Pulpit Politics

Religion enters the campaign

It is "unacceptable" for a politician who opposes abortion personally to favor free choice as a matter of public policy. So wrote James W. Malone, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Youngstown, Ohio, and head of the U.S. Catholic Conference, the executive agency of the 285 American Catholic bishops, in a formal statement released last week after portions of it had started to leak. He mentioned no names, but the position he assailed happens to be the one taken by a number of prominent Catholic politicians, most notably Democratic Vice-Presidential Nominee Geraldine Ferraro.

The bishop's statement thus seems likely to intensify a budding controversy over the proper role of religion in the 1984 campaign. The issue cropped up early this year with Ronald Reagan's fervent advocacy of school prayer, and erupted more recently in New York with a tense exchange between Governor Mario Cuomo, a Catholic, and Archbishop John O'Connor. Democrat Cuomo accused O'Connor of implicitly advising Catholics to vote against him and other officeholders who accept the church's insistence that abortion is morally wrong but contend that as public officials they have no right to impose that belief on others. O'Connor said he had only re-emphasized the church's traditional moral teaching.

That was also the stated purpose of Malone's pronouncement on behalf of the U.S. Catholic Conference. That body, said the bishop, believes "it would be regrettable if religion as such were injected into a political campaign." But, he asserted, the Catholic hierarchy has not just a right but a "need to join the public policy debate" by defining the moral principles that should guide political behavior, "with particular emphasis on abortion and nuclear war." On many other issues, Malone said, "there is room for sincere disagreement" on how moral guidelines should be applied to public policy, but on those matters involving "the direct taking of innocent human life" the bishops are speaking in accord with "the highest teaching authority of the church."

Obviously referring specifically to abortion, Malone sharply criticized "candidates [who say] their personal views should not influence their policy decisions." Said the bishop: "The implied dichotomy (between personal morality and public policy) is simply not logically tenable." Ferraro asserted, "I am amazed at how times have changed. Twenty years ago, people were afraid that John Kennedy would impose his religious beliefs on his decisions in Government. Now some people are afraid that I won't."