Saturday, November 8, 2008

Biggest Election Losers: US Catholic Bishops

You didn't ask me, but I think one of the biggest losers in Tuesday's election were U.S. Catholic Bishops.

You remember them don't you? They're the ones that said Abortion was "intrinsically evil" and that voting for anyone that favored abortion rights and reproductive freedom was immoral.

You remember when 89 U.S. Bishops issued a statement that said abortion was the defining issue of this election and that Catholics are required by their religious affiliation to reject politicians who support abortion rights.

You remember when
Archbishop Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura at the Vatican said "Catholics who support pro-abortion candidates participate in a grave evil. They must show a change of heart and be sacramentally reconciled or refrain from receiving Holy Communion. At this point the Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitely into a 'party of death.'"

Well guess what guys? As Peter Steinfels reports in The New York Times, "exit polls show that Catholics voted 52 percent to 45 percent for Senator Barack Obama That was seven percentage points more than the Catholic vote in 2004 for Senator John Kerry, a fellow Catholic.

Got that? And there's more...

"Hispanic Catholics, a group the bishops often hail as representing the future of the church in the United States, led the way. Latinos voted 67 percent for Mr. Obama, 16 percentage points more than their vote for Mr. Kerry. Latino Catholics, usually more Democratic than Protestant Latinos, almost certainly voted for the Democratic nominee at an even higher rate.

And just to seal the deal...

"Exit poll figures for young Catholics are not yet available, but much information indicates that they also voted at high rates for Mr. Obama."

And there's even more
news for the Bishops...pro-choice politicians won victories across the country in races for the House and Senate, and egregious anti-choice amendments failed by huge margins in California, Colorado and South Dakota.

It's way past time for U.S. Bishops to find more fertile ground in trying to regain any semblance of moral authority following years of pedophilia amongst their ranks.

Americans, whether Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim or whatever believe that churches and governments should keep their noses out of our bedrooms.


U.S. Catholics have spoken and are moving on. But the Bishops still seem hopelessly stuck in the 17th Century.