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FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE Contact: Kate Cyrul
Religion
Newswriters Service Annual Conference Catholic Politicians: Conscience v. Faith? Friday, September 10, 2004 "Thank you, David, for that introduction and for inviting me to be with you today. Let me first thank all of you for being here, particularly my fellow panelists, George Weigel and Amy Sullivan. "And let me thank all the reporters and men and women of faith who have attended this week's conference. You came here to take up a provocative and rich agenda, as you have discussed the role of faith in politics, society and public life. "I am delighted to be here to participate in such an important debate. I was invited by David to participate in this debate on faith and public life, I understand, not because I am a theologian or an expert on Catholicism, but rather my capacity as both a public servant and a Catholic. I suspect our letter to Cardinal McCarrick got your attention. "Let me just state from the outset - while the title of this forum is "Catholic Politicians: Conscience Versus Faith," I should make clear that I have never felt that I had to "resolve" my religious faith with my career as a public servant. My church is part of who I am and what I value. It did not occur to me before serving in the Congress that my church was not joyful about what I was trying to achieve for people. "Much of that goes to what I believe as a Catholic and how I was raised - I attended Catholic school from elementary school to college. There I learned to nourish my mind and my heart - to reach out, to work hard, to fulfill my potential and be whatever I wanted to be. But it also taught me to nourish my community, my neighbors - to give something back to my world, to the people of that world. It is my lifetime of Catholic education from kindergarten through college that in no small way moved me to serve the larger community and a commitment to the issues that have always been central to my faith - issues such as jobs, the child tax credit, education, homelessness and protecting the environment. "As the daughter of Italian immigrants growing up in New Haven's Wooster Square neighborhood, it was the church that bound us together as a community - in our schools, in our hospitals. My father received communion daily - and lived his faith with commitment. Our local parish was our community center - where people gathered to share their lives and help one another. Every night around my family's kitchen table, I saw how the Church could serve as the nexus between family and community. There, I would witness firsthand how my parents helped solve the problems of people in our neighborhood. "Both my mother and father were elected officials serving on the City Council - my mom for 35 years. Its longest serving member, she retired at age 85. "It was their example that showed me the vital connection between faith and public service - that values learned at church effected change at the community level both profound and undeniable. It showed me that government can and must play a critical role in enabling people to meet their responsibilities to each other and society as a whole. "And if we look at public policy throughout the last century, particularly since Franklin Roosevelt, we will see that many of the values we as Catholics were taught form the basis of many legislative accomplishments - values such as promoting the common good, with special emphasis on promoting peace and economic policies that include all children and families, and taking care of one another. The results were programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, home loan mortgage assistance, housing for the elderly, the GI bill - all of which have their roots in the Judeo-Christian traditions. The core of these programs, where the most in need receive the most assistance, reflects a core principle also in the Jewish tradition: "To whom much is given, from them much is expected." "The church has always understood the moral purposes of government, which could not be clearer when we stand before the challenge of the poor. It has spoken eloquently on this when the Catholic Bishops stated, quote, "The obligation to provide justice for all means that the poor have the single most urgent economic claim on the conscience of the nation." "And so, together, my upbringing, my Catholic education, and my community produced what today I regard as the totality of my identity. It is who I am today and someone I am comfortable with. "But that comfort has come under attack - and the issue of reconciling faith and public service has become one that is very real. In part that is happening because many politicians are much more expressive about their faith. Regardless of whether you support him or not, President Bush has impacted our public discourse with an easy resort to evangelical language and principles. Since he responded in 1999 that Jesus Christ was the political philosopher and thinker with whom he most identified, religion has become ever more integral to our politics. "This was not true when I came of political age. In the 1960s, according to Gallup, over 50 percent of Americans believed that churches should refrain from involvement in politics. In fact, less than a quarter believed it was acceptable for clergy to be discussing political issues or candidates from the pulpit. "Today, the public has followed the politicians. By the late 90's, over 50 percent told Gallup that churches should express their views on political and social issues of the day. But importantly, barely more than a quarter supported politicking directly from the pulpit. "For my part, I am wholly comfortable with the clergy guiding parishioners and politicians in issues of morality. That is very different than religious authorities dictating what elected officials and, indeed, voters should do under threat of religious sanction. I am alarmed when some bishops state that the sacraments should be withheld from certain Catholic legislators because of their votes on public issues. That conflicts with my fundamental beliefs about the role of democratic representatives in a pluralistic America - it clashes with freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution. Those in the hierarchy who cast this stone put at risk something very precious. "John F. Kennedy created our operating norms for these issues when he broke down the barriers that kept Catholics from the highest office of the land. Then-Senator Kennedy answered the skeptics worried about his Catholicism in a now-famous speech on September 12th, 1960 to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association. He said simply, "I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute - where no Catholic prelate would tell the President...how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote." "He continued, "I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant, nor Jewish - where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source." His election affirmed that principle, that our public life is enriched by the diversity of views and values that are nurtured in civil society and which are arbitrated in politics to a national conclusion. "In John Kennedy's times, we took momentous steps to control nuclear arms and to advance racial equity and ameliorate poverty. "A generation of Americans were inspired by John Kennedy, including my generation of Catholic leaders who brought their Catholic identities and values into our public life. For better or worse, we have brought our Catholicism, in all its richness, into the American polity. "But to be frank, I did not get elected to public office to undo John Kennedy's accomplishments. I am not willing to qualify his commitment not just to Catholics but to Americans of all faiths, whom I represent, too. "To be honest, I am not conflicted on this issue. I am completely comfortable with John Kennedy's vision and my oath of office. "What I ask of the bishops, are you comfortable eroding the American arrangements that have allowed us to unite our diversity, which allows so many of our ethnic and religious communities to flourish? It was the Catholic Church that taught immigrants English, helped them find jobs and housing and brought food for those who could not provide. The Church called on local politicians and government to take up that mission in our teaming cities, struggling with the flood of people from the impoverished countrysides, all across the globe. Others of different faiths, put down roots and flourished. The result is an America with many religions and a higher proportion of our citizenry practicing their faith. "As Alexis de Toqueville understood, faith and freedom go hand in hand - setting America apart. In short, we are not Europe - with its history of imposed religious homogeneity and state religions. We do not entertain the option of expelling the Jews and the Moors as did Spain. The Church flourishes because our democratic representatives answer to no religious authority but to the citizens who elected them. "A fellow Catholic, Mario Cuomo, said, quote, "Catholics who also happen to hold political office in this pluralistic democracy, and therefore commit to serving Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and atheists and Protestants, as well as Catholics...have to try to create conditions under which all citizens can live with a reasonable degree of freedom to practice their own competing religious beliefs." This is a special, precious realm and responsibility that I will protect against those who come to public issues with different mandates. "My colleague in the Congress, David Obey, put it another way. He said, quote, "public officials must reserve to themselves prudential judgments about how and under what circumstances to apply moral principles in a pluralistic society." He goes on to describe, quote, "a competing set of equities" when forming legislative positions, guided by both his moral views and his prudential view of how best to deal with these issues. "I am conflicted on many issues on which my church seeks to guide. The Church should seek to guide me on the right path and even seek to condemn my views. But dictating crashes against the great institutions we have built up. "Faith and conscience have collided because of a second development - that a few of the Church's hierarchy focus on abortion as the only issue that matters in the public realm. "For Catholic Members of Congress, we live with this issue in the most vivid ways-in being asked to resign from the board of a Catholic Women's High School, to not come to a communion breakfast-because I vote to maintain a woman's right to choose on abortion, as affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, as guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and supported by the majority of American voters. "I do not challenge the Church's teachings on this issue. I am perplexed, along with the 48 Catholic members of the House Democratic Caucus that some in the Church have made this the only issue to judge one's commitment to Catholic teachings. 48 of my colleagues-some pro-life and some pro-choice-signed a letter to Cardinal McCarrick. We wrote, "While some of us differ on this issue, each and every one of us is committed to the basic principles that are at the heart of Catholic social justice - helping the poor and underprivileged, protecting the most vulnerable among us and insuring that all Americans of every faith are given meaningful opportunities to share in the blessings of this great country." In that, we reflected the Catholic Bishops' affirmation of Isaiah's Rule - "but He shall judge the poor with justice." "So why are Members not judged on their commitment to lift up the poor? Do you know of elected officials barred from a communion breakfast for indifference to the poor? "On the question of life, the Church, via the bishops, spoke eloquently on the rush to war in Iraq. The bishops wrote to the president-as the Pope beseeched him-not to go to war. Bishop Wilton Gregory wrote, "I thought it was important that I express our serious questions about the moral legitimacy of any pre-emptive, unilateral use of military force to overthrow the government of Iraq." I, myself, received no call from the Church, even though my statement reflected Bishop Gregory's letter. "Have the bishops acted against Catholic Members who voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq? I have heard talk of denying Senator John Kerry communion because of his abortion vote, but not the barest mention of his war vote. "Then, of course, there is the death penalty. The Church and the Pope are opposed to the death penalty. Did the Church condemn Governor George W. Bush who personally presided over 152 executions? "You may not know that I support the death penalty and voted repeatedly for its extension to more federal crimes. I have never once heard from the clergy about my transgression on this issue. "If respect for life is absolute, why is the Church silent? When speaking of abortion, the bishops speak of "cooperating in evil." Why does the Church's commitment to life and social justice not embrace these other issues? "I pose these questions because I want my church to be a moral force in the broadest sense. I want to be in the vanguard of issues that make a more just America and more just world. The focus on abortion alone by a few bishops risks a moral selectivity and weakens the Church's moral authority on other issues. I do not want this for my church. "Just as I am comfortable with my role as a Catholic politician in a diverse America, I am comfortable prodding my church to be public with its moral teachings. As my colleague David Obey wrote, "There must be a moral purpose to public life and as a public servant, I try to apply my religious beliefs broadly, not narrowly and dogmatically." "I do not take my faith lightly. Nor do I take my responsibilities as a public servant lightly. When faced with complex ethical decisions that force me to discern what is right and what is wrong, I often think how at the foundation of Jesus' life was a continuous search for how best to live as an authentic human being before a loving God. Prudential judgment - that is what our church teaches us to do in life, and it is what I try to do in my public life as well. And I am comfortable with that."
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