Is McCain pro-life?

Now that Sen. John McCain appears to be this year’s presumptive Republican presidential nominee, one developing storyline is whether he’ll have the support of the pro-life movement this fall. A glimpse into that debate can be found in the pages of the National Catholic Register. A column last week headlined “McCain Sits Down for Life,” which took the senator to task for being “weak” on the issue, led to a strong defense of his record this week by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., whose own race for the White House last fall had been endorsed by numerous pro-life leaders.

‘Super Tuesday’ gets attention

This week’s “Super Tuesday” balloting in nearly two dozen states has the attention of some local Catholic newspapers where the contests are being held. Some examples: The Catholic Explorer in the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., covered how one parish offered a workshop on how Catholic voters should approach the state’s presidential primary. It also has an editorial on the importance of voting and a review of a new book on how faith has been practiced by occupants of the Oval Office since John F. Kennedy. And The Catholic Spirit in St. Paul, Minn., has a story on how participating in Minnesota’s precinct caucuses can bring Catholic values into the public arena.

PHOTO: A woman emerges from a voting booth with her ballot in Berlin, N.H., during the state’s U.S. presidential primary Jan. 8. (CNS/Reuters)

And then there were none — or maybe one

When Rudy Giuliani officially announced his withdrawal from the race for the Republican presidential nomination yesterday, a field once crowded with Catholic candidates became nearly bereft of them. Only Republican candidate Alan Keyes remains, but he has not gained enough support — financial or otherwise — to be included in candidate debates or to receive federal campaign funding.

The role of Catholic candidates in the 2008 race is a topic we’ve explored twice before — earlier this month and last February. (As an aside, one reader noticed that we failed to mention Ron Paul among the Republican candidates. For the record, he’s a Baptist.)

As the nation’s primaries continue and the likely nominees emerge, discussion of Catholic candidates might begin at another level. Among those mentioned as Democratic vice-presidential possibilities are an early campaign dropout, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, and a more recent one, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Pro-life prospects on Supreme Court anniversary

Next Tuesday marks the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s legalization of abortion. Timed to the anniversary, Our Sunday Visitor offers an analysis of the political deadlock in Washington that has led to the current pro-life stalemate.

Local Catholic tries to bring faith back to ‘Ds’

This story may upset you or please you depending on your political affiliation, but in Oregon the Catholic Sentinel has a story on a Catholic man who is trying to organize and expand the numbers of religious believers in the Democratic Party in a state which is the home of the nation’s largest percentage of residents without religious affiliation.

Yesterday’s call for civility in American politics: the full text

Last I checked, not many news organizations or bloggers (with one exception) have covered what for us was one of yesterday’s top stories: a statement by a group of prominent lay Catholics calling for a “spirit of civility” in all political discussions, including in the church.

The statement is certain to be controversial because it directly addresses the issue of denying Communion to Catholic politicians who oppose church teachings. It calls fitness to receive Communion a matter of personal responsibility, but it also warns politicians that they risk giving “the appearance of hypocracy” if they “advertise their Catholicism as part of their political appeal, but ignore the church’s moral teachings in their political life.”

The fact that this is a high-powered, bipartisan group of Catholics makes the story hard for us to ignore, unlike some of the other more predictable statements issued on either side of this debate. As journalists we’re not going to tell you what we think of the statement, just that it’s another element of the story as we move closer to next year’s election season.

If you want to read the full statement, here’s a link to a post by one of the participating organizations.

‘Can bishops agree on Communion for politicians?’

The ongoing discussion within the church over whether Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion should be denied Holy Communion may reach another critical juncture next week when the U.S. bishops vote on a new draft statement on the much wider question of Catholic political responsibility during a presidential election year. Such statements have been issued by the bishops quadrennially for more than 30 years to remind Catholic voters  that they should consider, as this year’s draft says, “the dignity of every human being, the pursuit of the common good and the protection of the weak and vulnerable” when casting their ballots.

This year’s statement, to be considered at the bishops’ fall general meeting in Baltimore, will get more-than-usual attention simply because it is coming before the full body of bishops for possible amending and an up-or-down vote. Previous political responsibility statements were approved behind closed doors and issued by the bishops’ Administrative Committee, which in itself is a fairly substantive body of about 50 bishops which sets bishops’ conference policy between general meetings.

As our Nancy Frazier O’Brien explained in her preview story two weeks ago, the question of Communion for pro-abortion Catholic politicians is not even addressed in the draft document, though it does note that “those who knowingly, willingly and directly support public policies or legislation that undermine fundamental moral principles cooperate with evil.” But that’s not stopping analysts from predicting that there will be attempts to amend the document, whether it be by bishops seeking even stronger language on abortion or bishops wondering why the document does not specifically mention the war in Iraq.

In this Sunday’s edition of Our Sunday Visitor, the national Catholic newsweekly based in Huntington, Ind., contributing editor and commentator Russell Shaw predicts that Communion for politicians will be on the agenda. Among other things, he points to Pope Benedict XVI’s comments to reporters last spring about similarly situated Mexican politicians, although our Rome bureau chief, John Thavis, who was traveling with the pope at the time, noted that a toned-down transcript issued later by the Vatican muddied the issue.

Shaw’s article notes that Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George, currently the bishops’ conference vice president, has said that the bishops “are not of one mind in discussing this question.” Whether they will be any closer after next week is anyone’s guess.