Ambassador’s ceremony draws an eclectic crowd

A Supreme Court justice, an actor and a Catholic university president walk into the State Department…..

… and formalize the swearing in of their mutual friend, constitutional lawyer Douglas Kmiec, as ambassador to Malta.

What sounds like the opening to a stand-up routine was instead the scene in the Treaty Room at the State Department Sept. 2, a case of someone with a broad, diverse base of friends and colleagues if ever there was one.

Justice Samuel Alito, who worked with Kmiec at the Justice Department in the 1980s and is one of the six Catholics on the U.S. Supreme Court; actor Martin Sheen, who is a fellow parishioner at Kmiec’s Catholic parish in California, and Vincentian Father David O’Connell, president of The Catholic University of America, where Kmiec was dean of the law school from 2001 to 2003, each had a role in the brief ceremony.

Kmiec, who is on hiatus as a columnist for Catholic News Service, holds an endowed chair in constitutional law at Pepperdine University School of Law, and previously was director of the University of Notre Dame’s Center on Law & Government, and the founder of its Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy.  As a lifelong Republican who helped write the Reagan administration’s legal arguments to the Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade,  Kmiec stunned some of his friends and former allies with his support for Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign.

An article Kmiec wrote headlined “Reaganites for Obama” caught the eye of  Joshua DuBois, then Obama’s campaign director of religious outreach and now  director of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

“Are you for real?” Kmiec recalled being asked by DuBois in their first conversation. “Many people have asked that since then.”

Not long after Kmiec’s support for Obama became public, he was denied Communion on that basis at a Mass before he addressed a Catholic business group in California.  The priest, who was never identified, later apologized.

Kmiec went on to serve as a member of the campaign’s Catholic advisory group and wrote a book “Can a Catholic Support Him: Asking the Big Question about Barack Obama.” From his ambassadorial post, he will continue to serve the administration informally as an adviser on interfaith dialogue and cooperation.

DuBois noted that role would be especially appropriate from Malta, a historical crossroads of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Father O’Connell offered an invocation, Sheen led the Pledge of Allegiance and Alito administered the oath of office.

Afterward, Kmiec, Alito and Sheen each warmly greeted guests, many of whom asked to pose for photos with the ambassador, the  justice and the actor, who played President Jed Bartlett for seven seasons of the White House-based drama, “The West Wing.”

Despite political activism on a range of issues and his history as a “president” who Kmiec noted “didn’t raise anyone’s taxes and expanded everyone’s budgets,” Sheen said it was his first visit to the State Department.

Not a baptism by fire

Father Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Modesto, Calif., has been happy to talk to reporters in recent weeks about a member of his parish community, Heidi Sierras, one of a handful of people to be baptized by the pope during the April 11 Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica.

His parishioners are well accustomed to media folks hanging out after Mass, not just for this story, but also when the pastor made headlines of his own in November.  The story back then was over a letter he sent to parishioners urging them to “go to confession before receiving Communion” if they had voted for Barack Obama for president.

Soon after the letter gained media attention, his bishop issued a statement to clarify the issue. Stockton Bishop Stephen E. Blaire said the sacrament of reconciliation was not obligatory for Catholics who voted for Obama. He also stipulated that if a Catholic voted for a candidate “with a pro-abortion record with the motivation of supporting that abortion stance, then that is a grave moral matter.”

Now, as reporters are catching on to the story of Heidi’s upcoming papal baptism, Father Illo said his parishioners are glad to have some “noncontroversial”  parish news in the media spotlight.

And the priest told Catholic News Service he was more than happy to have the opportunity to talk about something dear to his heart:  “promoting conversion.”

The ever-changing religious landscape in Washington

The withdrawal yesterday of former Sen. Tom Daschle as President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services reminded me that the number of Catholic politicians in the new administration and in Congress continues to ebb and flow. Daschle and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who withdrew his nomination as commerce secretary last month, would have been two of the Catholic members of Obama’s Cabinet. Others include former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Agriculture; former Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, Interior; former Rep. Hilda Solis of California, Labor; and former Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois, Transportation.

Some of the Cabinet appointments also affect the number of Catholics in Congress, which we reported on in December. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, named to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is Catholic. Appointed to fill Salazar’s seat was Sen. Michael Bennet, who is Jewish. That keeps the numbers steady in the Senate, with 17 Catholic Democrats and nine Catholic Republicans.

But the changes aren’t over yet. The House seats of Gillibrand and Solis will be filled later this year in special elections. Until then the number of Catholics in the House stands at 96 Democrats and 38 Republicans.

CNS columnists urge attention to abortion issue

Few people — except editors at our client publications — know that Catholic News Service has a fairly robust columns package. You may even have read some of our columnists in your local Catholic newspaper and not known where they came from.

Theresa Bock prepares to ship boxes of pro-life literature and postcards at the office of the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment in Washington Jan. 26. Staff in the office were shipping boxes of literature and postcards to dioceses and others as part of a national campaign against the Freedom of Choice Act. (CNS/Paul Haring)

With the change in administrations here in Washington, several of the columnists have been writing about the need for Catholics to remind President Obama that they don’t agree with his position on abortion.

For instance, one columnist, Tony Magliano, who writes on social justice issues, reported on this year’s March for Life in Washington but also recalled how Obama noted the anniversary:

On Jan. 22, President Barack Obama issued a very disheartening pro-abortion statement which read in part that government “should not intrude on our most private family matters.”

However, government does intervene in private family matters when it detects child abuse. Yet, it illogically and immorally refuses to protect unborn children against the most brutal form of child abuse: abortion.

Adding insult to injury, on Jan. 23 Obama reversed the ban on federal funds to organizations that promote abortion in developing countries. Now millions of tax dollars will be available to groups like the International Planned Parenthood Federation to help them perform their deadly deeds.

But worst of all, Obama has made it clear that he hopes to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. If it becomes law, FOCA would overturn virtually every federal and state limitation on abortion.

He went on to say that participating in the U.S. bishops’  current postcard campaign to oppose FOCA would be a good place for Catholics to start.

Another of our columnists, Stephen Kent, also devotes his column this week to abortion and the new administration:

It is more important than ever that the case for the culture of life be based on the firm belief in the dignity of the human person.

Politicians can count. Postelection polls said 54 percent of the Catholic electorate voted for Obama.

“Many Catholics voted for Obama despite his position on abortion, and they have an obligation to say ‘this is not why I voted for you,’ said Richard Doerflinger of the bishops’ pro-life office. One way to tell him is through a postcard.

Kent too points to the postcard campaign as a way to remind politicians that the first priority of Catholic teaching is the dignity of the human person.

Magliano also wrote a column for early December saying that many of the president-elect’s positions “reflect Catholic social doctrine and deserve our support.” But he also called Obama’s abortion position “very troubling” and urged readers to let him know their opposition to the Freedom of Choice Act. He concluded:

Now is the best time to help President-elect Obama understand the moral concerns of America’s Catholic community!

Biden becomes first Catholic veep in U.S. history

Joseph R. Biden, with his wife, Jill, holding the Bible, takes the oath of office as vice president of the United States. (CNS/Reuters)

When the former Delaware senator, Joseph R. Biden, took the oath of office of the vice president of the United States at 11:55 this morning, he became the first Catholic to hold that office in the nation’s history. John F. Kennedy holds the distinction of being the first  — and only — Catholic president in history, but until today no other Catholic man or woman has achieved winning the second-highest office in the land.

A handful of others have tried.

The first Catholic to run for vice president was Edmund S. Muskie, former governor and sitting senator from Maine. He joined Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey’s campaign to succeed Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1968 election. Humphrey had been Johnson’s vice president and the campaign suffered from Johnson’s failed Vietnam War policies and the turmoil of the Great Society. The Democrats lost the election to Richard M. Nixon of California and Spiro T. Agnew, Maryland’s governor.

The election marked Nixon’s triumphant return to politics. His career had taken a bad tumble after his loss in 1960 to Kennedy, the only Catholic to be elected president. Muskie went on to serve as President Jimmy Carter’s secretary of state.

The second Catholic to run on a major party ticket was Thomas F. Eagleton, who ran on the 1972 Democratic ticket headed by South Dakota Sen. George S. McGovern. Eagleton, a U.S. senator from Missouri, only ran for 18 days. He was forced off the ticket after revelations about his past hospitalizations for mental health problems surfaced. He was succeeded as the party’s vice presidential nominee by another Catholic, Robert Sargent Shriver of Maryland. A hugely popular political activist, Shriver was first head of the Peace Corps and an ambassador to France. McGovern and Shriver lost in one of the nation’s greatest landslide elections to Nixon and Agnew, who were seeking second terms. Interestingly, Shiver was the last presidential or vice presidential nominee not to have served as a governor or member of Congress prior to nomination.

The fourth Catholic to make it on a national ticket was Geraldine Ferraro, a representative from New York. In 1984, former Vice President Walter Mondale achieved the Democratic nomination and asked Ferraro to be his running mate. She was the first woman and the first Italian American to run on a major party national ticket. Mondale and Ferraro were defeated by President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush, who were seeking re-election to a second term.

No other Catholic would nab a place on the national ticket until Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry ran unsuccessfully for president in 2004.

What religious denomination has prevailed in the 44 runs for the vice presidency? Presbyterians top the list, with Episcopalians a close second.

Update: Peter Chila (below) is correct. New York Congressman William Miller ran for vice president on the 1964 ticket headed by Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater. They were trounced by Johnson and Humphrey.

Interestingly, Miller hailed from the same state that gave America its first Catholic to run at the head of a national ticket. New York Gov. Al Smith was the Democratic nominee for president in 1928. He overwhelmingly carried the Catholic vote, but it wasn’t enough to defeat his opponent, Herbert Hoover, who won by a landslide.

Miller had the distinction of representing two New York districts in Congress, and he later went on to become chairman of the Republican Party. New York, of course, went on to contribute another Catholic candidate: Geraldine Ferraro.

Thank you, Mr. Chila.

Obama team reaching out to religious groups

U.S. News & World Report has an article about efforts by the transition team for President-elect Barack Obama to reach out to leaders of religious denominations. Participants in some of these meetings said they’d already attended multiple sessions with Obama’s team, and that this represented a marked difference from the limited contacts they have had in the last eight years with the current administration.

The story doesn’t specifically refer to the Obama team’s contacts with Catholic groups.  But several of Obama’s staff members met with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops committees on domestic and international policy during their December joint meeting in Washington.

Bishops’ committee members met via teleconference with Denis McDonough, an Obama foreign policy adviser and member of the transition’s national security working group, and with Melody Barnes, the president-elect’s designate to head his Domestic Policy Council. Others who worked on Obama’s campaign and are involved in religious outreach attended various sessions with the committees.

The National Catholic Reporter had a story in December about a meeting between transition team staffers and representatives of 15 Catholic organizations, including religious orders; Network, the social justice lobbying group; Pax Christi USA, and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Black Catholics and the Obama victory

No matter what one’s political leanings, it’s hard to deny the historic nature of an African-American being elected president of the United States. We explored the mixed views of black Catholics toward a pro-choice African-American candidate in a story two months ago, and some of our client newspapers did the same.

Now, Our Sunday Visitor contributes its own reporting on this double-edged question in a story by former OSV editor Gerald Korson. He found extreme pride in the black Catholic community tempered by Obama’s views on the politics of abortion.

San Francisco archbishop posts open letter on same-sex marriage debate

Archbishop Niederauer. (CNS/Greg Tarczynski)

In case you missed it, there’s been a development in the California debate over same-sex marriage: an open letter from the archbishop of San Francisco appealing for both sides to be more tolerant of each other. The money quote:

We need to stop hurling names like ‘bigot’ and ‘pervert’ at each other. And we need to stop it now.

Here’s our story, and here’s a link to the full text of the letter.

The letter also discusses some of the other issues that have been swirling in California since voters approved the same-sex marriage ban last month. From our story:

In the letter, the archbishop also:

– Stated that the Archdiocese of San Francisco “did not donate or transfer any archdiocesan funds” to support Proposition 8.

– Strongly criticized “voices in the wider community” which charged Proposition 8 backers with “hatred, prejudice and bigotry.”

– Defended faith communities’ involvement in the political arena.

– Underscored Proposition 8 backers’ “defense of the traditional understanding and definition of marriage” as their motivation, rather than seeking to attack “any group” or “to deprive others of their civil rights.”

More digital ink on the proposed Freedom of Choice Act

Lots of digital ink has been spilled this week over the Freedom of Choice Act, which was a major concern of the U.S. bishops at their fall general meeting earlier this month. Among those weighing in were CNS clients like the National Catholic Register (here and here) and the National Catholic Reporter (here), plus other Catholic and secular sites (here, here, and here).

We have our own ink spill today with this backgrounder and analysis, FOCA’s effects seen as dire, but chance of it passing considered slim, which includes comments from people on several sides of the issue.

Text of statement by Cardinal George on abortion, election

Just off the presses. It’s the followup to this story.

STATEMENT of the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

“If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor; if the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil.” (Psalm 127, vs. 1)

The Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States welcome this moment of historic transition and look forward to working with President-elect Obama and the members of the new Congress for the common good of all.  Because of the Church’s history and the scope of her ministries in this country, we want to continue our work for economic justice and opportunity for all; our efforts to reform laws around immigration and the situation of the undocumented; our provision of better education and adequate health care for all, especially for women and children; our desire to safeguard religious freedom and foster peace at home and abroad.  The Church is intent on doing good and will continue to cooperate gladly with the government and all others working for these goods.

The fundamental good is life itself, a gift from God and our parents.  A good state protects the lives of all.  Legal protection for those members of the human family waiting to be born in this country was removed when the Supreme Court decided Roe vs. Wade in 1973.  This was bad law.  The danger the Bishops see at this moment is that a bad court decision will be enshrined in bad legislation that is more radical than the 1973 Supreme Court decision itself.

In the last Congress, a Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) was introduced that would, if brought forward in the same form today, outlaw any “interference” in providing abortion at will.  It would deprive the American people in all fifty states of the freedom they now have to enact modest restraints and regulations on the abortion industry.  FOCA would coerce all Americans into subsidizing and promoting abortion with their tax dollars.  It would counteract any and all sincere efforts by government and others of good will to reduce the number of abortions in our country.

Parental notification and informed consent precautions would be outlawed, as would be laws banning procedures such as partial-birth abortion and protecting infants born alive after a failed abortion.  Abortion clinics would be deregulated.  The Hyde Amendment restricting the federal funding of abortions would be abrogated.  FOCA would have lethal consequences for prenatal human life.

FOCA would have an equally destructive effect on the freedom of conscience of doctors, nurses and health care workers whose personal convictions do not permit them to cooperate in the private killing of unborn children.  It would threaten Catholic health care institutions and Catholic Charities.  It would be an evil law that would further divide our country, and the Church should be intent on opposing evil.

On this issue, the legal protection of the unborn, the bishops are of one mind with Catholics and others of good will.  They are also pastors who have listened to women whose lives have been diminished because they believed they had no choice but to abort a baby.  Abortion is a medical procedure that kills, and the psychological and spiritual consequences are written in the sorrow and depression of many women and men.  The bishops are single-minded because they are, first of all, single-hearted.

The recent election was principally decided out of concern for the economy, for the loss of jobs and homes and financial security for families, here and around the world.  If the election is misinterpreted ideologically as a referendum on abortion, the unity desired by President-elect Obama and all Americans at this moment of crisis will be impossible to achieve.  Abortion kills not only unborn children; it destroys constitutional order and the common good, which is assured only when the life of every human being is legally protected.  Aggressively pro-abortion policies, legislation and executive orders will permanently alienate tens of millions of Americans, and would be seen by many as an attack on the free exercise of their religion.

This statement is written at the request and direction of all the Bishops, who also want to thank all those in politics who work with good will to protect the lives of the most vulnerable among us.  Those in public life do so, sometimes, at the cost of great sacrifice to themselves and their families; and we are grateful.  We express again our great desire to work with all those who cherish the common good of our nation.  The common good is not the sum total of individual desires and interests; it is achieved in the working out of a common life based upon good reason and good will for all.

Our prayers accompany President-elect Obama and his family and those who are cooperating with him to assure a smooth transition in government.  Many issues demand immediate attention on the part of our elected “watchman.” (Psalm 127)  May God bless him and our country.