Let them speak

...They also stake out a substantive and controversial position on the duties of public officials in a representative democracy...

...This year, partisans of the second President Bush may favor the taunt that the Bay State, which recently legalized same-sex marriage, should now be called "the Gay State...

...The bishops' statement could pose similar problems in communities across the country...

...Not only can Catholic universities facilitate dialogue in these ways, I believe they are uniquely suited to do so...

...The rationale for the bishops' prohibition is clear...

...They can do so in two ways...

...George Hunsberger...

...The questions raised in Catholics in Political Life are timely and of great importance...

...There are people who are incidentally prochoice, and for others, it's what they do for a living...

...Paul Weithman LET THEM SPEAK Prochoice politicians & Catholic universities atholics in Political Life, the statement issued by the American Catholic bishops at the end of their June meeting in Denver, will be remembered primarily for how the bishops addressed the issue of whether Catholic politicians with prochoice records may receive Communion...

...He says it was appropriate for Giuliani to speak at a Catholic college on urban issues...

...It is, after all, a premier political "platform" for officials such as Pataki, Giuliani, and the present New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, a prochoice Republican (even though many politicians avoid the parade because gays and lesbians are barred from marching as a group...

...Giuliani, who is Catholic and Republican, has also been a strong supporter of Catholic schools and school vouchers...

...This does not mean that she must arrive at her position by triangulating among the views of her constituents, or by looking for the lowest common denominator among conflicting opinions...

...The party's national convention is sure to spotlight not just the senator from Massachusetts, but the politics of his home state and perhaps the wider "liberal" Northeast...

...He was prolife early in his political career, but flip-flopped during his first mayoral race...

...They feel impelled to come across with a zero tolerance–type policy on everything...

...Because of the timeliness of that issue, other aspects of the bishops' remarks passed largely unnoticed...

...Furthermore, it is not the role of Catholic universities to fall into line with positions the bishops have staked out...

...That is unfortunate, for Catholics in Political Life raises significant questions not only for individual politicians and voters but also for Catholic institutions...

...If taken literally, it would chill the relations that bishops and various Catholic institutions cultivate with elected officials...

...the Rev...

...Holding the church to high standards of intellectual responsibility is one of the tasks of Catholic colleges and universities...

...Rather, it is rightly saying that the arguments offered in such an address are worth considering...

...In 1988, the first President Bush waged a winning rhetorical campaign against his Democratic rival, "the Massachusetts liberal," then-governor Michael Dukakis...

...He also is an advocate of the death penalty...

...Such gatherings would allow for the contact and the counsel the bishops say they want, while offering Catholic politicians the opportunity to speak to the bishops directly and openly rather than through the media...

...These situations call for "prudence," observes Donohue...

...Read this way, the bishops' statement will have a chilling effect on an important debate and limit the role Catholic colleges and universities play in the church and in the public forum...

...During the ill-fated struggle to keep marriage licenses out of homosexual hands, a cavalry of family-values advocates, hailing from organizations with constituencies chiefly in the South, camped out in Boston and GOD'S MISSIONARY PEOPLE A call to the Church in the United States to refocus on mission October 3-6, 2004 / Louisville, Ky...

...He was invited to discuss his position on abortion and his support for Geraldine Ferraro, a prochoice Catholic congresswoman who was running for vice president that year on the Democratic ticket...

...Officeholders are then obligated to exercise their judgment to the best of their ability...

...That's why occasionally it's good to be invincibly ignorant...

...They have concluded that not all of their constituents can recognize the reasonableness of the Catholic teaching on abortion, and that to enforce the Catholic view would be inconsistent with the duties of their office...

...After all, Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs has proposed barring from the Eucharist Catholics who "would vote" for a prochoice politician...

...And so, they conclude, "those who formulate law...have an obligation in conscience to work toward cor' recting morally defective laws, lest they be guilty of cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good...

...Senate against Hillary Rodham Clinton...

...The second view is associated with the twentieth-century economist Joseph Schumpeter, who observed that candidates for public office market their positions in much the same way that a firm markets its products...

...Presented by Glenmary Home Missioners In cooperation with the U.S...

...They think Catholic politicians can and should bring their faith to bear on the issues they confront...

...as written, it covers far more than honorary degrees...

...The bishops state that "the Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles" by giving them awards, honors, or platforms which might suggest support for their actions or views...

...The minority, who may differ from him about a number of issues, are simply stuck with a representative who may not in fact represent their positions at all...

...Yet the bishops' Denver statement would seem to make the possibility even less likely...

...Donohue thinks the bishops have gone too far...

...To see just how controversial their position is, consider three contrasting views of political representation that are found in the democratic tradition...

...Or contact Father Wil Steinbacher at 615-256-1905 or wsteinbacher@glenmary.org...

...Paul Moses teaches journalism at Brooklyn College/CUNY...

...Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani has, for example, appeared in advertising for Manhattan College, his alma mater, and led a fundraising drive for a Catholic hospital...

...Why wouldn't you have him in...

...A televised clip of a prominent politician speaking at a Catholic university might suggest that the candidate has some offiC Commonweal 9 July 16, 2004 cial Catholic approval...

...The bishops have regularly insisted that the Cuomo position of "personally opposed, but...

...First, the bishops pledge in Catholics in Political Life that "we commit ourselves to maintain communication with public officials who make decisions every day that touch issues of human life and dignity...

...The bishops want to foreclose the possibility of politicians with prochoice records exploiting speaking engagements at Catholic universities for short-term political gain...

...At the time, Giuliani was planning to run for the U.S...

...Catholic universities can and should play a vital role in facilitating this dialogue...

...There's got to be some flexibility...

...A third view of representation is that, despite the plat-form she ran on, once elected, the winner has a duty to rep-resent the fundamental interests of all her constituents...

...If the statement is invoked unevenly, some critics might accuse Catholic leaders of going after Democrats and not prochoice Republicans...

...T Commonweal I I July 16, 2004...

...Or, as Koch put it: "This one puts you to the test...

...Mario Cuomo and others have taken the third position...

...The bishops may have been hoping to prevent similarly effective speakers from making arguments that another generation of politicians could rely on, and seeming to do so with the approval of prominent Catholic institutions...

...In those days, Republicans were fond of branding Massachusetts as "Taxachusetts...

...There's no nuance...

...Donohue says the prochoice New York Democrat "would be more in the line of Giuliani," that is, a suitable speaker for a Catholic college, if she speaks in her area of expertise...

...Such talks would have to be measured and well reasoned, and audiences would be required to observe reasonable standards of decorum...

...Which awards or platforms might offer such support is not spelled out...

...After an election, the winner is obliged to support those positions to which he committed himself during his campaign, or to explain why he has changed his mind...

...They merit discussion outside the political arena, in a setting that universities can provide...

...A second way for Catholic universities to facilitate dialogue would be to invite Catholic politicians and Catholic bishops to do in 2004 what Mario Cuomo did in 1984: de-liver public addresses to university audiences defining and defending their positions...

...In Catholics in Political Life, they reiterate that stance: "The separation of church and state does not require division between belief and public action, between moral principles and political "(Er, a aisr' r, BALOO choices, but protects the right of believers and religious groups to practice their faith and act on their values in public life...

...He's an expert in urban affairs...

...Cuomo's speech is still widely cited...

...I fear that Catholic colleges and universities will not invite politicians with prohibited views to speak...

...Catholic Mission Association Symposium presenters: Father John Fuellenbach, M. Shawn Copeland...

...These are anxious times for defenders of traditional family norms, and Massachusetts is serving as a national magnet for profamily angst...

...William Bole WANT TO STAY MARRIED...

...The bishops may have yet another reason for issuing the prohibition in Catholics in Political Life...

...The bishops may be painting themselves into a corner...

...The first is associated with Edmund Burke, the eighteenth-century British conservative...

...But it would be a different story for a politician who was a point person for prochoice legislation, he says, adding, "I can't give the kind of black-and-white [answer] that people want...

...Donohue, who has recently been assailing John Kerry's Democratic presidential campaign, often appeared publicly with Giuliani while he was mayor, most notably to charge that art exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art was anti-Catholic...

...As elected political representatives, they feel obligated to offer sound reasons for their judgments, so that their constituents will recognize them as good ones...

...I would argue that a university that sponsors an address of the sort that Cuomo delivered in 1984 at Notre Dame is not endorsing such views...

...Father Robert Schreiter, Bishop William Houck, Joel Shorn, Rabbi Herman Schaalman, Father Frank Ruff, Dr...

...Leslie Hollon, Aminah McCloud, Sister Dianne Bergant, Edwina Gateley, Jack Jezreel, Father John Rausch, Father Derek Simons, Michael Warren...

...In New York City, where I've written on politics and religion since the early 1980s, it's difficult to even find a major-party candidate who is prolife...

...Catholic institutions of higher learning can better discharge that responsibility by fostering serious, frank, and informed dialogue than by enforcing the bishops' prohibition broadly and leaving such vital discussion issues to venues that are far less appropriate...

...Should politicians "who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles" be denied a place in the St...

...And they want to make sure that the larger American public does not think there are legitimate differences of opinion about abortion within the Catholic Church...

...It is far from obvious which of these views of representation and its duties is the correct one...

...They should therefore sponsor conferences that bring together bishops, politicians, and intellectuals who have thought about the political, philosophical, and theological questions raised by Catholic participation in political life...

...He argued that citizens choose a representative with the expectation that he will exercise his own best judgment about law and policy...

...A university that invited Catholic politicians with prochoice records to deliver public address-es would risk violating the bishops' prohibition...

...And, as parade organizers have argued in court, it is a religious event...

...is mistaken...

...Rather, once elected, a representative must be able to offer such reasons for a position that all of her constituents can recognize her reasonableness, even if not all of them will agree with her...

...They may want to prevent a repeat of what happened in 1984 when Mario Cuomo, the Catholic governor of New York, spoke at the University of Notre Dame...

...Should prochoice politicians be allowed to speak at graduations, parades, and other civic events...

...Colleges and universities offer a unique place for such explorations...

...The sanction is not limited to Catholics or even to politicians...

...I asked William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, about that...

...Voters choose among candidates by asking whose judgment they think is wisest...

...For more information: Visit www.glenmary.org and search "Mission Symposium...

...So is New York governor George Pataki, also Catholic, Republican, and prochoice on abortion...

...Move to Massachusetts he Democrats will convene in Boston late this month to officially pronounce John Kerry their man-who-would-be-president...

...Thus, it seems that the arguments for each, as well as the implications for the con-duct of Catholics seeking public office, should be heard and Commonweal I 0 July 16, 2004 explored by both bishops and Catholic politicians, as well as by voters, Catholic and otherwise, who must decide for themselves whether the views endorsed by the bishops in Catholics in Political Life are the right ones...

...And it's clear that some bishops will take it to unexpected extremes...

...Patrick's Day Parade...

...On questions such as these, careful consideration of the arguments on all sides is more intellectually responsible than unwavering solidarity...

...And Senator Clinton...

...The San Diego Union-Tribune raised this issue in a front-page article in June, noting that California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a prochoice Republican who is a Catholic, has not received the same sort of criticism as prochoice Democrats who are Catholics, such as House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and former governor Gray Davis...

...By contrast, at least some of the bishops can be understood as taking the second position, or perhaps the first...

...Catholic organizations often develop productive relations with politicians who are pro-choice...

...The problem is that, in reaching their conclusion, the bishops do not merely take a stand on the morality of abortion or on the morality of laws that permit it...

...Paul Weithman is professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame...

...Without some clarification, the bishops' prohibition will be applied broadly by those who make decisions in the Catholic community and by those who administer Catholic institutions...

...The bishops' statement is so broadly worded that it could apply to these "honors or platforms" granted Koch, a Democrat who won election as mayor three times in a city more than 40 percent Catholic...

...At least, this is not the role of Catholic universities when the position taken is as far removed from doctrinal essentials as is the bishops' position on the duties of officeholders in a representative democracy...

...In his speech, Cuomo argued that while he was personally op-posed to abortion, he could not use his office to force his religious beliefs on others...