U.S. bishops' statements about politicians divide Catholics

By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter

Bishop Sheridan of Colorado Springs has warned Catholics not to vote for politicians who don't follow church teachings.

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"I'm appalled," said Sheehan, a 75-year-old Catholic who supports abortion rights and attends Mass weekly at the Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University. She thinks the bishops are essentially taking sides in the election. "Are they going to have decrees against Catholic politicians who vote against health care or for capital punishment?"

But Matt Ulrich , a 64-year-old Catholic from Shoreline who opposes abortion, says the church is not taking a partisan stance.

"They're taking on the issue, not taking on the politician," said Ulrich, who attends Mass daily at a Carmelite monastery. He thinks bishops have a duty to "make a statement that these politicians are not in good standing with the Catholic church."

Since the Vatican announcement a few weeks ago, at least five U.S. bishops have issued similar statements, and at least one has said he would deny Communion to pro-choice politicians such as Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry.

Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs broadened the debate when he said anyone voting for a politician who supports abortion rights, same-sex marriage, stem-cell research or euthanasia — all positions that run contrary to church teaching — would be denied Communion.

And yesterday, 48 Catholic Democratic members of Congress warned in a letter to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., that U.S. bishops will revive anti-Catholic bigotry and harm the church if they deny Communion to pro-choice politicians, according to the Washington Post. McCarrick heads a task force of U.S. bishops that is considering whether, and how, the church should take action against Catholic politicians whose public positions are at odds with Catholic doctrine.

For the nation's roughly 70 million Catholics — about 1.2 million of them in Washington state — the pronouncements raise questions about what it means to be a faithful Catholic politician or voter.

Washington state's three bishops haven't issued public statements about whether pro-choice politicians should receive Communion, although the archbishop of Seattle has said he would want to engage in a dialogue with such officials about church teachings.

Both front-runners in the governor's race — Democrat Christine Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi — are Catholics, but neither campaign is emphasizing that.

Rossi, who is against abortion and thinks marriage should be between a man and a woman, "is a religious person, but that's a personal issue for him," said his campaign spokeswoman, Mary Lane. "Really, the major issues for him are jobs, education and health care."
 
Gregoire is pro-choice and opposes gay marriage but does support some legal rights for committed same-sex couples. Like Rossi, her campaign is not focusing on those issues, nor on her religion.

"Washington state, especially, I believe, is an area that does not believe that your religion should be a factor in politics or in your political decisions," said Frank Greer, Gregoire's campaign consultant. "If anything, when religion has been a factor in Washington state politics, it has been an unsuccessful factor."

Line between church, state

While some may downplay the significance of the bishops' stances, the pronouncements have nonetheless troubled some local Catholics and politicians while encouraging others.

Sheehan, the pro-choice Seattleite, said she is troubled that some bishops would withhold something so central to Catholic faith — the Eucharist — to sanction political stances.

Holy Communion is one of the church's seven sacraments, with recipients accepting consecrated wafers of bread and sips of wine as the body and blood of Christ.

"To me, Communion is supposed to be the deepest symbol of our faith," Sheehan said. "It is the coming together into community. It is sacred. That they would remove me from the Communion of my church for holding political views formed in good conscience is appalling."

Mary McEachern, a 68-year-old pro-choice Catholic in Burien, says those bishops' actions cross a line between church and state.

"They are using religious attitudes and rules and making an issue out of it with a candidate," McEachern said. "I definitely think there will be Catholics who will be influenced by that."

But Richard Young, associate professor of history and political science at Seattle University, says U.S. Catholics hold a range of views on almost every issue — whether bishops make statements or not.

Indeed, according to a 2001 poll of U.S. Catholics conducted by Le Moyne College/Zogby International, a majority of Catholics — 68 percent — said abortion was morally wrong under virtually all circumstances, while 31 percent disagreed.

Sixty-one percent disagreed with church teachings that forbid priests from marrying, and 54 percent disagreed with church teachings that artificial birth control is morally wrong.

"For decades now, American Catholics have been quite comfortable defying church orthodoxy in overwhelming numbers on issues like divorce, birth control, homosexuality, even abortion," Young said.

State Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, who is Catholic and openly gay, believes the bishops are essentially picking and choosing the issues to focus on, and by doing so are taking sides politically.

"What bothers me is that the issues that appear to be in the forefront with the Vatican are gay marriage and/or abortion, that seem to target Democrats," Murray said. "I would challenge back: What about the issue of the death penalty (which the church opposes)? I'm an opponent of the death penalty."

He also points to church teachings on the importance of serving the poor and righting social injustice, saying he has supported every budget item that Catholic Community Services has asked for.

"I'm concerned we don't see Republicans being challenged on choice and funding for the poor," Murray said. "We do see Democrats being challenged on choice and gay marriage."

Church law

But Ulrich, the anti-abortion Shoreline resident, said he supports the relatively few bishops nationwide who have made public statements, including Portland Archbishop John Vlazny, who said in his archdiocesan newspaper that "Catholics who publicly disagree with serious church teaching on such matters as abortion or same-sex marriage should refrain from receiving Holy Communion."

Bishops in Newark, Boston, Maine and New Orleans have said that politicians who support abortion rights shouldn't take Communion. St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said he would refuse to give Holy Communion to Kerry.

Now, Ulrich wants Seattle Archbishop Alexander Brunett to "make a stand on pro-abortion politicians or pro-abortion Catholics. They're disobeying church law."

Greg Magnoni, Seattle Archdiocese spokesman, said the state's three bishops probably won't issue a statement until July at the earliest.

"It's complicated," Magnoni said.

But Magnoni said that "here in the Seattle Archdiocese, if an individual who professed to be Catholic did not practice the teachings of the Catholic faith, they would not be in communion with the Catholic church. And that individual would have to consider very carefully whether or not they presented themselves for Communion."

He says the church's emphasis on holding elected officials to church teachings on abortion over, say, poverty, stems from the church's position that "the right to life is the most fundamental right that each of us as individuals hold. To imagine that it is not a right that supersedes and underpins all others would be silly."

State Sen. Luke Esser, who is seeking the Republican nomination in the 8th Congressional District, says a strength of the church is "our diversity. You have conservative Republican Catholics like Luke Esser working with liberal Democrat Catholics. But we'll go to Mass together on Ash Wednesday."

He supports the death penalty, something the church opposes, "so I can't say to anybody: you have to agree with church teachings on every issue. In the end, everybody in the Legislature has to think and pray and determine these things for themselves."

Seattle Times news researcher Gene Balk contributed to this report. Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com