Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Inside Catholic: "McCain and the Pope"

Robert R. Reilly writes at InsideCatholic:
Sen. John McCain cannot win in November without the Catholic vote, which is around 25 percent of the electorate. How is he going to get it? The worst thing he could assume is that it is going to fall into his lap because Catholics will have nowhere else to go. Some people with nowhere to go simply stay home. Or they may go elsewhere, as it appears they have already been doing. The Wall Street Journal reports that in "a recent survey of 19 states that have held presidential primaries this year, 63% of Catholics identified themselves as Democrats." That's up from 42 percent in 2005. Not a good augury for McCain.

Senator McCain not only needs Catholics who will vote for him, but who will each find ten other Catholics who will do the same. That is not going to happen unless he galvanizes the Catholic electorate. He has an opportunity to do this when Pope Benedict XVI visits the United States during April 15 to 20.

I was President Ronald Reagan's liaison to the Catholic community from 1983 to 1985. In the 1984 election, President Reagan won the Catholic vote and was the first Republican to do so. Senator McCain might want to take a look at how that happened.

I recall a definitive moment when the Democrats vociferously complained about the ads run by the Reagan campaign in Catholic newspapers. The ads featured a photo of Reagan and John Paul II smiling together. Was this not politicizing the Catholic Church? How dare the Republicans do such a thing? At that time, Archbishop John Foley was the pope's minister of communications and principal spokesman at the Vatican. When asked, he responded to the complaints by saying that, since these two men shared so many fundamental moral principles in common, it was the most natural thing in the world that they should appear together in a photograph. Not wishing to hear that statement made again, the complaints from the Democrats immediately ceased.
[ED.: LOL! I love it!]

The key here is that Archbishop Foley, who came from a Democratic family in Pennsylvania, did not have to make this up -- it was true. President Reagan had embraced moral positions on the family, on the sanctity of human life, on school prayer, and against pornography [ED.: Not to mention against communism] that were completely congruent with those of the Catholic Church. And, like John Paul II, he was fighting for them.

Can Senator McCain say the same? [ED.: Nope.] If not, a photograph with Benedict XVI is not going to solve his problem. [ED.: I sincerely hope none of the presidential candidates will be so bold as to try to stage some cynical photo op with the Holy Father while he's here.] He needs to campaign on these issues just as Reagan did. He cannot simply claim that point of view; he needs to promote it. He needs to articulate it. [ED.: Yeah, let me know how that works out.] In 1983, President Reagan wrote an article titled "Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation," which appeared in the Human Life Review. That was an extraordinary thing for a sitting president to have done. The fact that he did it convinced many Catholic pro-lifers that Reagan was sincere in his beliefs and was not simply acting for political advantage. They rallied around him.

***
So what should Senator McCain do when Benedict XVI visits in April? This is his opportunity to demonstrate that he understands the significance of the pope's thought as it relates to the institution of the family, the sanctity of human life, and the threat of radical Islam. He needs to appear on EWTN with Raymond Arroyo and speak to that significance. He needs to do interviews in the National Catholic Register and other Catholic journals, and on Sirius radio's Catholic channel, which will cover the pope's visit by the hour. He needs to say that what the pope is expressing goes beyond a sectarian Catholic audience, as it addresses the core issues of Western civilization. He needs to say that Benedict was right at Regensburg in assessing moral relativism as the greatest threat to the West and to the integrity of reason, and that he was right also about the nature of the threat from an unreasoning version of Islam.


[Read the whole thing]
(emphasis and editorial commentary added)

My Comments:
That may be what "the maverick" McCain needs to do, but c'mon. The likelihood of McCain suddenly becoming a culture warrior and alienating his "precious" support among the press hacks and "moderate" voters is about as likely as my becoming a transexual stage performer doing a Marlene Dietrich tribute.


UPDATE
Cross-posted at Catholics in the Public Square (but without my cynical commentary).

;-)

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8 Comments:

At 3/26/2008 10:10 AM, Blogger Kyle Cupp said...

Were McCain to try such maneuvers, how would we know he is sincere and not just pandering? It would be great if he became a full-fledged defender of a culture of life, but how am I to trust in such a conversion? I hope for it, but could I believe it?

 
At 3/26/2008 1:44 PM, Blogger Dad29 said...

First off, the "Catholic Vote" Reilly (and others) alludes to is CERTAINLY not 25% of the electorate, if the quantification includes abortion opponents/family values/social conservatives. We note that US Catholic Mass-attendance is only about 35%, meaning that the FIRST value of "Catholics" is not religious observance.

Secondly, if McCain gets pix w/B-16, no actual Catholic would see it as anything other than a cynical ploy.

Finally, B-16's not-too-subtle opposition to continuing war-adventures in the Middle East is clearly in opposition to McCain's war-making noises re: Iran.

Who is Reilly kidding?

 
At 3/26/2008 1:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congratulations on being discovered as a Democratic troll Jay. :-D

To be honest and take it for what it is worth coming from me, Catholic Republicans need to find a way to respectfully address the broader Catholic audience with regard to the War in Iraq specifically and the broader foreign policy strategy that talks of attacking Iran. Calling it unimportant compared to abortion and other issues is going over like a lead balloon. Forgeting just war theory for a moment, Catholics like much of the nation no longer want troops engaged in Iraq. Prof. Bacevich is representative of the more learned side of that equation. The pro-life movement makes a big mistake when they discount people's views on this matter, even moreso when members of the movement mock those who oppose Iraq as really wanting more abortion or wanting to distract from the real issue of abortion.

 
At 3/26/2008 2:35 PM, Blogger Pro Ecclesia said...

M.Z.,

At the risk of sounding like Nixon on Vietnam circa 1968, McCain's best bet on the Iraq issue is to convince voters that he is the candidate best suited for bringing the troops home via a "responsible" drawdown while nevertheless maintaining our commitments to the Iraqi people for the mess we've created.

And yes, he needs to pipe down on Iran.

 
At 3/26/2008 2:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

And yes, he needs to pipe down on Iran.

It would be nice if Iran first stopped supporting those that are killing our troops.

 
At 3/26/2008 3:08 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

And please do not take my previous comment to mean that I am itching to bomb bomb bomb Iran. I am merely saying that we can't ignore the problem, and we are going to have to make some tough decisions.

As for McCain, it sounds like his latest speech is a little shorter on the bellicosity and longer on internationalism and understanding "hearts and minds."

 
At 3/26/2008 5:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

McCain I think is a very unsatisfactory person in regard to the social issues. Although he has voted the right way on abortion, it clearly is near the bottom of his priorities. I think he is fine on foreign policy and will be a good President to carry on the fight against the jihadists. I think he is enamored of a great many bad ideas including fighting "global warming". I expect him to work with Democrats to attempt to enact many foolish domestic policies. I think he is a near RINO on domestic policies. However compared to Obama or Clinton, he is Reagan himself. I will unhesitatingly vote against the Democrat nominee and vote for McCain.

 
At 3/26/2008 6:22 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am looking forward to the Marlene Dietrich tribute, btw.

Maureen

 

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