Christian Coalition takes aim at Boston

National Catholic Reporter, Dec 22, 1995 by James G. McManus

I find many aspects of the literature disturbing, including:

* The clearly partisan tone of the documents;

* Blatant untruths contained in the scorecard;

* The inference that the alliance speaks for the Holy Father and thus is officially "Catholic," and the organization's stated purpose of giving "America's 50 million Catholics a voice in government."

I am particularly concerned about this organization's stated purpose of representing the Catholic community before the Congress, state legislatures and other governmental bodies. From my years of experience as chairperson of the New York State Public Policy Committee, I believe that this alliance will create massive confusion not only among lawmakers in local, state and federal government, but among the Catholic faithful as to who it is that speaks legitimately on matters of public policy within the church in the United States. ...

While recognizing that it is the role of the laity to work for the transformation of society and while certainly not denying the right of individual Catholics to join whatever organizations they choose or to support whatever public policy issues they espouse in conscience, it is quite another thing to purport to represent the position of the Catholic church, which already has well-established mechanisms and processes for formulating and communicating our position on issues of public policy through our national and state conferences.

In the name of the bishops, our organizational structure communicates official church positions in the public policy arena. ... Our agenda cuts across political and ideological lines. One of its defining and strongest characteristics is its consistency in proclaiming the sacred dignity of every human person and in defending all human life. I believe a separate, purportedly "Catholic" organization that does not adhere to this agenda will undermine our heretofore unified efforts and tear at the fabric of our social-moral ethic so beautifully and comprehensively taught by our Holy Father in his recent encyclical Evangelium Vitae.

While our efforts in the public policy arena are designed to bring our religious-moral vision and tradition to bear on the social and ethical issues of the day, the Christian Coalition and the Catholic Alliance, which the coalition's executive director, Ralph Reed, says is "a fully owned subsidiary" or "auxiliary of the Christian Coalition," is much more a political and partisan organization than the expression of a particular religious perspective. It seeks the formation of a Catholic-Christian voting bloc, which puts it on a collision course with our political responsibility statement.

It is also noteworthy... that the Christian Coalition has sought to mobilize our Catholic people and represent them before legislative bodies without any word of communication with the bishops' conference or its representatives. In an age of ecumenical sensitivity, I find this unilateral initiative to be startling and offensive - another effort to split Catholics from their bishops.