Mr Hudson all of this would be totally unnecessary if our bishops were doing their jobs. They keep issuing these voter conscience guides that confuse rather than inform us. Does anybody else remember the time when a point-blank letter from the bishop was read at all Masses in all churches of the diocese on the same Sunday? Time to tell the folks that promoting abotion puts your soul on a fast track to hell. The liberals in the Church have sold us out bigtime.

Mr Hudson, I can only assume you believe that Obama is a likely winner, or , given his solid pro-abaortion position vs McCain's solid anti-abortion position, you would not give him advice on how to woo the Catholic vote. Do you have another strategy at play here?

Nick, although I might state it differently than do you, you are so right on the need for a stronger position from our Shepherds. In my Diocese, the people have great respect for their Bishop and would heed his such a pastoral letter - perhaps there is one in planning. I sincerely hope so.

I would also add the rest of the clergy to your recommendation. We have 2 priests and 3 deacons in my parish. I am alone in consistently preaching on the necessity to vote from a pro-life position, and the moral complicity in the evil of abortion that results from a vote for a pro-abortion candidate..

Deacon Frank, my intentions in writing this memo are exactly as stated -- I don't want Obama to win, but I do think it is time the Democratic party,and their nominee, recognize Catholic voters for who they really are, rather than what their liberal advisers say that are, namely, the post-Vatican II Church that never came to be.

Deal,

I have mixed feelings on this. What does it benefit us if the Obama campaign does understand us? Will they really come to respect our positions, despite the fact that they are so antithetical to the liberal (socialist) agenda, which at its core undermines the family and traditional values?

Or will they simply be more clever in their pandering to the Catholic vote, making sly promises that somehow never get kept once the levers are pulled and the ballots punched?

I'd love some genuine respect from the left, but I hardly expect that I'll see it.

And if it would do some good for them to hear it, with all the clamoring that's gone on by orthodox Catholics in recent years over what we really believe, who's to say a message like this will even get through? It seems that if we could have had their ear, we'd have had it by now.

Steve, I can't help but think it's good thing if the Democrats see Catholics for they are (or, at least, should be). They will either ignore it, which is most likely, or they will start to see it, with the possible outcome of feeling pressure to back away from their compact with pro-choice feminists and the homosexual rights lobby.

Deal,

There is no mention of the war here. The Pope in his Easter Message addressed the war in strong terms as well as other flash points around the world.

John McCain has a very hawkish view point of the war in Iraq, that most Catholics now agree is a very unjust war.

Eric, I wasn't aware that "most Catholics" now view the war as unjust. Where did you see that? That certainly was not the case just after the invasion, when there was broad support, including from the Democratic senators. I didn't mention the war because, although it is an issue for this election cycle, it's prudential matter about which there can be honest disagreement. McCain hawkishness may cost him some Catholic votes but they will offset by his record on other, non-negotiable, matters. For me personally, even if I thought he was wrong about the war, it wouldn't change my prudential voting judgment in a choice between McCain and either Obama or Clinton.

Why would you care that Obama and other Democrats get it wrong and lose the Catholic vote? What does getting it "right" mean, that the likes of Roemer can hold himself out to be a practical Catholic while helping an abortion-lover like B.Hussein Obama? No Catholic can vote for Obama or Clinton and remain in communion.Roemer needs to attend a catechism class and do penance.

An excellent discussion of the issues which separate Catholics from the Democratic Party, not just Obama.

My concern is that "understanding the Catholic voter" may lead to the appearance of concern and lip service acknowledgment of uniquely Catholic views. However, I suspect(fear) the result will be posturing and the development of a media facade allowing the less astute voter to assuage his conscience when he casts his vote, rather than initiating an internal conversion of the party away from even its most extreme platform positions.

Deal-

I note your autopsy of the 2000 and 2004 elections, but perhaps a bit of allegory is in order.

I asked my 80-something Mom why she identified herself as a Democrat. She is every bit a staunch conservative except in leap years. Her reply was that Roosevelt pulled this country out of the Depression and it was in deference to him that she voted Democratic.

Her generation is passing.

My 4 boys are far more conservative than I was at their age.

Try as you may to teach Democrats how to understand the mind and heart of the practicing Catholic, the truth is they they are not interested. They oppose Catholic thinking and the principles of our way of life. They are happy to confuse Catholics who are democrats and relish in the scandals and failures of the Church as a whole. Since they already have many of the left leaning bishops who give them cover, they see no reason to make any accommodations to the Catholic viewpoint. They have embraced the mentality that is not interested in anything except destroying that which is true, sacred and holy.

Harsh words - but if Catholic democrats wanted to take back the Democratic party, they would have done so. The reality is that many of them do not care. Look at the states with the highest Catholic population. They all elect pro-abortion "Catholic" politicians.

The Obama people will continue to pander to the liberal elements with the Church. The bishops will do little to address the issue. The professional Catholics who work in the parishes pushing papers and kum-by-ya will make excuses for the Democrats once again by crying about the 4000 soldiers who dies in Iraq. (What about the 50,000 people who die each year on our highways? - oh excuse me - that is acceptable so we can have our automobiles)

It just frustrates me to see how we squander the opportunities we have as a church to save lives and change the culture.

Interesting article, Deal. I'll forward it on to some members of the Democrats for Life group here at Franciscan University to see what their membership thinks. Most of the them are supporting Obama.

Billy, you're kidding, right? You've got Obama supporters at Franciscan, who call themselves "for life"?

Democrats for life support Obama! That surely illustrates our Catholic problem in any attempt to influence the party toward a pro life, or even neutral, position.

Frankly, the only way to influence the Democrats is to hand them a solid loss traceable to the Catholic vote. Thanks to attitudes like those of "Democrats for Life'" it doesn't look like that will happen.

I would like to think that I am a traditional Roman Catholic. I have gone to Catholic school for 19 years. I was married in the Catholic Church by a priest who is a friend of mine. I married a Catholic girl, and we adhere to the rules of the Church and are very happy with our lives. But, I cannot disagree more with Deal's blog here.

I think that Catholics are at heart Democratic. Forget abortion, because that is never going to be solved. It was legislation from the Supreme Court, which was wrong, but no politician in their right mind is really going to touch the issue. The Republicans love abortion because it brings so many voters to their side. Plus, all they have to say is "I am against abortion", but they never have to do anything to stop it. Therefore, I believe that everyone who votes Republican for the sole reason that the party is against abortion is being hoodwinked by the Republican party.

Furthermore, I think that Catholics that vote for Republicans are that support the death penalty are just as morally wrong as Catholics that vote for Democrats who support abortion. Cardinal Bernardin proposed that Catholics have a consistent ethic of life. That means that Catholics should never support a life ending, whether it be a baby or a murderer, because all life is precious. Catholics must oppose both abortion and state sponsered murder.

Because I am unable to find a party that actually has a consistent ethic of life, it becomes a non-issue for me. Therefore, I look to whoever I think best supports the furtherance of human life and a human's necessity to live. This could be either a democrat or republican, but my vote won't be taken because a politician provides me with an empty promise of ending abortion.

Abortion was legalized by the court system, and it was become illegal by the court system. What is kind of ironic about how I see it becoming illegal, is that it will probably be through another scientic procedure that Catholics dissaprove of, namely stem-cell.

Once a baby is grown from start to finsih without a mother, it will be hard for the courts to say that a fetus is not a human. (Right now, the view is that as long as a fetus cannot survive without its mother, then the state has no right to intefere.)

As for the whole divorce issue, I think that Republicans are severly mixed up. I oppose divorce. I also think that to vote for someone because they support marriage politically, but can't seem to stay married to one person is disingenuous. Now, I don't particually like Hillary, but if you want an example of someone working through a marriage to keep it together, she is example number one.

Also, I am not really sure when marriage became so state involved. Isn't it a religious ceremony? I myself, a soon to be lawyer, almost forgot to get my marriage certificate because I could care less about what the state thinks of my marriage, besides the financial ramifications. Marriage is a religious entity, and if it fails, the religion that married those people failed. So don't blame the state for not defending marriage, when it is really the responsibility of the community.

Ok, i have said enough. I guess I just have a problem with one issue voting, especially when that issue will never be resolved through the legislative body.

What Catholic schools did Ryan attend?They need to be shuttered immediately.

I can remember thinking as Ryan does, but clarity hit my over the head one day (or was that the Holy Spirit). Though not a proponent necessarily of the death penalty, one can not reasonably compare it (which may affact 100 folks a year or so ... who by law are not innocent) to abortion which affects over 1 million US babies per year, not to mentin 1 million potential mothers. Yes, it'a a law that we all know can get changed given enough political pressure along with supreme court justices. I agree it can never be the only issue .. but it's a biggie. As for marriage .. we all know this is the foundation of a family circle ... and when the family is lost, people get lost. Just ask our poor african americans. And I do have to say that John J. states many truths. As for Deal's intent ... it is noble. Though I don't think he has any earth-shattering expectations.

Ryan,
I can't get the words out fast enough and wish I could walk all over your words that state, "because you can't find a party that has a consistent ethic of life", you do not view the one issue of abortion as sufficient to capture your vote. The democratic party is no longer the party of caring. In my view, it is clearly the party of victims, lack of personal accountability, irresponsible behavior and blatant support for abortion, period. The Catholics that remain loyal to the democratic party for "social" issues are - and have for many years now been - kidding themselves. Deal Hudson is never going to convince the Obama or Clinton campaign that they need to rethink their views on abortion or same sex marriage in a helpful way to society. Democrats pander to a lot of misbehaving people for their loyalty and never ask the tough questions of anyone. They have loyal constituents for one reason: they are willing to promise their victims
(excuse me - constituents) that they can live irresponsibly and the democratic party will support programs that will bail them out. I hope you replay your statement that "all life is precious" over and over in your mind as you snuggle securely in your bed tonight, knowing that tomorrow, because of your attitute, innocent babies will be painfully aborted, essentially with your support. I am against capital punishment, but we can at least agree that convicted (not innocent) criminals make their adult choices. How dare you state that because we can't always stop the few capital punishments that are administered against convicted, brutal and purpose driven adults, that you can use it as an excuse to do as you wish with your vote. Shame on any Catholic or any Christian for that matter, that would put any issue above protecting human babies from brutal murder. Before you claim the importance of economic and foreign policy issues, please see the website for "Priests for Life" and watch an abortion or watch the film "Silent Scream". God, may we come to ourselves.

Deal: Reading the elaborate rationalizations already posted by "Catholics" for voting for candidates who, in any non-demented society, would be recognized as monsters undeserving of election as dog catcher, indicates to me that Obama and all the other baby-killers DO understand the "Catholic" vote. They understand that bishops like Bernardin, the abortionists' best friend EVER, were wildly successful in their project of pumping out rhetorical sludge and intellectual crud in order to displace authentic moral reasoning from the public square. "The Seamless Garment" and "A Consistent Ethic of Life" are the two most effective, thought-clogging slogans ever devised for the purpose of promoting mass human slaughter.

No: I DON'T make the usual nod to Cardinal Bernardin's "good intentions" in devising these slogans. It's time we Catholics started reclaiming our history, distant and recent. Bernardin was a hater of the Catholic Church who achieved the dream of any true hater of the Church--a position of prestige and power from which to do maximum damage.

Archbishop Burke has proven with geometric certitude that obedience to Canon 915 is a grave duty of every bishop. Which means, with equal certitude, that all but about a dozen bishops in the U.S. are obstinately persistent in manifest grave sin, because they refuse to acknowledge and carry out this duty.

Is the Church in the U.S. in basically good shape? Really?--with all but a dozen or so of its bishops demonstrably, PUBLICLY, living in habitual mortal sin?

Ryan: You say that abortion will never be stopped--it is an issue we might as well ignore because neither Party will do anything about it. I disagree: Abortion in the U.S. WILL stop eventually, because eventually the U.S. will experience the NATURAL consequences of abortion: demoralization, ever-increasing violence, ever-increasing tyranny, ever-increasing despair and despondency, the ever-increasing impulse to surrender to Cultural Marxism and Islamo-Marxism. The NATURAL consequences of an evil like abortion are also known by the name "Divine Judgment." By throwing in the towel on abortion, you are already a participant in the despondency and indifference that will destroy the United States in the foreseeable future.

I do not want anyone to think that I support abortion, but merely that I think the battle needs to be fought in the court system for any real change to happen.

And I don't have in mind that because of one's religion that a person should vote Democratic or Republican. I think that is a choice that ultimately comes from examining one's faith and beliefs, and I sincerely don't believe that I can tell a person how to interpret his own conscience.

What I do want to do is open the discussion up past abortion. There are many sins in this world, abortion being one of them. Poverty, racism, war, and murder (abortion included) are other sins. I don't propose to say that the Democrats defend all of these issues, or any of them adequately. I would just like to suggest that all of these are social sins, that we as an American democracy allow, need to be considered.

Finally, I would like to suggest, as Dostoevsky has convinced me, that one sin is no greater than another. Meaning that killing babies, while reprehensible to our sense of humanity, is no greater sin than wanting a bigger home or car, i.e. greed. I know that is a radical stance, but I believe that a sin is a betrayal against God, and there is no degree to betrayal. You can't betray God more or less, it is either/or.

As for defaming the work of a dead man, we can debate if he was good or bad, I am no fan of that. I don't think it is right to call a man who devoted his life to the Catholic Church a hater of Catholicism.

Ryan: A couple of yours:

"All sins are equally grave." The Catholic Church teaches that some sins are more grave than others. It is your duty as a Catholic to be convinced by the Magisterium, Dostoevsky notwithstanding.

And the Catholic Church does NOT teach that it is sinful to favor the death penalty or to participate in applying it. The Catholic Church encourages states to refrain from using it unless they have no other means of protecting the public from aggressors.

Your facile equation of abortion and the death penalty flies in the face of Catholic Tradition, including the very encyclical in which Pope John Paul II enunciated his opposition to the use of the death penalty. He went out of his way in Evangelium Vitae to DISTINGUISH between the issues, not equate them. He specifically emphasizes that the Church's condemnation and prohibition of abortion are absolute, which this is not the case with capital punishment.

You illustrate precisely the intellectual smog and chaos--and the specific misleading clichés--that Cardinal Bernardin sought to encourage.

Alexander VI devoted his life to the Church, too. Wolsey devoted his life to the Church. So?

Cardinal Bernardin promoted evil. He uttered hardly a word on abortion in his entire career that didn't damage and disparage the pro-life movement. He assiduously set the example of the bishop who has not a discomfiting syllable to utter to pro-abortion politicians. He advertised his personal turpitude to the world by instructing that the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus be the choir singing at his Vigil Service. If he had not left his diocese a corrupt cesspool of Surreal Catholicism, he would have been denied a Catholic funeral by those left in charge, rather than the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus sing at a Catholic liturgy. Fourteen years after his death is not too soon to quit affording Bernardin greater courtesies than are extended to other notoriously corrupt bishops, cardinals, and popes.

Ryan, I wanted to comment on one of your points.

"Once a baby is grown from start to finish without a mother, it will be hard for the courts to say that a fetus is not a human. (Right now, the view is that as long as a fetus cannot survive without its mother, then the state has no right to intefere.)"

I would you ask you to reconsider that point for the following reason: We never stop being dependent on others for our existence. The relationship of the child to the mother is only the beginning of that dependency. Would a child, once born, survive without being cared for by a parent, or someone? Would you and I survive without the care and protection of our families, friends, the police, the military, the physicians who treat our illness and remove our cancers? What about those who provide our food, our water our shelter? The Church calls this "solidarity," a unavoidable fact of the human condition. I don't think the dependency of the unborn child on the mother removes the humanity from the child at all -- it's the first instance of a never-ending dependency that we have on each other.

kudos, ryan. i come from a very strong catholc community and retain those values. my concern: why is there no mention of the increase in abortions per captia under the present bush administration and the comparision of abortions in countries where abortion is illegal. my source? catholicdemocrats.org! as catholics we have been called to spread the word of Christ as he taught it. why has the initiating issue of contraception been so easily avoided by all the single issue abortionists? if there were no unwanted pregnencies there would be no need for abortion. this means we must make sound voting choices. we have made grave mistakes the past two elections. it is time to make the right one this time. rep/dem?? hard choice

Ryan,
Try to get your mind around the number, 65 MILLION victims aborted in the US since Roe vs Wade. If you started counting to ^% Million now, and counted once every second, it would take you 18,000 hours, or 752 days, or 2 years to count to 65 Million (assuming you never slept- and with an evil like abortion, how can you sleep if you do not fight against it).

This number of abortions approximates the population of the United Kingdom and France and is 12 times the population of Ireland.

It is an evil, the magnitude of which has never before been experienced in the history of the world, and its victims are innocent (unlike the victims of capital punishment) and defenseless (unlike soldiers in wartime). While I too oppose capital punishment and unjust war, I am determined to face eternity having fought against the evil of abortion as long as I live, no matter what the likelihood of success. I pray that you will join me and others like me.

Pete and Ryan,

Illegal abortions were not as common before Roe-Wade as you seem to believe and the pro-abortion press and movies would have you believe.

I have lived on both sides of Roe vs Wade. Before Roe-Wade, I adopted three children from Catholic Charities, a 6 week old boy and 18 months later, 3 week old twins. The mothers had been given shelter and board before birth in a lovely facility with a birthing facility and nursery where they and the children were cared for by loving Sisters. These mothers wanted life and all it might offer for their children - I am very grateful for their goodness and gift.

Two years after Roe -Wade, there were no children to adopt. The facility closed and the Sisters went on to serve others in another ministry.

I wish you could look my 42 year old son and my 40 year old twins in the eyes and tell them they would have been better off in the trash can or sink. I believe either of you is too good a person to do so, Yet you are comfortable being complicit through your vote with those who would kill children like mine. Please, please think about it.

I am not trying to say that abortion is not an important issue. I think it is very important. I just think we need to face reality, politicians will not deal with this issue. It started in the courts and it will end in the courts. That means you have to read Roe v. Wade to understand why abortion is legal in the first place. I do not agree with Roe v. Wade and think it is the most divisive, damaging, and absurd decision the Supreme Court ever made.

However, it was a decision by the Supreme Court and we need to address that reality. That means, we have to read the decision with precision and find its flaws. Then we need to find a way to bring the issue back to the Supreme Court and show them how the decision is crazy and get them to overturn it. This needs to be a concerted effort, like the one Thurgood Marshall organized to end the injustice of "separate but equal." If we as Catholics could bring a legal coalition to fight abortion in that manner, and eat away at Roe v. Wade little by little, then I think abortion could be made illegal.

At this point I would also like to point out that American laws are made to keep order, not to act a moral compass. Furthermore, the fact that some sins, such as murder, are illegal does not stop people from doing it. So the real challenge as Catholics is become a strong moral compass for women who are contemplating abortion. I think that means that our Catholic church needs to start a movement to open centers next to every abortion clinic to administer counseling for women who have had abortions or women considering abortions.

This is the reality that we live in as Americans. The fantasy world that some people are living in is that George Bush, or any other Republican will make a law federal law banning abortion. It will not happen because there will never be enough Republicans in Congress to pass such a law. At least not when our nation is divided practically 50/50. We need the Supreme Court to hand the issue back to the states and then fight our battle state by state.

Therefore, because I believe that abortion is not a Presidential issue, I choose to vote on other issues that I think are important to Catholics. I know people will scream that the President chooses our Supreme Court Justices and that will help us overturn Roe v. Wade, but I don't think Justices decide things on party lines. I have read enough cases to realize that most Justices decide things on the facts given, stare decisis, and their interpretation of the Constitution.

I am not calling anyone to vote democratic or republican, I just wish to see people vote for issues other than abortion. I wish to see a fight on the battle ground to educate people about abortion even though it is legal. I wish to see women who have had abortions to be welcomed into the church, because we should forgive and counsel these people who most need it. And I wish to see a strong Catholic legal coalition fight abortion in the courts.

Finally, I would like to stress that to think that an innocent life is more worthy than a "criminal" or "soldier's" life is against Jesus' teaching. All life is valuable. We all have sin our souls, even infants. If you do not believe that, you are not Catholic. Jesus came to save all of us because we are stained with original sin as humans.

Ryan: You seem not to understand what Original Sin is. It is called "sin" only by analogy with Actual Sin. There is no guilt attached to "Original Sin." Babies do not emerge from the womb "guilty," making them "no more innocent" than murderers.

What is most troubling about your posts is that:

1) You have a tenuous grasp on so many Catholic principles, and Catholic terminology.

2) You seem to have only ONE absolutely fixed, immovable principle, against which every other principle is disposable, flexible, and relativized: "Vote for Pro-Abortion Democrats."

Ryan,

I agree with your assertion that the Life debate will be settled in the courts. Your are also correct in pointing out that the decision was not correct. The reason for my post is to address the root cause of why and how apathy allows it to continue.

Judges and Justices who have eroded the Constitution have clearly been appointed by Liberal and even some Conservative administrations. Saying that there is no political solution to the Life debate or how it should steer someone who is a devout Catholic matters at the ballot box. It is especially critical in national elections and significantly so with the office of the President because they decide what kind of judges and justices will be nominated for a 4 year period. The congress can approve or block these appointments and are almost as critical.

Let's start with Roe v Wade - It was based on a false premise in a Supreme Court decision that created a "right to privacy." This "Right" appears nowhere in the Constitution, Bill of Rights or even writings of our Founding Fathers. It is a creation of a Liberal Supreme Court. What makes this so bad is because even though this right doesn't exist applying to the legalized killing of a baby insane. If one was to kill their spouse in the privacy of their home the one who did the killing would be charged with Murder or another capital offense. They could not use any privacy reason because killing is just that killing. Instead Liberal Justices used a "Right" that doesn't exist to give women the right to kill babies that they don't want to allow to be born.

A Catholic can't say they are voting their faith and vote for someone who prevents God's edict to be fruitful and multiply. Our primary mission is to spread the Word of Christ and someone who thinks that a human has a Choice to kill God's innocent is not in concert with Christ's teachings.

I do pray that Ryan will be touched by the Holy Spirit and see that he can make an impact in who he votes for.

Mr Hudson.

For the purpose of this note, when I use the word Liberal that's the same as a Democrat. My Father was a staunch Democrat when I was growing up. Today however, I think he would be shocked for what the Democratic party stands for.

I can't believe that most of the Catholics are that against the Iraq war. If you look at the big picture, we haven't been attacked since 9-11. I guess George Bush hasn't done anything to help prevent that, must just be lucky. You keep the fight over there, their not here. The media will never let you see the good that has come from this. People's freedoms, school and hospitals opened, the list just on and on. Since, your Obama doesn't like the war, does he have a plan to control terroism? I doubt it, he doesn't have a plan for anything. He just says what he's going to do, not how. I never thought I would say this, but Hillary would be the least of the two evils. Pray, that McCain gets in. Not that I'm a big backer of McCain, but I don't see my taxes going up as the Liberal give away programs would start to crank up. Then let's go to who has tne most experience, Obama has done nothing. So, how could you think he has the experience to lead the most powerful nation in the world. Now, let's talk abortion, if a candidate is pro-aborion, then I don't see how a true Catholic could even think about backing them. Shame on you!!!!!!!!!!