Saints, Sinners and Scientists

St. Francis of Assisi and Charles Darwin are rarely paired as ideological foes, but in his invigorating keynote address New York Governor Mario Cuomo served them up as symbols of the philosophical clash between the Democratic and Republican parties. While Ronald Reagan has questioned Darwin's theory of evolution, Cuomo accuses the President of embracing social Darwinism, "survival of the fittest," as part of his supply-side economic theories.

By way of contrast, Cuomo offered as the patron of his party's principles the man G.K. Chesterton called "the world's one quite sincere democrat," St. Francis of Assisi. The wealthy 13th century Italian, a man-about-town who was "born again" and founded the Franciscan order, is a Cuomo favorite. The Governor suggested that if St. Francis were alive today, his ascetic devotion to the poor, sick and oppressed might have led him to progressive politics and the ideals of the Democratic Party. Though Republicans may jeer at Cuomo's sudden secularization of a saint and dismiss his remarks about Darwinism as the origin of the specious, Democrats hope that the erudite comparison will serve them well in drawing the battle lines for the fall campaign.