Conservative George Weigel at the Ethics and Public Policy Institute writes:
This year, the pro-abortion candidate carried every state in what Maggie Gallagher calls the "Decadent Catholic Corridor" -- the Northeast and the older parts of the Midwest. Too many Catholics there are still voting the way their grandparents did, and because that's what their grandparents did. This tribal voting has been described by some bishops as immoral; it is certainly stupid, and it must be challenged by adult education. That includes effective use of the pulpit to unsettle settled patterns of mindlessness.
I don't want to intrude on the debate over whether you're a bad Catholic if you vote for a pro-choice candidate. But I need to note a factual error. Obama won not primarily because Catholics reflexively vote Democratic but rather because millions of Cathoilcs who had been voting Republican switched to the Democrats this time.
What's more, this was not driven only by "cafeteria Catholics" or those with a tenuous grasp of Catholic teaching: Barack Obama won 47% of Catholics who attend mass weekly compared to 43% who voted for John Kerry.
It seems to me that, from a Catholic perspective, one of the central questions from this election was why did so many of the most religious Catholics disregard their Bishops?
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First, sorry for the double post above! It told me the scramble had expired! Guess not, went in.
Your Name at 4:42 PM 25 Nov. :
Admire your consideration for your wife...my husband did the same thing after our 2nd. What a relief! I agree with your version of what some call "the Golden Rule". And you're right...no one knows the truth when it comes to religion. However there are unfortunately a lot of folks who think they do!!
"It seems to me that, from a Catholic perspective, one of the central questions from this election was why did so many of the most religious Catholics disregard their Bishops?"
Because of the decades of disrespect their Bishops have earned for themselves. The best and brightest of Catholics are not welcome in spiritual vocations.
"It seems to me that, from a Catholic perspective, one of the central questions from this election was why did so many of the most religious Catholics disregard their Bishops?"
Could it be because, for decades, the Bishops disregarded the Catholic laity who were bringing them complaints about abusive priests?
I believe most catholics just looked and heard obama and that he attended a catholic church and also that he supposedly is a catholic and believed that a good enough reason to vote for him...in my run ins with catholics there is usually very little reason that goes into there thinking involving their religion but mainly that it is just their way of life..so yes many follow blindly..
john k ....with catholics there is .....
I concur. I have found that to be true. Having relatives who are catholic, I find them to be that way. Blindly following like sheep.
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