An Emerging New Catholic Right
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At the same time both the evangelical and Catholic Right are developing
and promoting a long-term, fundamental approach to the practice of faith
that links political involvement with faith itself. In this case, the
Catholic Church is building on its own history and also benefiting from
the Christian Right's recent efforts to create wider space for public
expressions of religiosity in civil discourse. The success of these efforts
was evident in the election year debates over expressions of religiosity
by candidates for public office, sparked by the religious statements
of Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), Al Gore's running mate. This could hardly
have happened even a few years ago, but a shift in the political culture
suggests that personal and unedited expressions of religious belief for
political purposes are no longer considered unseemly. Indeed, the suggestion
is that they are beyond reproach.
Historically, the Catholic Church in the U.S. has played a role in public
life, but has been circumspect about that role for two reasons. First,
the Catholic Church sought to avoid arousing nativist anti-Catholic bigotry
and second, it has sought to avoid the appearance of serving as a monolithic
and authoritarian voting bloc in a pluralist society. John F. Kennedy,
while a candidate for president, emphasized that he did not take orders
from the Vatican, and thus reassured voters that his loyalties would
not be divided between church and state.
Catholic politicians no longer feel obliged to distance themselves from
church teachings in this way and would not dare to do so for fear of
a harsh church response. Indeed, some bishops now denounce Kennedy-style
Catholic politicians as "accomodationists" who fail to advance
the directives of the church. "Four decades after John Kennedy," declared
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver in October 2000, "too many American
Catholics-maybe most-no longer connect their political choices with their
religious faith in any consistent, authentic way."58
Conservative appointees of Pope John Paul II now dominate the American
Catholic leadership. Their influence is reflected in the National Conference
of Catholic Bishops' pronouncement in 1998 urging Catholics to give primary
consideration to a politician's stances on abortion and euthanasia when
voting, over the many other, sometimes-progressive public policy views
of the church.59 Another
dimension of the conservative trend in Catholicism is, according to The
New York Times, that the social activist priests of the 1960's and
70's are retiring, and are being replaced by younger priests who far
more conservative.60
These trends are accompanied by the growth of powerful right-wing interest
groups in the church, such as the Catholic League for Religious and Civil
Rights; Opus Dei, a rightist prelature of the pope, which functions as
an international order of priests and lay people; and Legionnaires of
Christ, a Mexico-based rightist order that owns and publishes the conservative
weekly newspaper, National Catholic Register, which has increased
its visibility and ability to reach a far wider audience through convenience
store newsstands like Dairy Mart and Seven Eleven. An Opus Dei priest
was installed as auxiliary bishop of Denver in March 2001.61
The escalation of political intervention in the 2000 election reflects
the new assertiveness of the Catholic Church hierarchy. For example,
a pastoral letter from Archbishop Edward M. Egan urging the faithful
to vote for antiabortion candidates for office at all levels was read
from the pulpit in all 400 Catholic parishes in New York City on the
Sunday before the 2000 election.62 Similarly,
the Bishops of Massachusetts jointly declared, "Support and promotion
of abortion by any candidate is always wrong and can never be justified."63 The
impact of such statements is hard to measure, and exit polls indicated
that Catholics favored Gore over Bush by 50-47 percent. Archbishop Elden
Curtiss of Omaha, Nebraska complained, "the majority of Catholic
people still do not make abortion a priority."64
Meanwhile, Priests for Life, an action arm of the Pontifical Council
on the Family, has emerged as a force in the antiabortion movement
advocating a broad political agenda with abortion as its wedge, according
to a study by the Institute for Democracy Studies.65 PFL
and its leader Fr. Frank Pavone waged a media campaign during the summer
of 2000 calling on Catholics to mobilize politically,66 but
ultimately acknowledging the role of pragmatism in politics. Pavone told
the conservative newsweekly Human Events: "Because voting
is not a canonization, we may morally vote for a less perfect candidate
who is actually electable at the present moment, rather than a better
candidate who does not have the base of support to actually get into
office... If both candidates support some abortion, it is not wrong to
vote for the one who is less supportive of abortion."67 Pavone
met with candidate George W. Bush and declared him to be "pro-life," while
attacking candidate Al Gore as "an apostle for abortion." 68
These trends suggest that the church hierarchy will increasingly direct
resources into political activism that will further the Catholic wing
of the Christian Right. However, even as Catholic leaders escalate their
engagement in public life their efforts may be undermined by trends in
conservative Catholic theology. Theological tensions between Protestant
fundamentalist factions and conservative Catholics inevitably surface
when the alliance moves beyond a fairly narrow band of issues, notably
abortion, homosexuality, and ending public education as we know it.
In 2000, the Vatican highlighted this tension when it issued a proclamation
called Dominus Jesus that seemingly overturned four decades of
ecumenical dialog and Catholic acknowledgement of the possible validity
of other spiritual paths. It declared that Jesus and the Catholic
Church were the only possible means of spiritual salvation, and that
other Christian churches "are not `churches' in the proper sense."69 The
decree denounces the "philosophy of religious pluralism," and
emphasizes conversion over ecumenical dialog. The Vatican declared it
a "definitive and irrevocable" doctrine of the church.70 The
reaction ranged from disappointment to outrage among Protestants-including
evangelicals.71 The
Vatican soon thereafter invoked Dominus Jesus to denounce a book
supportive of religious pluralism authored by a Jesuit theologian.72 Such
official religious supremacism is also reflected in Fr. Frank Pavone's
teaching that "it is not just the church that must obey God. So
does the state. So does the government. Separation of church and state
doesn't mean separation of God and state.... God and his law are the
very foundation...of the state."73
Pavone's attack on church-state separation is consistent with the Christian
nationalism that is integral to the theology of most if not all of the
leaders of the Christian Right, from Bill Bright and Pat Robertson, to
the Promise Keepers and the theologians of Christian Reconstructionism.
All see religious pluralism and constitutional guarantees of separation
of church and state, as a bulwark that must be breached if any of the
sectors of the Christian Right are to accomplish their aims. While the
Catholic and Protestant wings of the Christian Right are united in many
areas of public policy, it remains to be seen whether competing versions
of the true religion will eventually undermine their collaboration. Indeed,
the public debacle in which Christian Right leaders and White House officials
denounced one another over the role of the White House Office of Faith
Based Initiatives is an excellent example of how religious supremacism
interferes in any effort for equitable treatment for federal grand recipients
and federal contractors.74
Similar political ecumenism among fundamentalist factions working in
coalition against women's rights generally, and reproductive rights in
particular, in the UN system also has similar points of potential fracture.
As was detailed in the Summer/Fall issue of The Public Eye, this
growing international alliance is comprised of Mormon institutions, the
U.S. Christian Right, the Vatican, and certain elements within theocratic
Islam.75
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