The House's Catholic Democrats Detail Role Religion Plays

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801666.html?referrer=email
The House's Catholic Democrats Detail Role Religion Plays

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 1, 2006; Page A04

Still reeling from the attacks on Sen. John F. Kerry's brand of Roman Catholicism during the 2004 presidential race, 55 House Democrats issued a joint statement yesterday on the central role that the Catholic faith plays in their public lives.

The signers said they were fed up with being labeled "good Catholics" or "bad Catholics" based on one issue -- abortion. They said their religion infuses their positions on many issues: poverty, war, health care and education.
"Some of us are pro-choice and some of us are pro-life," said Rep. William J. Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.). "But we respect each other and we're going to defend each other, because we're all operating in good conscience."

The statement stressed that all of the Catholic Democrats share the goal of reducing the incidence of abortion........

It's about time.

"Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) said the Catholic Democrats "have decided to stop letting others define us." But Tom McClusky, a Catholic who is acting vice president for government affairs at the Family Research Council, predicted they would fail.

"What is at the core of being Catholic is the life issue, and that's something the pope has never strayed from," he said. "While other issues are important -- such as helping the poor, the death penalty, views on war -- these are things that aren't tenets of the Catholic Church."


I strongly disagree with Mr. McClusky's statement. How he could say that the 'life issue' is the central issue the church has always focused on is bullshit. He is trying to diminish the work of the church on behalf of the poor and downtrodden as not a 'tenet' of the Church. He obviously didn't attenc the same Catholic Catechism that I went to. No Catholic can achieve true salvation without good works. Helping the poor, charitable giving, etc. these are the 'Good Works' and have always been a central tenet of the Church. It was why I became a Catholic in the first place.

to the point where they simply tacitly encourage the rich to commit crimes against the poor and call it free-market capitalism. All they have to do is see to it that abortion and other sex-related issues trump common sense Christianity.