Jesuit Says Obama Touches the Catholic Soul

A "CATHOLIC' BARACK?

Raymond A. Schroth, SJ
April 25, 2008

During the last two weeks three significant political events took place, two of which gobbled up our eyes.

The Pope came to Washington and New York, Hillary Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary; and the committee of Catholics for Obama took shape.
Of course they overlapped: Somehow "white working class Catholics" went for Hillary in Pa.

The Pope, in his address to the bishops, did criticize those Catholics who give scandal when they promote "an alleged right to abortion." But his was far from a one-note Catholcism. He spoke with equal fervor against the violations of human rights, the gap betweeen the rich and poor. He also demanded respect for the UN Charter and called for international protection of the environment -- positions which the current administration does not embrace.

Meanwhile a number of Democraic political leaders who have voted for legalized abortion received communion at the Pope's Mass[at the Vatican's invitation]. And meanwhile, a very diverse group of 50 Catholic politicians and intellectuals formed a national advisory Council to back Obama.

They include governors, senators, and congressmen, religious women, and professors from Harvard, Boston College, Holy Cross, and Notre Dame. Though not on the committee, the most remarkable Catholic "convert" to Obama is the well-known conservative Doug Kmiec, former dean of both Notre Dame and Catholic University Law Schools, and counselor to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

Leading the charge in Pennsylvania was Senator Bob Casey, who, though he knew Obama was not destined to win the primary, decided that, in spite of his "pro-abortion" voting record, his long range policies were more in tune with the Catholic Church's position on a vast array of social justice issues than either Clinton's or McCain's.
Indeed, the Democratic social agenda, which deals with the social and economic context which seems to make abortion necessary, in the long run will do more to reduce abortions than legislation to ban it by constitutional amendment or throwing abortionists in jail -- laws which would never gain public support.

The Kmiec decision rocked the conservative Catholic establishment. One of his Notre Dame colleagues says in the extreme right wing (but always intresting) Catholic weekly newspaper, The Wanderer (April 3), his decision "confounds, puzzles, baffles, bewilders, dazes, and stuns me." Kmiec answers by explaining that he became convinced that Obama was a man of faith.

"In his speeches, it's not surprising to see references to Lincoln and Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglass, but Senator Obama regularly touches the Catholic soul as well by showing a genuine knowledge of the work of Dorothy Day. In this the Senator tells his audiences that it is an 'absurdity' to insist that morality be kept separate from public policy." Kmiec also hopes that Obama would come out strongly for policies that would reduce the number of abortions -- support for adoption, pregnant women, abstinence education, and the responsible promotion of birth control.

As a friend wrote to me: the Republicans and Democrats have taken different positions on abortion. The Democrats support spending money to encourage childirth and support women. Republicans "have focused rhetorically and legislatively on punitive measures." Which works? He says the abortion rate fell more during the Clinton than during the Bush administration.

Now, if only the Democratic candidates and spokespersons would make these arguments publicly, rather than simply fall back on the so-called "right to choose."