New York Times Examines Relevancy Of Catholic Bishops In Abortion Debate, Elections

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 11 Nov 2008 - 4:00 PST

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As Roman Catholic bishops prepare to gather next week for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops General Assembly, the fact that most Catholic voters supported President-elect Barack Obama is expected to shape discussion of how the church presents its messages on abortion, the New York Times reports. Despite urging from bishops that Catholics should not support a candidate who backs abortion rights, exit polls show Catholics voted 52% to 45% for Obama, seven percentage points more than the Catholic vote for 2004 Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (Mass.). Sixty-seven percent of Latinos voted for Obama, and Latino Catholics "almost certainly voted for the Democratic nominee at an even higher rate," according to the Times. Preliminary information on young Catholics indicates they also voted for Obama at a high rate. The Times reports, "If the bishops sweat a little over these figures next week, the reason won't be worry about their political prowess but about their pastoral and moral effectiveness."

In response to "backlash" over some bishops' actions during the 2004 campaign -- when a few called for Catholics who voted for Kerry to be barred from receiving Communion -- the Catholic church restructured its approach for the 2008 election. The new message was compiled into a brochure titled "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," which "emphasized that issues involving 'intrinsically evil' actions could not be equated morally with others," according to the Times. The brochure cited abortion as the "prime example," but also mentioned euthanasia, torture, genocide, unjust war and racism, the Times reports.

Bishops in November 2007 voted overwhelmingly to adopt the brochure, and most of them used it in their own parishes and statements during the campaign. However, as the election drew near and an Obama victory appeared more likely, a group of about 50 to 60 bishops began "giving their own interpretation," including "dramatic" declarations about voting for a candidate who supports abortion rights, the Times reports. For example, Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pa., required pastors to read a letter from the pulpit declaring that abortion trumped all other issues for Catholic voters and implied that Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden (Del.) should not receive Communion because of his support for abortion rights.

According to the Times, "There is obviously a gap between the prudential leeway that 'Faithful Citizenship' affirmed for Catholics and the political urgency that some bishops feel about abortion." Some bishops with such "political urgency" are suggesting that the brochure "should be recast again, presumably to make conformity to one's bishop's judgment a litmus test for being a faithful Catholic," the Times reports.

According to the Times, the election results raise the question, "By appearing to tie their moral stance on abortion so closely to a particular political choice, have [bishops] in fact undermined their moral persuasiveness on that issue as well as their pastoral effectiveness generally?" The election not only demonstrated the "bitter divisions" among some Catholics but also made it apparent that many Catholic voters disregarded the bishops' messages altogether, pointing to a need for future discussion on bishops' role in politics and the church. Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., said, "I hope the bishops have a rank discussion as we assess how effective we were in communicating our message" (Steinfels, New York Times, 11/8).

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