their failures, as if its problems were not their own...
...To do so effectively, the bishops, in their turn, must consult their people, including politicians and social activists...
...In fact the world came full circle...
...and in late August, he, Malone, Cardinal Cooke, Coadjutor Bishop John Maguire of New York, and John Cardinal Carberry of St...
...They did issue another statement on "political responsibility," decrying the decline of respect for the political process and reiterating their advanced positions on domestic and international issues...
...But departures have a seismic signature all their own, and the tremor was unmistakably underfoot in August of 1980, when a new strategic policy was announced by Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, a man who has spent his entire professional life designing nuclear weapons and deciding what to do with them: Brown insisted the policy was not new at all but only an ' "evolutionary development" in American theories of how to keep the peace...
...Hi's position, like that of the increasingly conservative pro-life leadership, is flawed by its failure to recognize or respond to the essentially progressive position of most Catholics on matters of economic policy, civil fights,, and world peace...
...While he has challenged the episcopal conference to deal more directly with problems of global responsibility, he will without doubt be extracautious in his public statements during this election year...
...The same was true of the surprising political activism of the bishops in the years between 1972 and 1976...
...This was just talk...
...President, but we ran it through PR and it didn't work...
...and avoid confusing dialogue about public values with lobbying for the church's distinctive positions...
...If, indeed the Gospel can be identified with the "amazing good news" of the dignity and worth of the human person, as !0 October 1980:553 Pope John Pa l II a g ein Redemp oHomini , hen he e y exi ence ofhe chch in pa i he ,chooland apo olic mo emenibo h a wi neohe poibili y of jice and peace, aanding challengeoheich and powe f l, and a ne wo k of cen efofo ming andppoing ci izencommi ed o a con anggleoan fo mocie yo all peon ha e f lly in poli ical, economic, and c lal life . Clea ly, epi copal p ono ncemen, conl a ionamong Ca holic , and effec i e pa o al wo k alone will no accompli h ha objec i e . Mo e delibe a e, c a egic ac ion i needed...
...Novak, Greeley, and Baroni wanted to retain the traditional Catholic commitment to economic and social justice while insisting on civil rights for minorities and attention to the legitimate concerns of Catholics with abortion, crime, and neighborhood preservation...
...Hitchcock accordingly advocates a reorganized Catholic Commonweal: 552 political constituency which would be built around opposition to abortion, support for the family, and aid to private education...
...It is unrealistic to expect any longer that, somehow, events will produce acceptable political alternatives...
...an intention is not a definite thing...
...The Republican platform opposed abortion, a position Bernardin called "timely and important...
...All three agreed that Catholics should not accept the alternatives offered by Nixon and a Democratic party they saw as dominated by McGovernites and hamstrung by a new quota system of delegate selection which they feared would isolate urban working-class voters in future party conventions...
...As the !972 campaign approached, Nixon stepped up these efforts...
...Unfortunately, the 1980 statement has received even less attention, within and without the Catholic community, than its 1976 predecessor...
...Andooo, he in ied, dido ewhoppoedch poli ician . Th ca dinal' le e wa ied he week befo e a Demo c a ic p ima y elec ion in Maache, an elec ion in whichwo libe al Democ awe e figh ing mo econe a i eopponenwho e-andon aboion mo e clo ely compoed wi hho e ofhe ca dinal, Bo h Cong e man Jim Shannon and S a e Rep e en a i e Ba ney F ank,he oeofhe Maachelibe al comm ni y,i edhe ca dinal'aack, and -- gi enMa - ache'lo eaffaiwi hhe Democ a ic pay --- bo h a e likelyo findhem el einWa hing oncony Jan a y,8 . And pa ic la ly in F ank' ca e, i appea ed hahe ca dinal'leedid mo eo helphan h. Analyzing he elec ion'elinheBoon Globe, Ch i Blac no edhawhile o enoin Ca holic ci ieI' Fi chbgand Ga dne d opped,noin libe al and hea ily Jewi h a ealike B ookline and New ono ha ply.Inhe o he key ace, Shannon- o Ca holic - co ed-hea ily inhe libe albb ; held hiown inhe la ge Ca holic indial ci ie;and inLaw ence, hihomeown,won by ab an ial ma gin...
...If the Catholic community at large has not successfully overcome the division between the anti-abortion and social justice movements, neither have the bishops...
...Instead, Catholics must define issues and develop strategies in ways that build support among Catholics and win allies beyond the church...
...After insisting on the obligation of intelligent, reflective participation in the election, the bishops reiterated positi6ns they had taken during the previous four years: support for a constitutional amendment to end abortion...
...I THE IMPLICATIONS OF P.D...
...This paralysis was recognized by the bishops' committee established to implement the pastoral plan on justice that arose out of the 1976 Call to Action conference...
...Nonetheless, on the weekend before the election, pollsters found Catholics still leaning toward the Republicans, 46-45...
...Bishop James Malone of Youngstown, Ohio, appeared on behalf of the bishops before the platform committees of both parties to present the Catholic church's position on all these issues...
...To be sure, the "Catholic vote" is perceived in different ways by different people, and thereby assimilated to the political "myths" identified with various points on the political spectrtim...
...In fact, polls show that Catholic cultural concerns--including opposition to abortion--and liberalism on economic policies enjoy widespread popular support...
...In addition, the letter contained a document comparing USCC positions and those of the Democratic platform, a text remarkably similar to that distributed at the Bernardin press conference two weeks later...
...In assisting the poor and ministering to those in need, the church helps people articulate and pursue their own needs and values in the wider society...
...be attentive to the moral insights derived from the church's own pastoral experience...
...Novak argued that Catholics should organize around a "politics of neighborhood and family" marked by respect for cultural diversity and economic reform to support family life and neighborhood institutions...
...Argument about intentions is by its nature inconclusive...
...A few weeks later the same group met with President Ford at the White House...
...Meeting 9'I'm sorry, Mr...
...They were, according to Greeley, less an independent than an unmobilized generation, still uncertain of its political role and torn between economic liberalism and social and cultural conservatism...
...FWALL AND MOSTimpoan ly,he chch in ipon he obliga ion of ilay membeo paicipa e inhe poli ical p oce , and iho ld aiandppohapaicipa ion in i pa o al wo k. Fa he D inan' poli ical demi e io beeg e - ed nobecae iia goodhing fop ieo hold p blic office, bbecae in a ime when he poli ical p oceielf andin low eeem, ahe bi hophem el eempha ized in hei8 elec iona emen , D inanood aaymbol ofhe nece a y connec ion be ween fai h and poli ic . Eq ally impoan , by hiac i e acknowledgemenof poli ical acco n abili y in hi diic , D inan poin edohe poibili y of a poli ical enewal which wo ld engage he in e eand enh ia m of ci izen by g an ing hem eal powe o ehe elec ion of candida eandheelec ion of ieo be empha ized by elec ed official...
...If quantity alone were considered, it was clear that the Democrats would win hands down...
...Here again, the abortion issue, touching as it does'on both profoundly Christian values akd serious mauers of the common life, provides a crucial test of Catholic readiness to get serious about political responsibility...
...the press after the meeting, Bernardin said the bishops were "encouraged that the president agrees with us on the need for a constitutional amendment," although he admitted under questioning that they "were not totally satisfied" with the states' rights approach...
...Nixon wrote an open letter to Terence Cardinal Cooke of New York, proclaiming his opposition to abortion and praising Cooke for working so hard for "the right tO life of literally hundreds of thousands of unborn children...
...The Democratic majority held firm, but pressing issues of war, racism, and poverty threatened to divide Catholics as they did other traditional votingblocs...
...In the 1960s Catholics were still reliable participants in the Democratic majority...
...The present situation and Hanna's analysis also confirm the arguments of Catholic conservatives like James Hitchcock that the very success of Catholics like Hugh Carey and Jerry Brown in winning has been accomplished by accepting liberal standards and abandoning specifically Catholic concerns...
...Catholics must then define more clearly the specific political roles they are to play as a church, as a community, and as an association of citizens...
...or alternatively it means the blue-collar worker's modest aspirations and steady work ethic, dear to neoconservatives...
...the most significant Catholic Cabinet member, Joseph Califano, was dumped half way through the term...
...The apparent partisanship of the bishops' president, Bernardin, and his executive committee, led a number of bishops of the administrative committee of the NCCB as well as a number of USCC staffers, to push for clarification...
...To the extent that liberals follow Anderson, they are separating themselves from an indispensable component of any truly,progressive majority in the United States...
...SINCE1976,a number of things have happened to make the Catholic choice even more difficultto project...
...Some see them, and some don't...
...John Anderson, even more hostile to Catholic sensibilities on abortion and school aid, remains fundamentally Republican on economic issues...
...McGovernites had no bishop of the prominence of Krol in their camp, but they could and did quote extensively from church teachings in their struggle to defeat the president...
...Catholics are impotent, because they are unorganized...
...As analyst Andrew Greeley noted later, however, older voters tended to retain their past allegiances...
...So are the issues of unemployment, adequate educational opportunity for all, an equitable food policy.., the right to a decent home and health care, human rights around the globe, intelligent arms limitation, and many other social justice issues...
...The swing was most pronounced among ethnics, with Italians, for example, moving from 58-42 support for Nixon in 1972 to 57-43 support for Carter in 1976...
...It's easy to miss them, or to read them wrong, or to point them out before they're really there...
...The real cause of PD 59, which calls for pointing American strategic weapons at Russian military targets, rather than industrial and population centers, is technical improvement of missile guidance systems, coupled with development of Multiple Independently-targetable Re-entry Vehicles, known as MIRVs...
...59 Crossing the nuclear threshhold THOMAS POWERS THE BIGTHINGSin history tend to start off in small ways...
...While many backed Eugene McCarthy or Robert Kennedy in the 1968 primaries, 59 percent eventually cast their ballots for Hubert Humphrey, a sharp drop from the 76 percent who voted for Lyndon Johnson, but above the 56 percent who voted for Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and the DAVIDJ...
...No leaders emerged to focus Catholic concerns, and no one succeeded in organizing a structure to insure some Catholic impact on political events...
...As a community the church participates in the political process by its very work as a church, creating communities of faith in which values are affirmed and people are empowered...
...In "The Economy: Human Dimensions," published in 1975, the hierarchy emphasized full employment as the goal of national policy and specifically rejected arguments that inflation could be resolved by reducing programs designed to meet human needs...
...The Reagan campaign, with its platform endorsing a pro-life amendment to the Constitution, will test the single-issue strategy of donservative Catholics in the right-to-life movement...
...Once the bishops have developed a clear position on the moral dimensions of an issue, as they have on arms limitation, they need to use the vehicles of public dialogue with far more sophistication...
...0 Catholics in making their choices, the staff of the United States Catholic Conference prepared, and the bishops approved, a major statement on "Political Responsibility in an Election Year...
...Anti-abortionists, far from content with Ford in 1976, have seen their organizations grow more conservative since then, and evidence suggests that this trend has narrowed rather than broadened their appeal...
...At the GOP convention in Miami, Cardinal Krol, then president of the National Conference of Cdtholic Bishops, delivered the benediction on the last night and stood arm in arm with Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew singing "God Bless America...
...The fact that no bishop came to his defense, and that none indicated that this might represent anunwise and inappropriate intrusion of Rome into the political process, seems to suggest there are clear limits to the bishops' concern with the vitality and integrity of democratic politics...
...To take advantage of this unique opportunity, and to assist Cmnmnnwanl...
...Today Catholics and other Americans face unacceptable choices in the election of their president...
...powerless because they do not use power to force majorpolitical institutions and leaders to address their concerns and respect their symbols...
...Conservatives were less concerned with the loss of Catholic power than the fact that the many Catholicpoliticians who did hold public office paid little attention to the interests and values of their fellow Catholics...
...Ironically that very economy has forced cutbacks in USCC staff and budgets which endanger plans for that meeting...
...This time their prepared statement made specific reference to hunger, arms control, human rights, and equal educational opportunity, but emphasized that the central issue was abortion...
...Zbigniew Brzezinski is the only prominent Catholic on the White House staff...
...Following the meeting, Bernardin told the press that the bishops "continued to be disappointed" that Carter would not support a constitutional amendment...
...First of all, no acceptable political options for Catholics will develop unless Catholics help create them...
...To do so, they will have to respect the dynamics of pluralist democracy and learn to use the vehicles available in pluralist politics...
...For those of the left or right who would like to see Catholics use their strategic position to forward church interests or Christian values in the political process, Hanna's conclusion suggests moderation: Catholic status may have been achieved to some extent at least by a denial of specialized group aims....Now that they have gained this status, some elements of the church would seem ready to use it to pursue specifically Catholic economic and value goals...
...Conservatives like James Hitchcock, on the other hand, ignored economic and civil rights matters and pushed a "Catholic agenda" of family issues, aid to parochial schools, and opposition to abortion...
...Ford released his own letter, supporting an amendment which would allow states to determine whether abortion would be allowed, and indicating his support for school aid and his record in alleviating world hunger...
...there was little evidence of such accommodation in the Kennedy campaign or at the New York convention...
...He is the author of The Warat Homeand The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA (Knopjg.II The result is a return to Clausewitzean concepts of warfare, which identify the object of military operations as destruction of an enemy's military forces...
...As a church, they can and should seek to shape the public moral consensus, by addressing public concerns from the distinctive perspective of their faith tradition...
...Catholics, of course, must seek to understand the specific responsibilities which are theirs as contemporary Christians, but they also need to examine the requirements which rest on them as successful, strategically situated Americans...
...Accordingly, any progressive political coalition is simply going to have to inelude Catholics...
...If President Ford could hold the majority captured by Nixon in 1972, he had an excellent chance of re-election...
...a lot of new arguments finally lost out to an old argument...
...In this, conservatives like Hitchcock are essentially correct: the absence of acceptable political alternatives derives as much from the lack of or-ganized Catholic political action as from popular hostility to Catholic concerns...
...Louis called on Carter...
...I THOMASPOwERsreceived the Pulitzer Prizefor national reporting in 1971...
...She finds that Catholic elected officials are aware of this activism but only rarely do such efforts influence the positions that they take...
...Abortion and the need for a constitutional amendment to protect the unborn are among our concerns," Bernardin stated...
...Baroni and the staff of his Center were consulted by the Carter campaign, and Terry Sundy, formerly with the USCC, joined the Carter entourage...
...it was younger voters who swung from the Republicans to the Democrats...
...or yet again it means the working-class liberalism so often taken for granted by Democratic leaders...
...On the other hand, Ford's economic conservatism was obvious and Catholic voters' experience with Nixon had made them equally suspicious of the appeal to cultural issues...
...His followers, successful in reshaping the Democratic party's economic platform, still have to strain to accept its candidate...
...On the far left, the remnants of the Catholic peace movement similarly ignored coalition-building and pushed another Catholic agenda of peace, disarmament, and human rights, calling for a religiously based politics of resistance, even if it meant sectarian isolation from the central institutions of the policy-making process...
...Political analysts spoke warmly of a new majority, uniting Republicans, southern Democrats, and ethnic Catholics weaned from their Democratic loyalties by the so-called cultural issues: drugs, crime, busing, abortion, permissiveness...
...Given the historic location of Catholic voters in this most crucial of nations at this point in history, they can make a difference...
...Under the vigorous leadership of Bishop James Rausch, the episcopal secretariat, the United States Catholic Conference (USCC), won adoption by the bishops of progressive policy positions on a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues and regularly offered testimony before Congress...
...More generally, the ordinary pastoral work of the church should awaken in all Catholics a sense of their power to share in building a world in which the dignity of the human person is recognized and protected...
...listen carefully to their theologians and social scientists...
...Only slowly has the USCC begun to take full notice of family life, crime, drugs, and other cultural issues which concern Catholics, and little has been done to integrate these concerns into a political philosophy or strategy that can unite large numbers of Catholics...
...Nixon's open campaign for the Catholic vote drew considerable media attention and aroused active efforts to check the erosion of loyalty to the Democrats...
...Bi hopmighim la e andppoch ini ia i e , bheyho ld be independen ; bi hopho ld concena e onhe p blic mo al dialog e and he con in ing enewal of pao al wo k, g ad ally de eloping a pao al and en i i e app oacho inco po a ing Ch i ian ci ic in o o dina y chch life...
...Mighno leadeof Ca holic o ganiza ion and mo emencon ene occa ionallyo di cp io i iefona ional ac ion, like he leadeof majo Jewi h o ganiza ion ? Co ld waynobe fo nd o gi e he ne wo k of Ca holic Cha i ie andhe Campaign fo H man De elopmenmo e di ecacceo elec ed officialachch leade,ohaaamighbe made owa d fo m la ing a cohe en poli ical agenda of wide pop la appeal...
...the committee was led to plan a national meeting to forward implementation of the 1975 statement on "The Economy: Human Dimensions...
...It is doubtful that the appointment of Edmund Muskie as Secretary of State will compensate for the administration's unusual neglect of Catholic interests and sensibilities...
...Reporters found Catholic voters sympathetic to Carter on economic and urban policy but made wary by his Southern style, his obvious lack of ease with urban working-class voters, and the absence of enthusiastic public I0 October 1980:551 backing by major urban political leaders...
...At the same time, the bishops were mobilizing to fight abortion and assist passage of a human life amendment to the Constitution...
...ONCEAGAIN, as the .1976 election approached, it was clear that Catholics would be a crucial constituency...
...for arms control, and human rights, and humane food programs...
...In Ando e , one h nd ed Shannonppo ehowed in hei pa i h ch ch he S nday befo ehe, p ima y wea ing Shannon bonaa ilen p o eagainhe a d'nal'a emen . Shannon won, inho, becae a o of Ca holiccho eoo e fo him . Th ca dinal'leehaq i e p ope ly caed a majo ibo h in ide and oidehe chch . Libe al , pa ic - la ly;ofheec laa ie y, we e q icko cha gehaheca dinal had iola edome bo nda yha ippo ed o exibe weenhe chch and poli ic...
...A strategy which seeks to bring forth real dialogue about the dangers and opportunities which now confront the nation and the world, a dialogue based on the ongoing reflection in faith on human experience in parishes, apostolic movements, every place where Catholics gather, alone will enable the promise of renewal to bring about a world responsive to the will of the Father and alive to his promises...
...to attract Catholics, however, liberals will have to abandon their militant secularism and their disdain for ethnic and Catholic values...
...While all Catholics have the right and responsibility to participate in this process, they can expect their bishops to take leadership here...
...Not surprisingly, neither the document nor Bernardin's clarifying statement received anything like the attention given the earlier meetings with the candidates...
...As opposition to the president's Vietnam policies mounted, Nixon tried to divert attention to divisive cultural issues by praising "hard hats" and associating with supposed workingclass heroes like Philadelphia's Mayor'Frank Rizzo and Teamster leader Frank Fitzsimmons...
...F~OLLOWlNGTHE 1972 election a vigorous political debate took place in the Catholic press...
...If all this is to be done, if Catholic lparticipation in the 1984 election is to be more intelligent and significant than it can possibly be in 1980, then Catholics are going to have to help reshape the options before the American people...
...Equally important, while the bishops have approved and funded programs designed to familiarize Catholics with the church's stand on abortion and mobilize support for that position, they have done nothing similar on peace and justice issues...
...On election day 53 percent of the Catholic voters did so, giving the Republicans their first clear majority among Catholics in almost fifty years...
...for full employment, income security, adequate medical care, decent housing, and equal educational opportunity...
...No strategy or pastoral plan for education, no strategy of action, has accompanied the political responsibility statements...
...Both print and video journalists show remarkable interest in the church and its bishops...
...How forcefullythey will or can do that and how such efforts will affectfuture Catholic status, even group unity, are still open questions...
...His own candidate, Sargent Shriver, failed in his bid for the nomination, but when Shriver later joined the ticket to replace another Catholic, the ill-fated Thomas Eagleton, Novak joined Shriver's campaign as a speechwriter, though he was privately pessimistic about Democratic chances...
...DAVID ].O'BRIEN For Catholics, 1980 is a rough political year...
...The reluctance of liberals to accommodate Catholic concerns is further evident in the phenomenon of John Anderson, whose clear-cut, support for abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, and other liberal causes effectively isolates him from mass Catholic support...
...This amounts to a silent crossing of what is now called the nuclear threshold, and its proximate effect over time will be the absorption of nuclear we/lpons as one more item in the military inventory...
...Over the weekend, the undecideds nationally swung to Carter, and in the end he captured 55 percent of the Catholic vote...
...Conservative Catholics disliked Carter's ambiguity on abortion, but they also knew that Ford had done little to end Medicaid-funded abortions...
...Michael Novak took leave of his teaching post to campaign against the president...
...Jesuit John McLaughlin was added to the White House staff, while speechwriter Patrick Buchanan sought out Catholic conservatives...
...The long Catholic tradition of support for community organization, now represented in the work of the Campaign for Human Development, for example, has indirect political impact by providing people with substantial needs with the means to pursue their interests in the framework of pluralist politics...
...Uneasy and reluctant Catholic voters ended by reaffirming their traditional ties with the Democrats...
...However, the failure of their candidate to communicate his views on economic issues effectively, and his perceived association with radicals, feminists, advocates of abortion, and enemies of heavily Catholic urban political machines, all but insured that many Catholic voters would cast their ballots, however reluctantly, for the Republicans, many for the first time...
...On August 30, Joseph Duffy, a Carter staffer, wrote a large number of Catholic leaders a letter indicating Carter's position on a variety of issues and including a text of the Castelli interview and several friendly columns by Catholic commentators...
...Daniel P. Moynihan presented the president!s welfare reform package, designed in part to bridge the gap between social liberalism and cultural conservatism...
Vol. 107 • October 1980 • No. 18
