ReligionDispatches.org

As Americans participated in

the historic election of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden as the next president

and vice president of the United States, Catholic voters also made a

significant statement about their willingness to ignore their bishops

when considering how to cast their ballot. Once again, Catholic voters

showed that as goes the Catholic vote, so goes the election. According

to exit polls, Catholics voted 54 percent for President-Elect Barack

Obama and 45 percent for Senator John McCain. As the bishops meet this

week in Baltimore at their annual fall assembly, we hope they will spend

some time reflecting on the will of Catholic voters and where those

few bishops who huffed and puffed their way through the election and

pushed a hard-line approach went wrong.

As shown in our poll, "The Catholic

Voter in Summer 2008,"

Catholic voters, like all voters around the country, are most concerned

with the bread-and-butter issues that effect all Americans. Catholics

showed once again that the most important factors in their decision

about who should be the next president and the issues they want him

to focus on were improving the economy, affordable health care, ending

the war in Iraq and keeping the country safe from terrorism. Catholics

represented the largest swing in religious voters in this presidential

election, with seven percent more Catholics voting for the Democratic

candidate as compared to 2004. 

Catholics voted their conscience

over the objections of their bishops who issued statements and lobbied

against the candidacy of Barack Obama because of his prochoice stance.

This wasn't always easy; on the eve of the election, Bishop Robert

Finn of Kansas City-St, Joseph, appearing on a radio show, said to Catholics

considering a vote for the Democratic candidate: "Give consideration

to your eternal salvation."  

While it was a small minority

of the bishops across the country, there were several who pushed the

message that the issue of abortion should trump all others for Catholic

voters on Election Day. A letter from Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann and

Dallas Bishop Kevin Farrell called abortion "intrinsically evil"

and said that it is "morally impermissible" for Catholics to vote

for prochoice candidates over pro-life candidates. Bishop Arthur J.

Serratelli from Patterson, NJ criticized President-Elect Obama's support

of the Freedom of Choice Act writing that, "We choose our leaders

who make our laws. Every vote counts. Today, either we choose to respect

and protect life, especially the life of the child in the womb of the

mother or we sanction the loss of our most basic freedoms. At this point,

we are still free to choose!"

Many Catholics were rightly

turned off by this overt electioneering. In our poll of likely Catholic

voters, 70 percent said that the views of Catholic bishops are unimportant

to them in deciding for whom to vote and 73 percent said they believe

they are under no religious obligation to vote on issues the way the

bishops recommend. On Election Day, Catholic voters held firm to those

views and showed just how misguided those few bishops and conservative

Catholics are who claimed the issue of abortion must trump all others. 

Despite the hierarchy's claims

that abortion needed to be the one issue that Catholics voted on, and

in direct contradiction to alarmist claims made by a few reporters and

headline writers, Catholics overwhelmingly disagreed with the idea that

abortion should be the deciding factor this election. Those bishops

who didn't interfere in this election cycle are to be commended for

not going the old route of communion wars and threats of excommunications.

There is change in the air and more and more public officials recognize

that the views of the hierarchy do not reflect the views or votes of

their constituents.  

Those few bishops who sought

to make the election about abortion, and abortion alone, showed how

out of touch they are with most Catholics. We hope that, as the bishops

come together this week, they do not bend to those ultra-conservative

bishops but instead temper the dialogue, seeking to bring their flocks

with them and not push them away. The bishops should not spend this

week attempting to spin doctor their way out of a crushing defeat. Instead

they should focus on a pastoral approach to the common good that speaks

to the majority of Catholics who voted in favor of a president who shares

their values on sexual and reproductive health-as well as many other

issues.

As prochoice Catholics, we

celebrate the election of a prochoice president who has been a strong

supporter of abortion rights, comprehensive sexuality education and

access to reproductive health care. The next administration will have

to work hard to repair the damage done to reproductive right during

the last eight years: the Global Gag Rule, abstinence-only-until-marriage

programs, subordinating science to personal belief, and a pervasive

program against family-planning efforts. Undoubtedly, concerns about

America's economic security and military engagements overseas will

garner a great deal of attention. However, we urge the next administration

and Congress to also work for advances in reproductive health care in

the US and abroad.

Catholic voters overwhelmingly

endorsed an agenda that includes access to family planning, comprehensive

age-appropriate sex education and caring adoption programs in order

to reduce the need for abortion. We will continue to stand with this

majority of Catholics worldwide who disagree with the dictates of the

Vatican on matters related to sexuality, contraception and parenthood.

We are excited about the prospect of working with the new administration

and Congress to effect change for the better on issues of sexual and

reproductive health and rights, both domestically and internationally. 

Read the Catholics for Choice statement on the bishops' gathering in Baltimore here.