OSV STORY FOR JUNE 9

ANALYSIS

The Catholic press and the race for the presidency

The annual meeting of the nation's Catholic editors becomes a one-day 'bootcamp' on the upcoming election

By DAVID SCOTT

[PHILADELPHIA]

The annual meetings of the U.S. Catholic Press Association are ordinarily sleepy affairs.

But this year's meeting in Philadelphia May 22-25 saw the Catholic press get thrown in the middle of an election year dust-up -- as the president and the expected Republican nominee squared off in a debate aimed at winning over Catholic newspaper and magazine editors and, more importantly, the estimated 25 million Americans reached by Catholic publications.

President Clinton had declined invitations to address the convention. But in his second week of full-time stumping since resigning from the Senate, Bob Dole came to Philadelphia and delivered a 25-minute, campaign-style speech.

Invoking his warm connections with Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, with whom he had met privately before his speech, Dole spoke sympathetically on issues of traditional concern to Catholics.

He described himself as "pro-life," called for tax vouchers for parochial-school parents and an end to "films, music and television which debase our culture." He praised Catholic social teaching and promised not to forget the country's "moral duties to the poor."

But the heart of his speech was a highly personal attack on the president, claiming that Clinton has no "moral vision" and seems to be "guided by nothing more profound or permanent than the latest polling data."

Dole said the "saddest evidence of this" was Clinton's veto in April of legislation that would have outlawed "partial-birth" abortions. "With his veto, President Clinton pushed the limits of decency too far," Dole said.

Clinton issued an angry and almost immediate rebuttal. "I am a little skeptical when politicians piously proclaim their morality," Clinton said from a press conference in Milwaukee, where he was meeting with German chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Clinton insinuated that Dole didn't care about women in crisis pregnancies, and he described what purportedly would befall a woman in such a pregnancy who didn't have access to the partial-birth procedure: "They rip your body to shreds and you could never have another baby, even though the baby you were carrying couldn't live," Clinton said.

The president added his own barb at Dole: "Now, I fail to see why his moral position is superior to the one I took."

Clinton followed up the next day with a message sent to the Catholic press convention. Despite "some painful and sobering issues upon which we disagree," Clinton said that Catholics and his administration have "much more that we hold in common," citing in particular concern for "the poor, the elderly, children and immigrants."

Counting Catholics

It was a minor skirmish in the early moments of what is shaping up to be a bitter presidential race, but the exchange highlights the pivotal role that the nation's 60 million Catholics -- who make up about one in four voters -- could play in the upcoming election.

The "Catholic vote" is far from uniform, with Catholics ranging from traditional social conservatives to union members and old-fashioned liberals. But however Catholics stack up, it is clear that in the last decade the "Catholic vote" has swung away from the Democrats. In fact, the 1994 mid-term election marked the first time that Republican candidates garnered a majority of the Catholic votes.

As if to emphasize the point, Dole was joined on the rostrum at the Catholic press gathering by two Pennsylvania Catholic Republicans elected in 1994: Gov. Tom Ridge and U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum.

While acknowledging the erosion of their traditional Catholic base, Democrats have focused only sporadically on Catholic voters.

In September, President Clinton invited the editors of select Catholic publications to the White House for a roundtable interview session. But on the whole, the administration has proceeded apparently without regard or understanding of Catholic sensitivities.

The veto of the partial-birth abortion ban, carried out despite personal and passionate appeals from Catholic leaders, was seen as but the latest in a litany of Clinton administration failures to respect Catholic concerns, a list that includes highly public showdowns with the Vatican at important United Nations' conferences on population and women's issues, and the appointment of administration officials who evidenced decidedly anti-Catholic rhetoric and attitudes.

Some analysts speculate that the Democrats have figured they will never win the votes of pro-life, socially conservative Catholics anyway. Instead, these commentators suggest, Clinton is trying to shore up support among Catholics who, while they may be uncomfortable with Clinton's pro-abortion agenda, are attracted to his apparent idealism and his support for the poor, women, organized labor and human rights.

And in his message to the Catholic press meeting, Clinton played to those Catholics, invoking care for "the most vulnerable among us," and ending with an effusive appeal: "We must ensure that every individual has access to a good education, quality health care, a job with a future, and a genuine chance to share in the American dream."

But some predict that Clinton may find that his partial-birth abortion veto will come back to haunt him with liberal Catholics, who feel betrayed.

For instance, Margaret Steinfels, editor of the leading liberal Catholic journal, Commonweal, was quoted after the veto as having said: "When he said that abortion should be 'safe, legal and rare,' we all believed him. Tonight, a liberal friend called me and said, 'How can I possibly vote for him after this?' "

Republican ambitions

By contrast, the Republicans are unabashedly counting on Catholics as part of their strategy to win the White House in November.

The Republican National Committee has been sending out an almost daily volley of faxes to Catholic newspapers around the country, and the committee even had a booth at the Catholic press convention.

The lead article in the current issue of the party magazine, Rising Tide (May/June), outlines a strategy for winning the Catholic vote, noting that Catholics account for up to 41 percent of the vote in key "battleground states" such as Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut -- states that all have Republican governors elected with Catholic support.

"Republican candidates should appear at meetings of groups like the Knights of Columbus, Catholic War Veterans, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and the Sons of Italy," the article advises.

And Dole's appearance at the Catholic press meeting was in keeping with that advice, as were the references in his speech to Catholic social teaching on "subsidiarity."

As outlined in the Rising Tide article, party strategists want to highlight "the natural fit" they say exists between Republican efforts to scale back the federal government and the Church's belief that social services are best carried out by the smallest possible social unit, starting with individuals, families, parishes, voluntary associations and charities.

Dole told Catholic press editors that the Church's teaching represents "a profoundly promising and compassionate direction for reform."

In this context, he proposed his speech's only new idea -- to give taxpayers the option of earmarking up to $500 of their taxes to private and religious charities that are working to fight poverty.

Who won the tussle of words at the Catholic press convention is less important than the insight it afforded on the race for the White House, a race it seems that will unavoidably keep returning to moral issues.

But whether the election will be a "referendum on the basic values of the country," as Dole promised in his speech, or an exercise in politicians just "piously proclaim[ing] their morality," as President Clinton charged in his response, remains something Catholic editors, their readers and the rest of the voters will have to sort out.

Scott is editor of Our Sunday Visitor

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