The Boston College Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life recently concluded a three-week series entitled “Catholic Voters and the 2020 Election.” Co-hosted with the Trinity College Greenberg Center and St. Anselm College New Hampshire Institute of Politics, the webinars took place virtually, allowing prominent Catholics leaders from across the nation to discuss the upcoming election.
The series began with a conversation between Boston College Darald and Juliet Libby, Professor of Law and Theology M. Cathleen Kaveny, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, and columnist Micheal Sean Winters of the National Catholic Reporter (NCR).
Convened by Boisi Center director Fr. Mark S. Masa, S.J., the first webinar began with a discussion of what issues are most important to Catholics, a question which allowed Cardinal Tobin to draw on his experience in northern New Jersey to assert that the administration’s immigration policies and tax reform proposals have come under great scrutiny in his archdiocese. In her introduction, Kaveny broadened the conversation about what is important to Catholic voters by positing that voters should not just be issue-based, but instead also informed by the competence, character, collaboration, and connection that the candidates have.
Throughout the hour-long discussion, NCR reporter Michael Sean Winters was quite critical of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), most notably because of its apparent over-emphasis on abortion as compared to other “pro-life” issues. Citing the USCCB’s “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” document, he argued that on abortion, religious liberty, and other issues, the American bishops all too-frequently choose to ignore some of Pope Francis’s priorities and instead repeat outdated mantras.
In concluding the first event, Trinity College Professor Mark Silk asked Cardinal Tobin whether or not Catholics could, in good conscience, vote for former Vice President Joe Biden. Tobin responded that through prudence and a search for the common good, Catholics could vote for Biden, later adding that he has “greater difficulty with the other option.”
The second event in the series, “The Republican Party and Catholic Voters in the 2020 Election,” was convened by Neil Levesque, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, and brought together Mark Rozzell, Dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University; Heidi Schlumpf, Executive Editor of the National Catholic Reporter; and John H. Sununu, former New Hampshire Governor and White House Chief of Staff.
Though all of the panelists agreed that the Catholic vote is often difficult to identify because it is not monolithic, they took various approaches to explaining the propensity of Catholic voters to identify with one political party over another. Citing the history of Democratic political machines in coastal cities during the height of Catholic immigration, Sununu argued that since President Reagan, Catholics have begun to comprise an important part of the Republican Party. Recalling his experience as a gubernatorial candidate, Sununu stated that Republicans are most effective in courting Catholic voters less through explicitly Catholic appeals, but rather through appeals to certain hallmarks of Catholic culture (i.e. the family).
Disagreeing in part with Sununu, Schlumpf asserted that as much as the economy and culture are important for Catholic voters, issues like the death penalty sometimes undermine the “pro-life” label frequently affilaited with Republicans. Later agreeing with Sununu’s predictions about the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation process, she noted that Judicary Committee hearings will be a serious test for congressional Democrats who, if they express an anti-religion (or specifically anti-Catholic) sentiment, will help rally the Religious Right behind President Trump.
As a keen observer of national electoral politics, Dean Rozzell noted that simply being Catholic would not be enough for former Vice President Biden to win the Catholic vote, later noting that the Democratic nominee faces an uphill battle this election cycle because of the well-organized, targeted outreach that the Republican National Committee and other advocacy organizations have been engaged in since 2015.
In perhaps the most surprising moment of the second event, Sununu unabashedly labeled Pope Francis an “Argintinian socialist,” a comment which he later rationalized by citing the Roman Pontiff’s so-called “anti-capitalism and pro-socialism” stance. Moreover, Sununu claimed that Francis’s “soft stance” on culture issues and “love [for] woke” was troubling as someone who “cared” about the future of the Church.
Serendipitously timed only a few days after President Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, the final webinar in the series, “The Democratic Party and Catholic Voters in the 2020 Election,” was convened by Mark Silk and featured Director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University Shaun Casey; Timothy Matovina, Chair of the University of Notre Dame Department of Theology; and Joseph Tomas McKellar, Co-Director of PICO California. While much of the event focused on the role of Hispanic Catholics in the Democratic party, Casey noted that Biden’s character will be his campaign’s main selling-point as they approach November 3. McKellar later also implored both parties to “build bridges,” especially if they seek to court Hispanic voters who are often wary of polarizing rhetoric.
In the final, pre-Q&A portion of the webinar, Silk asked each of the candidates how Coney Barrett’s anti-abortion stance might help the President’s reelection bid. In response, Casey encouraged Democrats to not attack the nominee for her belonging to a particular faith community and Matovina observed that although Hispanics are typically in greater alignment with Catholic teachings as compared to other Catholic groups, younger generations are becoming less predictably orthodox. The panelists agreed that the Democratic establishment should make more space for Catholics that cannot morally support abortion, thus widening their electoral tent.
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