Catholic group branches off to support Obama
Daniel Burke/Religion News Service
Issue date: 11/2/08 Section: Divine Intervention
"I thought it was an overtly partisan maneuver," Gebhard said of Anderson's rebuke.
Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, regularly speaks for the group on public policy issues, and, despite his background in GOP politics, steers clear of partisanship, Korten said.
Since Gebhard started his group on Oct. 3, between 50 and 100 fellow Knights - including former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Thomas P. O'Neill III - have joined Knights for Obama.
The newly revived Catholic Left is part of a larger effort by religious progressives to expand the definition of "values issues" to include war, the economy and the environment.
Progressives said neutralizing abortion as a Republican wedge issue is key to their campaign. While many accept the church's teaching that abortion is evil, they reject the idea that voting for a pro-abortion rights candidate is akin to heresy.
"Coming out of 2004, the abortion issue was paralyzing the prophetic religious community," said James Salt, Catholic United's director of organizing. "Our contribution to the abortion debate was inadequate."
Progressives said they now have a persuasive contribution: that addressing the root causes of abortion, such as poverty, can be more effective in the short term than working to criminalize the procedure.
Salt said his group is mailing that message directly to 50,000 Catholic families in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Perhaps as important are the prominent Catholic scholars taking the message to the public at large, such as Douglas Kmiec, former legal counsel in the administrations of President Ronald Reagan, the first President George Bush and Nicholas Cafardi, former dean of the Law School of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and a past chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' National Review Board on clergy sexual abuse.
"When a very articulate conservative like Doug Kmiec all of a sudden lays out this case, you can't say it's ideologically motivated," said Patrick Whelan, director of Catholic Democrats. "People stop and pay attention."
Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, regularly speaks for the group on public policy issues, and, despite his background in GOP politics, steers clear of partisanship, Korten said.
Since Gebhard started his group on Oct. 3, between 50 and 100 fellow Knights - including former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Thomas P. O'Neill III - have joined Knights for Obama.
The newly revived Catholic Left is part of a larger effort by religious progressives to expand the definition of "values issues" to include war, the economy and the environment.
Progressives said neutralizing abortion as a Republican wedge issue is key to their campaign. While many accept the church's teaching that abortion is evil, they reject the idea that voting for a pro-abortion rights candidate is akin to heresy.
"Coming out of 2004, the abortion issue was paralyzing the prophetic religious community," said James Salt, Catholic United's director of organizing. "Our contribution to the abortion debate was inadequate."
Progressives said they now have a persuasive contribution: that addressing the root causes of abortion, such as poverty, can be more effective in the short term than working to criminalize the procedure.
Salt said his group is mailing that message directly to 50,000 Catholic families in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Perhaps as important are the prominent Catholic scholars taking the message to the public at large, such as Douglas Kmiec, former legal counsel in the administrations of President Ronald Reagan, the first President George Bush and Nicholas Cafardi, former dean of the Law School of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and a past chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' National Review Board on clergy sexual abuse.
"When a very articulate conservative like Doug Kmiec all of a sudden lays out this case, you can't say it's ideologically motivated," said Patrick Whelan, director of Catholic Democrats. "People stop and pay attention."
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