Commentators say pro-Obama Catholics misrepresent record

Washington D.C., Sep 27, 2012 / 23:38 pm

The Catholic commentators Deacon Keith Fournier and Deal Hudson, in their new column to run daily through the upcoming elections, have warned that some Catholic supporters of President Obama are misrepresenting his record.

Deacon Fournier said "too many Catholics and other Christians have not figured out the consequences we face on November 6, 2012 if we do not properly inform our decision on who we will elect to lead us and vote accordingly."

He and Hudson said in a Sept. 27 column at Catholic Online that despite their own differences they have joined together to "do absolutely everything we can" to influence "the most important election in our lifetime."

Deacon Fournier, the editor in chief of Catholic Online, and Hudson, the president of the Pennsylvania Catholics Network and a former Republican consultant on Catholic outreach, said that President Obama's position on abortion bothers many Catholics if they are informed about it.

A poll from the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List reports that most Catholic swing voters said they would be less likely to vote for President Obama after learning of his vote against a law protecting babies who survive a failed abortion.

However, Deacon Fournier and Hudson said, "Obama and his advisors are paying little attention, hoping that voters will believe the misrepresentations of their surrogates."

They cited as evidence the report of an unnamed Catholic woman who chairs her parish's pro-life committee. She said she received a scripted phone call from Catholic supporters of President Obama who denied that the pro-abortion rights president and the abortion provider Planned Parenthood support abortion.

The two commentators also explained the relevance of Catholic social teaching to one's choice in voting. They stressed the importance of respecting "every human life" whether it is in "the womb, a wheelchair, a jail cell, a hospital room, a hospice, a senior center or a soup kitchen."

They also weighed-in on the issue of marriage, stating that it is a union of one man and one woman, the "foundation" of the family and not "some social construct which can be redefined by courts or legislatures."

Catholic social teaching additionally emphasizes human community and each person's social responsibilities to others, they wrote.

"The social doctrine of the Catholic Church rejects a notion of 'freedom' which begins and ends with the isolated, atomistic person as the measure of its application," they said. Economic systems must serve the human person and the human family, with preference for the poor, while also rejecting "all forms of dehumanizing collectivism."

Deacon Fournier and Hudson said that the truths of Catholic social doctrine are not only for the religious, but have their basis in reason as well.

"The Church calls us to offer them as leaven to be worked into the loaf of human culture," the commentators said.