Put Out Into the Deep
Bishop DiMarzio's weekly column
THE TABLET
November 15, 2008
Our Great Nation
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This Presidential election now two weeks away, I have had an opportunity to reflect on its meaning for the Church and Catholics. I would like to give my own personal feelings on this issue. Peter Steinfels, a one-time religion writer for the New York Times, wrote an article in the Times entitled “Catholics in Choice in the Voting Booth.” The article began with this line, “Anyone constructing a list of the big losers on Tuesday would probably include the Nation’s Roman Catholic bishops.” Unfortunately, I believe Mr. Steinfels is wrong. I believe the true losers in this past election were the unborn. We bishops are not political operatives, but rather pastors who are charged with the obligation of defending life and our faith in the public forum. Later in this column, I will return to what I said to Mr. Steinfels.
As I reflect on the election further, I recognize that there was a tremendous victory, not so much in the seven million who participated in popular votes for Mr. Obama, but in the fact that our nation elected its first President of color. Perhaps it is a sign that we are overcoming the evil of racism. In the statement on Faithful Citizenship prepared to guide the conscience of Catholics on the election process, the Bishops of the United States declared that racism is an intrinsic evil, as well as the evil of abortion, embryonic stem cell research and euthanasia. This last election demonstrates that our nation has made some progress in eliminating the evil of racism. We have not made much progress, however, in recognizing the evil of abortion, and other intrinsic evils practiced in our society. Hopefully, our new President will recognize the substantial majority of Americans who do not believe that abortion is something good, but rather see it as evil in various ways.
Several reporters have asked me about the joining of racism and abortion in our statement. I responded in this manner, “Intrinsic evil is something that should never be tolerated or cooperated with.” To one reporter, I posed the example that over a century ago our country battled with the abolition of slavery, another intrinsic evil. If some would have proposed that some slaves could be freed and others would remain slaves, would that have been a solution to eliminate that intrinsic evil? And so it is with the abortion debate. Lessening the number of abortions is not the answer to eliminating this intrinsic evil. Neither, however, is criminalizing the act of abortion in order to have our country understand this intrinsic evil. We must find the means to eventually eliminate it as our goal.
Unfortunately, prospects for this do not look very good. There is a piece of legislation that was introduced in the Congress in the last session entitled The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which, far from eliminating abortion, rather takes away all protection for unborn life that has been won since the 1973 decision in Roe v Wade. FOCA goes well beyond Roe v Wade in allowing and clarifying that abortion is a fundamental right enshrined somehow in our Constitution. FOCA would invalidate laws meant to protect women from unsafe abortion clinics and insure that she is informed about abortion and its consequences. FOCA will require taxpayers to pay for abortions in all circumstances. This will in effect be abortion-on-demand at public expense. It will require states to allow partial-birth and other late-term abortions, FOCA will require states to allow abortions by non-physicians and will bar those exercising the right of a conscientious objection in the performance of an abortion and also deny parents an opportunity to be involved in their minor daughter’s abortion decision.
In effect, FOCA will be, if passed, a terrible blow to the defense of life in our country. Unfortunately, President-elect Obama, in a pre-election speech to Planned Parenthood, said that as a sponsor of the bill he was ready to enact it into law if it were passed by Congress. In the coming months, we will learn more about FOCA and how we need to work against it. This clearly is one of the unfortunate consequences that may stem from the election which we have just concluded.
To continue with Mr. Steinfels’ argument that the U.S. Bishops are the losers, we must look at the Catholic vote in this election, most specifically Catholics who are regular churchgoers. There is a difference. And we must compare this election to the 2004 election between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. At that time, among all Catholics, 47% voted for Kerry and 53% for Bush. Whereas, in 2008, 58% voted for Obama and 45% voted for McCain. This, however, changes when we look to the statistics on Catholics who attend church weekly. In 2004, it was 43% for Kerry and 56% for Bush, as compared to 2008 when it as 49% for Obama 53% for McCain. We all seem to agree that the most pressing issue that voters dealt with in this election was the economic situation we currently find ourselves in our country. Although it should perhaps not have been the determining factor, it seems to have influenced many people to vote for President-elect Obama. It is clear that there are Catholic voters but no Catholic vote. As I have tried to say many times over, bishops and priests are directly responsible to help form consciences in many areas, especially in political responsibility. But, we do not tell people for whom to vote, although we can indicate the moral issues, and the candidate’s stands. Ultimately, the decision in a well-formed conscience of the individual Catholic and not of a voting block that some still which to categorize as Catholic. We do not endorse candidates. We do not invite candidates into our pulpits to speak to congregations. We truly believe in the separation of Church and State, but not in the separation of religion and public policy. Many times, I have been asked by reporters for my views. One which I thought was particularly telling was a reporter who asked, “Could there be some reconciliation between supporters of Obama and McCain?” I responded by saying to Catholic News Service, “It will be difficult for impassioned supporters of the two leading presidential candidates to reconcile. While all should cease looking for the worst in each other, there is no compromise and no easy way around the obligation to oppose intrinsic evils,” like abortion and death. “There are ways on how we can limit intrinsic evil and we should take these steps.” I continued by saying, “There is a culture of death and, if you are supporting it, it is not going to go away. We are going to have a hard time reconciling.”
Reconciliation does not mean compromise; it means being able to work together. Hopefully, in the future, Catholics, Bishops and those who support the right to life will work with the new administration in eliminating intrinsic evil from our society.
There is another issue that I wish to bring to your attention and that is the annual Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) which takes place this Sunday, prior to Thanksgiving. In an effort to be transparent, the CCHD has funded in the past ACORN, which is a national network of local organizations that work in community development. The Campaign’s purpose is to assist grassroots organizations in effecting institutional change for the betterment of our nation’s people. This past June, CCHD cut off funding to ACORN groups for another reason, that is a case of embezzlement that goes back eight years ago. Although none of CCHD’s monies were involved in the embezzlement, questions regarding the organization’s national office were raised. More recently during this past presidential campaign, ACORN was accused of voter registration fraud. Please be assured that no CCHD funding for the past two years has gone to ACORN, nor will it into the future unless radical changes occur in the administration of ACORN.
Locally here in Brooklyn and Queens, we have worked very successfully with ACORN in a project meant to assist those defaulting on mortgages by obtaining some relief and extensions of their payment time. Unfortunately, one incident can color a whole organization which is unfair. At the same time, however, in order to bring about a solution, a moratorium on funding to ACORN has been declared.
As we come close to Thanksgiving, we must reflect upon the place our nation has in the world. The secular holiday of Thanksgiving provides an opportunity to be thankful for the graces and benefits we have received from our Creator. In effect, it is a secular holiday that celebrates faith going back to the time of Pilgrims. How important it is that we keep faith in our country and make sure that faith is not excluded from our public decisions. We are “One Nation under God.” There are those today who would wish to eliminate those words from our Pledge of Allegiance. We must continue working to make sure that the message of reason and faith reach the public forum and that we defend it all with to the best of our ability. Working in the public forum is like putting out into the deep because we do not know the perils and difficulties that can be faced. We must continue, however, working to assure that we will always have a reason to celebrate Thanksgiving in this great nation of ours.