Catholic vote could make or break McCain, says Reagan Catholic liaison

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A D V E R T I S I N G

Catholic vote could make or break McCain, says Reagan Catholic liaison

Washington DC, Mar 27, 2008 / 04:33 am (CNA).- Supporters of all major party candidates for the United States presidency are angling to discover how to best appeal to Catholic voters, who could be a key swing vote in the November presidential election. According to Robert Reilly, a successful McCain campaign must win over Catholics to win the White House.

Robert R. Reilly, who was President Ronald Reagan’s liaison to Catholics between 1983 and 1985, told CNA on Wednesday that Senator John McCain could not win the presidential election without the Catholic vote, which makes up about 25 percent of the electorate. “The worst thing he could assume is that [the Catholic vote] is going to fall into his lap because Catholics will have nowhere else to go,” he said.

Reilly argued that McCain could emulate Ronald Reagan’s successful appeal to the Catholic vote during his 1984 presidential campaign. Reagan’s campaign ran advertisements in Catholic newspapers featuring a photo of Reagan and Pope John Paul II smiling together. The photo, Reilly claimed, was effective because Reagan shared positions “completely congruent with those of the Catholic Church” on issues like the family, the sanctity of human life, pornography, and school prayer.

Senator McCain, Reilly said, “cannot simply claim that point of view; he needs to promote it.” Reilly noted that Reagan held a White House screening of Bernard Nathanson’s film of an abortion, titled “The Silent Scream.” Reagan also published a noteworthy essay, “Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation,” in the Human Life Review. The essay helped convince Catholic pro-lifers of Reagan’s sincerity, Reilly said.

Reilly suggested McCain ask his Democratic opponent to watch “The Silent Scream” or an equivalent film with him. He said McCain should write a pro-life essay similar to Reagan’s for publication in a prominent Catholic-friendly journal.

Senator McCain could also make the upcoming U.S. visit of Pope Benedict XVI an opportunity to display his understanding of the Pope’s thought on the family, the sanctity of human life, and the nature of radical Islam.

McCain needed to take risks to show his conviction in order to appeal to Catholics, Reilly claimed.

“If he throws as much conviction and energy into these issues as he did into his backing of the surge, Catholics and others will flock to his banner -- and he can win. If he tries to coast on the moral issues, he will not,” said Reilly.

The Democrats, too, are debating how to capture the Catholic vote in the presidential primary contest between Illinois Senator Barack Obama and New York Senator Hillary Clinton.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Clinton campaign has argued that its strength among Catholics in the Democratic presidential primaries could mean their candidate would be stronger than Senator Barack Obama against Republican candidate Senator John McCain.

Clinton won 63 percent of the Democratic Catholic vote in Ohio and 65 percent in Texas. Even in states where she lost to Obama, Clinton in some cases still won the Catholic vote in those states.

Catholics are also poised to play a large role in the Democratic primaries since a recent survey of 19 states that have held presidential primaries this year shows 63 percent of Catholics identified themselves as Democrats, while 37 percent identified themselves as Republican. In 2005, Edison/Mitofsky polls claimed that only 42 percent of Catholics identified themselves as Democrats.

Subscriber comments:

Published by: Dr. Guy
Chicago, Illinois 29/03/2008 06:09 AM EST

Don Schenk: Bless you for sound reasoning. Letting the secular agenda of the Democrats win because WM & Kitty think McCain is not pro-life enough is exactly acting like Germans who allowed Hitler to come to power.
It is interesting to see WM more concerned with defending Islamic Terrorists than being will to keep toops in a country to avoid a more intense civil war as we are doing by keeping troops in Keora. McCain is the only hope to defeat the forces of evil and allow the voice of Catholics to be heard in the fourm of debate in the United States.

Published by: Chris R
Mercer Island, WA 28/03/2008 10:19 AM EST

It is tough being a registered Democrat and not being able to vote for one in a federal election!

I will vote for McCain even though he is not totally prolife. He is prolife when it comes to abortion and that is the number one Evil that needs to be overturned in this country. He is open to changing his position on stem cell research which is more hopefull than any of the other candidates.

Both Barack and Hillary are pro-Death culture and will continue to promote the attack on the unborn.

I will also vote for McCain because he stands firmly behind traditional marriage. Barack and Hillary will back gay marriage. These positions of the Democratic party are intrinsically evil and cannot as a faithful Catholic vote for a candidate who is implicitly or explicitly a supporter of prochoice or gay marriage. I cannot take part in Material Cooperation in these evil acts.

McCain will be a good President. He has already shown he is willing to go against his own party, especially Bush, to do the right thing. He shows himself to be a true bridge builder between conservative and moderate democrats and moderate Republicans. How can Barack who is the most Liberal be a unifyer? He simply cannot. We need a government that will move forward, not stay put. Hillary is a much better choice than Barack. McCain is the best.

I pray he wins and I pray that he has an opportunity to put another prolife judge on the Surpreme Court!

Democrats for McCain!

Published by: Cindy
PA 27/03/2008 07:28 PM EST

I am a Catholic voter in PA. I am not convinced of Senator McCain's sincerity on either moral issues or social issues. I can not vote for either Clinton or Obama for moral reasons. What is a Catholic who is faithful to the Magisterium supposed to do? I won't vote for the lesser of two evils this year. I will vote third party or sit home.

Published by: Nancy
Washington State 27/03/2008 03:19 PM EST

As a long time active pro life Catholic I plan to stay on the battlefield and fight the good fight. I will be communicating with Senator McCain and the Republican Party and telling them our candidate needs to espouse the pro-life principles. I could not in good conscience let a Democratic pro choice candidate win because I did nothing. I believe McCain is reasonable and I challenge Catholics to respectfully communicate what we expect from him in order to support him. I think we have reached the tipping point in that direction and that it is truly the way for Republicans to win this election! I wish our bishops would support the cause. Some do but some don't. They won't like the socialist state they will be getting if a Democrat wins. Ask Bishop Chaput in Colorado. He is already fighting that battle.

Published by: Don Schenk
Allentown/PA/USA 27/03/2008 02:39 PM EST

Before the 2004 US elections, then-Cardinal Ratzinger wrote to the US bishops to remind them that
"While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion eevn among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia."
(See Exodus 20:23, 21:14, Luke 3:14, 7:1-10, 23:39-43, and Romans 13:4, and Catechism of The Catholic Church 2265 and 2267.)

Letting one of theDemocrats win because you don' think that McCain is "really" pro-life is like letting Hitler win because you suspect his opponent is secretly anti-Semitic.

Published by: John O
Harrisburg PA 27/03/2008 01:16 PM EST

What Hillary Clinton did in 1999 when New York City's Roman Catholics were outraged and asked her to intervene against the hateful artform (paid for by tax money) that was aimed against their religion? Museum of Modern Art in Brooklyn exhibition displayed Virgin Mary covered in elephant dung and surrounded by indecent images. Museum where this has happened was supported (back then) by our tax dollars.

So Hillary listened to the Roman Catholic concerns, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights called the Virgin Mary painting "Catholic-bashing garbage", but she ignored them, and let it go in the name of free speech. White House Press Correspondent Joe Lockhart told the media that President Clinton supports his wife's position regarding the exhibit. If this art happened to target any other religion while being funded by the tax payers money at the same time, there would be a definite uproar.

September 26th, 1999-

Catholic Cardinal John O' Connor tells his congregation at St. Patrick's Cathedral that he is "saddened by what appears to be an attack not only on our blessed mother ...but one must ask if it is not an attack on religion itself and in a special way on the Catholic Church." He also supports "city officials" in opposition to the exhibit.

Published by: WM
us 27/03/2008 12:17 PM EST

Dear Kitty:
AMEN! How can anyone in his/her right mind believe that Mr. 100-year War is pro life? (Especially when the war is against a country that never attacked us).

Published by: Kitty
WA 27/03/2008 10:12 AM EST

As a Catholic, I will be voting for a third party. McCain is not truly pro-life and I cannot go against my Catholic faith or my conscience and vote for him. I know many other people who feel the same way.

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