Catholic Church and politics in the United States
There are 67,117,016 Catholics in the United States (22% of the U.S. population) by The Official Catholic Directory 2008. Catholics represent the largest Christian denomination in America with over 67 million professing the faith in 2008. 85% of these Catholics found their faith to be "somewhat" to "very important" to them. It is even said that Catholics have represented up to 30% of the voting population in recent elections. [1] [2]
In recent decades the Catholic vote has been less uniform. More and more American Catholics have drifted away from liberalism and toward conservatism because of controversial issues such as opposition to abortion rights and same-sex marriage, and also more personal ones like birth control usage and feminism. On certain issues the church has been conservative. The prohibition of “artificial” means of birth control was reiterated by Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Humanae Vitae (1968). This document provoked objections in some theological circles and even among some bishops—a unique phenomenon for the modern papacy. Although its import continues to be debated, it is certainly the most authoritative statement on the issue. The Roman Catholic Church has been a fierce opponent of liberalized abortion laws and has inspired political resistance to such legislation in several Western countries.[3]
Currently there are 25 Catholics in the United States Senate, 16 Democrats, 9 Republicans, and 134 (out of 435) Catholics in the United States House of Representatives, including the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi of California. Vice President of the United States Joseph Biden is also a Catholic, the first ever elected Vice President.
Unlike other countries with large Catholic populations, there is no major Christian Democratic Party in the United States.
19th century
Before 1840 Catholics constituted a small minority and therefore played a relatively minor role in early American history. Only in Maryland were there significant numbers, and Baltimore became an early Catholic center. During the American Revolution until the late 18th century, only about 1% of the American population (about 30,000) was Catholic. Still, there was a Catholic in the First Congress; Daniel Carroll serving Maryland's 6th congressional district,[4] and Senator Charles Carroll of Carrollton serving as the first class 1 senator from Maryland.[5]
This changed as a result of the mass immigration of Catholics from Europe, especially Ireland and Germany. By 1830, there were about 600,000 Catholics in the United States. In that decade, 200,000 Irish immigrated to escape poverty. The Irish Potato Famine in 1845 caused the Irish population in America to reach 962,000, the number doubling in the next ten years [6]. The Know Nothings party was active in the mid-1850s, demanding a purification of politics from Catholic influence. The American Protective Association was active in the 1890s, focusing its attacks on Catholic politicians.
Labor union movement
The Catholic Church exercised a prominent role in shaping America's labor movement. From the onset of significant immigration in the 1840s, the Church in the United States was predominantly urban, with both its leaders and congregants usually of the laboring classes. Over the course of the second half of the nineteenth century, nativism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-unionism coalesced in Republican politics, and Catholics gravitated toward unions and the Democratic Party.
The Knights of Labor was the earliest labor organization in the United States, and in the 1880s, the was the largest labor union in the United States. and it is estimated that at least half its membership was Catholic (including Terence Powderly, its president from 1881 onward).
In Rerum Novarum (1891), Leo criticized the concentration of wealth and power, spoke out against the abuses that workers faced and demanded that workers should be granted certain rights and safety regulations. He upheld the right of voluntary association, specifically commending labor unions. At the same time, he reiterated the Church’s defense of private property, condemned socialism, and emphasized the need for Catholics to form and join unions that were not compromised by secular and revolutionary ideologies.[7]
Rerum Novarum provided new impetus for Catholics to become active in the labor movement, even if its exhortation to form specifically Catholic labor unions was widely interpreted as irrelevant to the pluralist context of the United States. While atheism underpinned many European unions and stimulated Catholic unionists to form separate labor federations, the religious neutrality of unions in the U.S. provided no such impetus. American Catholics seldom dominated unions, but they exerted influence across organized labor. Catholic union members and leaders played important roles in steering American unions away from socialism.
20th century
By 1900, Catholics represented 14 percent of the total U.S. population, soon became the single largest religious denomination in the country [8]. Still, Catholics did not hold many high offices in politics. Of the first 54 justices on the United States Supreme Court, only one was Catholic, Roger B. Taney, appointed in 1836.
Bishops' Program of Social Reconstruction
Following World War I, many hoped that a new commitment to social reform would characterize the ensuing peace. The Council saw an opportunity to use its national voice to shape reform and in April 1918 created a Committee for Reconstruction. John A. Ryan wrote the Bishops' Program of Social Reconstruction. Combining Progressive thought and Catholic theology, Ryan believed that government intervention was the most effective means of affecting positive change for his church as well as working people and the poor.
On February 12, 1919, the National Catholic War Council issued the "Bishops' Program of Social Reconstruction," through a carefully planned public relations campaign. The plan offered a guide for overhauling America's politics, society, and economy based on Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum and a variety of American influences.
The Program received a mixed reception both within the Church and outside it. The National Catholic War Council was a voluntary organization with no canonical status. Its ability to speak authoritatively was thus questioned. Many bishops threw their support behind the Program, but some, like Bishop William Turner of Buffalo, and more notably, William Henry O'Connell of Boston, opposed it. O'Connell believed some aspects of the plan smacked too much of socialism. Response outside the Church was also divided: labor organizations backing it, for example, and business groups criticizing it.
Compulsory Education Act
After World War I, some states concerned about the influence of immigrants and "foreign" values looked to public schools for help. The states drafted lawsdesigned to use schools to promote a common American culture.
In 1921, the Ku Klux Klan arrived in Oregon from central California and quickly attracted as many as 14,000 members, establishing 58 klaverns by the end of 1922. Given the small population of non-white minorities outside Portland, the Oregon Klan directed its attention almost exclusively against Catholics, who numbered about 8% of the population.
In 1922, the Masonic Grand Lodge of Oregon sponsored a bill to require all school-age children to attend public schools. With support of the Klan and Democratic Governor Walter M. Pierce, endorsed by the Klan, the Compulsory Education Act was passed by a vote of 115,506 to 103,685. Its primary purpose was to shut down Catholic schools in Oregon, but it also affected other private and military schools. The constitutionality of the law was challenged in court and ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court in Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925) before it went into effect.[9]
The law caused outraged Catholics to organize locally and nationally for the right to send their children to Catholic schools. In Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), the United States Supreme Court declared the Oregon's Compulsory Education Act unconstitutional in a ruling that that has been called "the Magna Carta of the parochial school system."
1928 Presidential election
In 1928, Al Smith became the first Roman Catholic to gain a major party's nomination for President, and his religion became an issue during the campaign. Many Protestants feared that Smith would take orders from church leaders in Rome in making decisions affecting the country.
Catholic Worker Movement
The Catholic Worker movement began as a means to combine Dorothy Day's history in American social activism, anarchism, and pacifism with the tenets of Catholicism (including a strong current of distributism), five years after her 1927 conversion.[10] The group started with the Catholic Worker newspaper, created to promote Catholic social teaching and stake out a neutral, pacifist position in the war-torn 1930s. This grew into a "house of hospitality" in the slums of New York City and then a series of farms for people to live together communally. The movement quickly spread to other cities in the United States, and to Canada and the United Kingdom; more than 30 independent but affiliated CW communities had been founded by 1941. Well over 100 communities exist today, including several in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, and Sweden.[11]
National Catholic Welfare Conference
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1930s
Historian John McGreevey notes: "Priests across the country in the 1930s encouraged their parishioners to join unions, and some like Pittsbugh's Charles Rice, Detroit's Frederick Siedenberg, and Buffalo's Monsignor John P.Boland, served on regional labor boards and played key roles in workplace negotiations." The Catholic Worker Movement and Dorothy Day grew out of the same impetuses to put Catholic social teaching into action.
Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems
The Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems (1923–1937) was conceived by Fr. Raymond McGowan as a way of bringing together Catholic leaders in the fields of theology, labor, and business, with a view to promoting awareness and discussion of Catholic social teaching. Its first meeting was held in Milwaukee. While it was the venue for important discussions during its existence, its demise was due in part to lack of participation by business executives who perceived the dominant tone of the group as anti-business.
1960s
Religion became a divisive issue during the presidential campaign of 1960. Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts was vying to become the nation's first Catholic president. A key factor that was hurting Kennedy in his campaign was the widespread prejudice against his Roman Catholic religion; some Protestants believed that, if he were elected President, Kennedy would have to take orders from the Pope in Rome. When offered the opportunity to speak before a convention of Baptist ministers, decided to try to put the issue to rest.
To address fears that his Roman Catholicism would impact his decision-making, John F. Kennedy famously told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, 1960, "I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters — and the Church does not speak for me."[12] He promised to respect the separation of church and state and not to allow Catholic officials to dictate public policy to him. Kennedy also raised the question of whether one-quarter of Americans were relegated to second-class citizenship just because they were Roman Catholic.
Even so, it was widely believed after the election that Kennedy lost some heavily Protestant states because of his Catholicism. His address did not please everyone: many non-Catholics remained unconvinced that a Catholic could be president without divided loyalties; and many Catholics thought he conceded too much in his profession of belief in an "absolute" separation of church and state. The speech is widely considered to be an important marker in the history of Catholicism (and anti-Catholicism) in the United States.
Kennedy went on to win the national popular vote over Richard Nixon by just one tenth of one percentage point (0.1%) - the closest popular-vote margin of the 20th century. In the electoral college, Kennedy's victory was larger, as he took 303 electoral votes to Nixon's 219 (269 were needed to win). The New York Times, summarizing the discussion late in November, spoke of a “narrow consensus” among the experts that Kennedy had won more than he lost as a result of his Catholicism,[13] as Northern Catholics flocked to Kennedy because of attacks on his religion.
Catholic Vote in Presidential Elections
This chart shows the Democrat/Republican split of the Catholic vote in elections since 1948.
| Year | Candidate | Party | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Harry Truman | Democrat | 65/35 |
| 1952 | Adlai Stevenson | Democrat | 51/49 |
| 1956 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Republican | 45/55 |
| 1960 | John F. Kennedy | Democrat | 82/18 |
| 1964 | Lyndon B. Johnson | Democrat | 78/22 |
| 1968 | Hubert Humphrey | Democrat | 55/37 |
| 1972 | Richard Nixon | Republican | 37/63 |
| 1976 | Jimmy Carter | Democrat | 56/44 |
| 1980 | Ronald Reagan | Republican | 40/51 |
| 1984 | Ronald Reagan | Republican | 44/56 |
| 1988 | Michael Dukakis | Democrat | 52/48 |
| 1992 | Bill Clinton | Democrat | 48/29 |
| 1996 | Bill Clinton | Democrat | 55/38 |
| 2000 | Al Gore | Democrat | 50/47 |
| 2004 | George W. Bush | Republican | 52/47 |
| 2008 | Barack Obama | Democrat | 54/45 |
In 1992, 22% of Catholic voters voted for a third-party candidate.
Present day
Religion plays an important part in American politics, and it will continue to shape policies in the future. Specifically, the emergence of gay rights, abortion rights, and current immigration issues have a huge impact on voting patterns. Both gay rights, abortion rights, and even the “right to die” Terri Schiavo case have not only tested the values of the Catholic Church, but united the evangelicals and Catholics. At the same time, some Catholics question the church stance on birth control and the role of women.
According to Dr. John Green of University of Akron, "There isn't a Catholic vote anymore; there are several Catholic votes."
Congress
Today, Catholics represent 28.8% of Congress.
Supreme Court
As of 2008[update], the Supreme Court has a Catholic majority. Catholics represent 56% of the Justices on the Supreme Court.[14] In the early 1980s, there was only one Catholic justice. This changed in the mid 1980s when President Ronald Reagan nominated Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy to the court, both Catholic. The first President Bush nominated Clarence Thomas (a Catholic who at the time of his appointment was attending Episcopalian services, though he has since become an active Catholic) along with David Souter, an Episcopalian. President Bill Clinton appointed two Jewish Judges: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. The second President George W. Bush appointed John Roberts and Samuel Alito, both Catholics.
The four Catholic Supreme Court justices nominated in the last decade have become reliable votes for abortion restriction. In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health (1990), Hodgson v. Minnesota (1990), and Rust v. Sullivan (1991), Scalia and Kennedy upheld the restrictions in question . This is not to say that all Catholics vote a certain way, the majority of Catholic judges have been appointed by Republicans, while Protestant and Jewish judges have been appointed by Democrats, but there is still a great difference between Catholic judges and Protestant judges. While many Protestant judges were pro-choice, only one Catholic judge has ever ruled against abortion restrictions, and that was in one of six cases. This makes for very reliable voting patterns in the Supreme Court, at least when it comes to abortion issues.[15]
Catholic Answers voting guides
In 2004, Catholic Answers tackled the job of reminding Catholics of their duties as voters who happen to be Catholic. It did so by publishing its Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics. It also reached out to non-Catholic Christians with its Voter's Guide for Serious Christians. In 2006, it revamped the guides and published them on its Catholic Answers Action web site.[16]
Gay Rights Issues
The traditional view of family, a nuclear family, is what the Roman Catholic Church considers a family today. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that although it is not sinful to be a homosexual, sodomy is a sin, and that practicing homosexuals are sinners, and like other sinners: "They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided." (Catechism of the Catholic Church para. 2358) Some Roman Catholics take this to mean that voting in favor of "benefits for lifelong partners" is a compassionate act, whereas others vote against this as promoting these issues.
Abortion
In accordance with its teachings, the Catholic Church opposes abortion in all circumstances and often leads the national debate on abortion.[17] The Roman Catholic Church has been a fierce opponent of liberalized abortion laws and has organized political resistance to such legislation in several Western countries. Catholics believe the embryo is a human being from the time of conception. As such, the embryo has the legal right to life from the moment the egg and sperm unite. Thus, it holds that no one can end that life, no matter what the reason.
Immigration
The immigration debate has also changed relations between Republicans and Roman Catholic voters. Roughly 30% of the Roman Catholic population is Hispanic and that percentage continues to rise steadily. Pope John Paul II advocated that countries should accommodate people fleeing from economic hardship if they are able.
The Roman Catholic leadership in the U.S. seems to oppose many restrictions on immigration perhaps because most immigration to the U.S. is from predominately Roman Catholic nations.[citation needed] For example, Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke has been involved in rallies to allow undocumented workers a chance at citizenship. By welcoming migrant workers, many of whom are Catholic, Burke says, "we obey the command of Our Lord, who tells us that when we welcome the stranger, we welcome Christ Himself." [citation needed]
In 2006, Roger Cardinal Mahony controversially announced that he would order the clergy and laity of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to ignore H.R. 4437 if it were to become law.[18] Cardinal Mahony personally lobbied senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein to have the Senate consider a comprehensive immigration reform bill, rather than the enforcement-only bill that passed the House of Representatives.[19] Cardinal Mahony also blamed the Congress for the illegal immigration crisis due to their failure to act on the issue in the previous 20 years, opposed H.R. 4437 as punitive and open to abusive interpretation, and supported S. 2611.[20][21]
On the other hand, the Roman Catholic laity may be out of step with the "high" priestly leadership of the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. on this issue. Many prominent opponents of mass immigration to the U.S., such as, most notably, Pat Buchanan, are Roman Catholics who base their "conservatism" in their faith. Since, for one, immigration is a sensitive issue for many, it is difficult to gauge the effects of conservative Roman Catholic thinkers on the immigration debate. The mainstays of the so-called "paleoconservative" and related immigration-reform movements are largely Roman Catholic: Pat Buchanan, Thomas Fleming, Russell Kirk, William Buckley, etc.
Presidential elections
In the 2008 election, Catholics comprised 27% of the voters and they chose Obama over McCain 54-45%, thanks to large margins among Latinos; the 19% of voters who were non-Latino Catholics favored McCain 53%-47%. [22]
| Candidate | Party | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Ronald Reagan | Republican | 1980, 1984 |
| Bill Clinton | Democratic | 1992, 1996 |
| Al Gore | Democratic | 2000 |
| George W. Bush | Republican | 2004 |
| Barack Obama | Democratic | 2008 |
See also
Bibliography
- Casey, Shaun. The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960 (2009)
- Cochran, Clarke E. and David Carroll Cochran. Catholics, Politics, and Public Policy: Beyond Left and Right (2003)
- Heyer, Kristin E., Mark J. Rozell, and Michael A. Genovese. Catholics and Politics: The Dynamic Tension Between Faith and Power (2008)
- Marlin, George J., and Michael Barone, American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years Of Political Impact (2006)
- Prendergast, William B. The Catholic Voter in American Politics: The Passing of the Democratic Monolith (1999)
- Woolner, David B., and Richard G. Kurial. FDR, the Vatican, and the Roman Catholic Church in America, 1933-1945 (2003)
References
- ^ CARA's New Book Identifies Trends in U.S. Catholic Church , Catholicism USA
- ^ Secular and Security-Minded: The Catholic Vote in Summer 2008, A National Opinion Survey of Likely Catholic Voters, Executive Summary, BELDEN RUSSONELLO & STEWART, August 2008
- ^ http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761573737_4/Roman_Catholic_Church.html#s15
- ^ "CARROLL, Daniel, (1730 - 1796)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- ^ "CARROLL, Charles (of Carrollton), (1737 - 1832)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- ^ Immigrants and Immigration, Americans at War, Macmillan Reference USA
- ^ Rerum Novarum
- ^ Terry Matthews: Catholicism in Nineteenth Century America, Lectures for Religion, Wake Forrest University
- ^ Howard, J. Paul. "Cross-Border Reflections, Parents’ Right to Direct Their Childrens’ Education Under the U.S. and Canadian Constitutions", Education Canada, v41 n2 p36-37 Sum 2001.
- ^ ""Dorothy Day, Prophet of Pacifism for the Catholic Church"" from "Houston Catholic Worker" newspaper, October 1997
- ^ Directory of Catholic Worker Communities "List of Catholic Worker Communities". Retrieved 2008-11-30.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ Kennedy, John F. (2002-06-18). "Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association". American Rhetoric. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
- ^ New York Times, November 20, 1960, Section 4, p. E5
- ^ Religious Affiliation of the U.S. Supreme Court, Adherents.com: National & World Religion Statistics
- ^ Saletan, William (November 1, 2005). "The political advantages of Catholic justices". slate.com.
- ^ http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=20967
- ^ http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/abortion/teaching.shtml
- ^ Donald Kerwin (2006-05-08). "Immigration reform: what the Catholic Church knows". Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. Retrieved 2007-05-11.
- ^ John L. Allen, Jr. (2006-04-14). "Mahony on immigration". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved 2007-04-11.
- ^ "Cardinal Mahony speaks out on immigration reform". Day to Day. National Public Radio. 2006-03-29. Retrieved 2007-04-11.
- ^ "Catholic Church officials spurn immigration reform plan". American Morning. CNN. 2006-03-29. Retrieved 2007-04-11.
- ^ George J. Marlin and Michael Barone, American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years Of Political Impact (2006); 2008 exit polls