Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas is recommending local Catholics stick to just two of the voting guides -- one published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops titled Faithful Citizenship, and the other from the Arizona Catholic Conference, which is the public policy agency for the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Tucson, Phoenix and Gallup, N.M.
But at least five other guides for Catholics are available, including two that talk about abortion and gay marriage as not negotiable for Catholic voters. Internal Revenue Service guidelines allow churches to publish voter guides, but they are not allowed to endorse a particular person or party. The allegiance of Catholics in the upcoming election is considered important in an era in which moral values are closely tied to public policy.
Many political experts consider them a powerful voting bloc, with nearly 70 million baptized members and an estimated 27 percent of the electorate. Nearly 1 million Catholics live in Arizona. But the various voting guides represent varying viewpoints, including if issues such as abortion and gay marriage should be of higher importance than other items meaningful to Catholics, such as immigration and war.
One of the more conservative guides, Catholics in the Public Square, was published by Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted. The other conservative guide was published by the California-based Catholic apologists' group Catholic Answers.
A third conservative guide was published by the New York-based Priests for Life group. A more liberal guide, published by the Washington, D.C.
-based Catholic Alliance for the Common Good, says responsible voting is not best decided with a litmus test of selected issues. The guide has been criticized by conservative Catholic groups, which say abortion is always the most important public policy issue for Catholic voters. We won't ever support the Catholic Alliance guide because it does a disservice to church teaching, said Kelly Copeland, 45, a Tucson business owner and part of a local group called Catholics United for the Faith.
If a candidate is pro-choice, that is an area that would be non-negotiable. If you are going to follow church teaching, you are not going to vote for Gov. Janet Napolitano because of her stance on abortion.
Napolitano, a Democrat, supports legal abortion, while her Republican opponent, Len Munsil, is anti-abortion. Many Catholic leaders do not use the term not negotiable, however. Anything that represents itself as the only Catholic point of view, that says for example that abortion is the most important issue, that is not Catholic, said the Rev.
Bartholomew Hutcherson, a Dominican priest who is pastor of the St. Thomas More Catholic Newman Center at the University of Arizona. I encourage people to look at other resources, to look at balance.
The idea is not that the church says this is the way, that you must vote this way. Ultimately, the decision is left up to each person's conscience. Catholic voters, who long have been associated with the Democratic Party, in 2004 supported a Republican for president over Democrat John Kerry, who is Catholic.
But a Gallup Poll in June indicated Catholics are showing more allegiance to Democrats this election season. Authors of the Catholic voting guides stress their publications are nonpartisan. The Arizona Catholic Conference, for example, asked candidates 12 questions on subjects ranging from human cloning to making the presence of illegal entrants in Arizona a felony.
The document makes no candidate endorsements, though a majority of Democratic candidates did not answer the questions. I happen to think the church focuses on certain life issues such as abortion to the exclusion of others such as war, said 60-year-old Tucson businesswoman Laurie Olson, who did not find the Arizona Catholic Conference guide helpful because of the lack of response by Democrats. Personally, I'm not in favor of abortion, but I have other issues, too, and I think Janet Napolitano is more family-issues-oriented in general.
The Arizona Catholic Conference does not endorse candidates but does take stances on issues, including gay marriage, and is publicly supporting Proposition 107, which would amend the Arizona Constitution to ban gay marriage as well as deny domestic-partner benefits to government employees. I don't think the hierarchy of the church should be involved in politics. They should be ministering to the hungry, to people who have no place to sleep; they should be ministering spiritually, said local Catholic Clementine Caccia-carro, 72.
Personally, abortion has never been an option for me, but I don't think the government has any right putting its nose in it. It is complicated. Faith somewhat forms my conscience, but the older I get, I think I'm getting smarter.
I feel I have the right to make those judgments on my own. In a recent Monday Memo to parishioners, Kicanas wrote that parishes should not allow the distribution of voter guides or other information and materials that are not from the diocese, the Arizona Catholic Conference or the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Kicanas said he tells voters to take into consideration the candidates, as well as their stances on issues.
The local diocese includes about 350,000 Catholics. One of the things we as Catholics share closely with our Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters is that our faith is fundamental to how we live, feel and act and we do have to bring it into the public arena, Kicanas said in an interview. Catholic social teaching is expansive and covers a wide range of issues.
The sad thing is that neither political party fully reflects the social teaching of the church. The important thing in Faithful Citizenship is that people vote. --Tucson Bishop Gerald F.
Kicanas will join Ron Johnson of the Arizona Catholic Conference and Frank Pierson of the Pima County Interfaith Coalition for a Conversation about the 2006 General Election at 7 p.m. Thursday at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 1300 N.
Greasewood Road. --The Arizona Catholic Conference, the public policy agency for Arizona's three bishops, has a voting guide that surveys Arizona's candidates in the 2006 General Election. See it at www.
diocesephoenix.org/acc/ --Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a Washington, D.C.
-based group of Catholics published Voting for the Common Good. See it at www.thecatholicalliance.
org --Catholic Answers, a California-based apologetics group has a Voters Guide for Serious Catholics. See it at www.catholic.
com/ --The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has published a guide titled Faithful Citizenship. See it at www.usccb.
org/faithful citizenship --Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted on Saturday released a booklet titled Catholics in the Public Square for worshippers in the Phoenix diocese. A news summary is available at www.
diocesephoenix.org/ --The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, which operates under the auspices of the worldwide order of Maryknoll priests, nuns, brothers and lay missioners, published The 2006 Elections: Becoming a Global Good Neighbor. See it at www.
maryknollogc.org/ --The Rev. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, a vocal group in the Catholic campaign to end legal abortion, published Voting With a Clear Conscience.
See it at priestsforlife.org/vote/votingwithclearconscience.htm For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.
com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
News RSS