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PDF versionCongressman steeped in Catholic activism
Jun. 08, 2009
Tom Perriello in his office in Danville, Va., on Oct. 24, 2008. (Newscom)
With a life story steeped in Catholic activism and a political outlook hewn from church social teachings, Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., is clearly the darling of the religious left. Meanwhile, this first term, 34-year-old politician is bringing faith-based sensibilities to Washington unlike others seen here in recent years.
“What Tom has been able to do is bring a spirit of grass-roots social change to Washington,” said John Gehring, senior writer for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. “His brand of conviction politics has real appeal at a time when people are hungry for leadership that transcends the narrow ideologies of left or right.”
Mara Vanderslice, who works in the Obama administration’s faith-based office, says flatly: “Tom is our favorite.” Said Vanderslice, “During the [2004] Kerry campaign [when Vanderslice served as Kerry’s religious liaison] no one was more supportive of me than Tom. He called every day.”
To understand Perriello’s personal take on politics one first has to become familiar with the remarkable path that brought him to Congress.
After attending Yale University as an undergraduate and law student, he traveled to Africa in 2002, where he worked with child soldiers and got involved with conflict resolution efforts in Sierra Leone. It was then he also worked with a special prosecutor and helped to indict former Liberian president Charles Taylor for war crimes, helping to remove him from power. Perriello has also worked in Kosovo, Darfur and Afghanistan, earning a rep that virtually any geopolitical nightmare would eventually attract him like an iron files to a magnet.
The immediate link that forged Perriello’s overseas work with an emergent domestic activism came though group of amputees in Sierra Leone. “We were in the showdown with Charles Taylor just before he fell from power,” Perriello recalled recently. “And they said to me, ‘If you get him out of power, please go home and get Bush out of power. That’s the best thing you can do for us in West Africa.’ But the problems were deeper than just the Bush presidency.”
By then, Perriello recalled, he had reached the conclusion that America’s moral compass was well off course, especially in the political arena. “For 25 years we [Democrats] offered a kinder, gentler version of what was coming from the right.” Perriello said he saw the need for deeper change.
So in 2004 he returned to the United States where his activism helped launch Res Publica and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, two social justice-driven nonprofit organizations that apply Catholic faith traditions to hot-button issues in the foreign and domestic political spheres.
NCR: February 3-16, 2012
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New study by Notre Dame researcher about parish involvement in America
In a short time, Perriello was influencing other Catholics to get similarly involved. “I am not sure I would be doing what I am doing if it weren’t for Tom,” said James Salt, political director of Catholics United, a nonpartisan group that describes itself as “promoting the message of justice and the common good found at the heart of the Catholic social tradition.” Salt had started a Web site called Catholic Voter Project that caught Perriello’s attention. While driving out to Kansas to work on a congressional race, Salt got a call from the future congressman saying he liked the site and wanted to bring more attention to it.
“By the time I got to Kansas, an AP story had hit the wires about us. Tom helped make it happen.”
The mediating method Perriello employed to analyze the “deeper change” he was considering were the social teachings of the Catholic church. In them he found a battle-tested method for providing a systematic, analytic approach to answering the nation’s core problems. “Turning greed into a virtue in the 1980s created a culture of instant gratification that everyone bemoans,” Perriello said. “Moral decay starts at the top.” This culture of instant gratification, he explains, had distorted the nation’s politics, domestically and abroad.
His analyses were drawing him into politics. In the 2008 election he ran in the 5th Congressional District in Virginia, achieving a surprise win over Republican incumbent Virgil Goode, a longtime figure in the state’s politics.
Perriello says he sees three issues as dominant in the quest for a more just social order: economic and health care reform and attending to the challenge of climate change through the creation of green jobs. “We could be on the verge of a period of real change,” he said. “We can afford more economic fairness.”
Perriello offers an unusual accessibility to an array of progressive religious groups, among them Faith in Public Life and Catholics United, urging believers to get involved as believers in offsetting the influence of rich and powerful interest groups. Like other Washington progressive politicians, he thinks government should intervene, when necessary, in the market to protect human dignity, an often cited principle in Catholic social thought.
Perriello has his detractors. Catholics for Choice is wary of his approach to abortion. “Catholics in Alliance, and Congressman Perriello who helped found it, are trying to pull Democrats away from their historic pro-choice position,” said Catholics for Choice’s president, Jon O’Brien.
Criticism from the right is just as strong. Deal Hudson, director of InsideCatholic.com, argues that Perriello’s position doesn’t pass muster. “If Rep. Perriello believes that abortion is the intentional taking of a human life in the womb of the mother, and I think he does, it is incomprehensible to me why he would not want at least minimal legal restrictions on it.”
Perriello, nonetheless, remains at the center of progressive Catholic politics. At a recent symposium “Catholic Social Teachings & the 111th Congress” held on Capitol Hill and sponsored by the Catholic University of America’s Life Cycle Institute, he moved easily among the activists and policy experts.
In national security matters, Perriello is unabashedly pro-Obama. “President Obama is really the best foreign policy president imaginable,” he said. “We have the first leader in more than two decades making the case for security through diplomacy. This is a paradigm shift of great importance.” Diplomacy trumps military might, though it takes more time to show the fruits of its efforts, he concedes.
Perriello has not formally studied theology, but his conversations are littered with references to the subject. He speaks of the common good, easily quotes Augustine, and draws most every policy discussion to how it affects human dignity.
His moral compass can range from the sublime to the ridiculous, often in a sentence. “Part of why the Lewinsky scandal hurt Democrats so much was that so many on the left said it wasn’t a big deal. That didn’t pass most people’s sniff test of moral credibility,” he remarked recently.
Nowhere is moral credibility more important than on the abortion issue, Perriello says. Perriello, like Obama, is committed to lowering the abortion rate and argues that concerns about overturning Roe v. Wade are a sideshow.
“If it wasn’t overturned with seven of nine justices appointed by conservative Republicans, how do you really think about promoting the culture of life?” he asked. “We know certain economic, health care and adoption policies can lower the abortion rate.” With the economic downturn, he is worried the abortion rate will spike without such policies in place.
Perriello is not afraid of political wheeling and dealing or its effect on his ideals. “Another principle that comes out of Catholic social thought is prudence,” he said. “There is a tendency among some activists to put a shrill purity above results. If you have a choice between judging people from above or sitting at the table and making a difference, I see a moral imperative to sit at the table.”
Michael Sean Winters is the author of Left at the Altar: How the Democrats Lost the Catholics and How the Catholics Can Save the Democrats.
"If you have a choice between
"If you have a choice between judging people from above or sitting at the table and making a difference, I see a moral imperative to sit at the table.”
Absolutely!
Another pro-abortion Catholic
Another pro-abortion Catholic chanting the "reduce the number of abortions" mantra. Here's a direct quote:
"Confusion …[about] my position on abortion may stem either from my public association with Catholicism as co-founder of the progressive Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good or from being badly misquoted in a New York Times article following the 2004 election. I firmly believe that abortion should not be criminalized, nor can we allow any action that seeks to coerce women by reducing access to care or making the process less safe."
Nothing has changed with Catholic Democrats and their obstinate refusal to give the abortion issue the "front and center" attention it must have. Faithful Catholics beware . . .
Dear Dr. Baguette, I,
Dear Dr. Baguette,
I, faithful Catholic that I am, fear infiltrators like you who seek to divide the House of God.
True and Faithful Catholics: Beware Dr. Baguette and similar well-remunerated political propagandists for the GOP!
Frère Charles, your
Frère Charles, your (intentional?) misspelling of Dr. Bequette's name may detract from your very valid message! Soeur Christine, SFO
So, he's pro-abortion?
So, he's pro-abortion?
He supports legal abortion.
He supports legal abortion. He want's to preserve access to abortion. He is pro-abortion.
so, Dr. Baguette, where do
so, Dr. Baguette, where do you read a quote going: "C'mon, dudes, let's all go get some abortion! I'm down for it 110%!! Every chance I get, I go get one. Better than a good haircut, dudes!"
I just do not see that kind of pro-thing here. What am I missing?
ever your poorest servant
frere charles
John, Please recognize that
John, Please recognize that the previous administration and the republican congress said, in order to get elected naturally, that they were "pro-life" or "anti-abortion" and that Roe v. Wade should be repealed. Why could they lie about their beliefs? Because they knew absolutely that they would be able to do nothing about it. Neither did they try do anything, in any way, to reduce the number of abortions. Changing the law would make safe abortion illegal, but it would not stop abortions from being performed. Period. Here are my questions, John, which no one on this page has ever answered. Actually, I've never heard a cleric reply except to say, "That would be up to the judge."
What would be the punishment for the mothers who receive the abortions by medical professionals? For the doctors? For the medical facilities? Who decides?
How about the person, politician or otherwise, who want to preserve access to attack weapons by the citizenry; or preserve access to cigarettes; or to continue what the Pope has stated to be an unjust war in Iraq? Are not these people pro-death? They certainly aren't pro-life.
Being anti-abortion is not the same as being pro-life. Making abortion illegal is not the same as being pro-life. Not supporting the repeal of Roe v. Wade does not make one pro-abortion. Repealing Roe v. Wade and doing nothing to lessen the number of abortions is not pro-life. Bishops who cover up sex abuse are not pro-life. The Brazilian bishop who "excommunicated" those involved in the abortion performed on a 9 year old girl pregnant with twins fathered by her step father-- and not condemning the stepfather is not pro-life.
Aldus
Pro-choice is not necessarily
Pro-choice is not necessarily pro-abortion. This is an oversimplification that I fear is often used to intimate people to be anti-abortion.
Thanks to Michael Sean
Thanks to Michael Sean Winters for describing this interesting person. Perriello seems to be staying above the fray of the internecine Catholic left/right battles. And that's good. With his prudence remark he may be able to influence some of our bishops to drop an all or nothing approach to social issues. That approach doesn't seem to be working; Prudential work is a long slog of few headlines but some accomplishments.
A 34-year-old politician Rep.
A 34-year-old politician Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va.,
sees three issues as dominant in the quest for a more just social order: economic and health care reform and the challenge of climate change..
making the case for security through diplomacy....
If you have a choice between judging people from above or sitting at the table and making a difference, I see a moral imperative to sit at the table.
****************************************************************************
The "SINGLE ISSUE CATHOLIC BISHOPS" of America ought to question why they have not "COLLECTIVELY" shown better leadership in any of the above issues.
In late September 2004, our
In late September 2004, our Detroit-area Catholics for the Common Good got a phone call from a young man in New York with Res Publica, a group none of us had ever heard of. Tom Perriello had just heard about our work challenging the Republican front groups that claimed to represent the only Catholic position on abortion. He suggested we work together. We immediately sensed a kindred spirit.
Within days Tom arranged a website for us, one key resource that helped win the majority of Catholic voters in Michigan away from Bush in November. He soon sent a couple of seminal analyses, with polling data, that helped shape our work.
Tom's vision and irenic spirit has been a major force in promoting progressive Catholic thought and action in the public square during the past decade. We're sure glad he called us.
Tom Perriello is another
Tom Perriello is another example of the fine leadership that is out there among the lay people of the Catholic Church. All of the reforms of Vatican II will come from the roots of the tree and never from the top where the leadership has lost its' way and reverted to fundamentalism of the lowest denominator. The Holy Spirit seems to be on active duty in bringing about the destruction of the old guard which set the Catholic Church on the wrong path and strayed dramatically from the teachings of Jesus.
Thanks Michael for a great
Thanks Michael for a great article. The mainstream media tries to tell us that everyone who believes in God is a Republican. I am glad NCR dispels that lie.
Steve
yup looks like the best yet
yup
looks like the best yet from Winters
Maybe hope is gaining the
Maybe hope is gaining the upperhand. I would sure like to think so.
Hope will gain the upperhand
Hope will gain the upperhand when Obama and others like him convert to being prolife.
GOOD CATHOLIC REPUBLICANS:
GOOD CATHOLIC REPUBLICANS: Aren't there any out there? I get the impression that for NCR all good Catholic politicans, thinkers, activists, government officials are Democrats. How about featuring some good Catholic Republicans once in a while. I mean, for the sake of being "fair and balanced" (oops, I'm sorry!)
try'n find one you cannot
try'n find one
you cannot serve two masters
who said that again?
Who ya gonna call? Gingrich? Jeanne Kirkpatrick? Pat Bushanan? That Admiral guy that put himself in charge when Reagan got shot and Papa Bush was in the bathroom?
try'n find one!
Any good catholic
Any good catholic republicans. Problem is when "republican" comes before Catholic and the social teachings of the Church are ignored. Cardinal Bernardin of blessed memory had it right and his position is worthy of meditation on both sides. WIthout that, we run the risk of being cultural catholics which means not Catholic at all.
What a refreshing breath of
What a refreshing breath of fresh air--wind--the Spirit in this time of Pentecost--on the Catholic political scene. The Catholic social justice teachings come right out of the Gospel message to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, the Sermon on the Mount. May Rep. Tom Perriello have a long and fruitful career. Pax et bonum...
Part of intelligence is
Part of intelligence is knowing how to ask the right questions. Based on this question, I'm sorry, but to put it mildly, he's an idiot...
"Perriello, like Obama, is committed to lowering the abortion rate and argues that concerns about overturning Roe v. Wade are a sideshow.
“If it wasn’t overturned with seven of nine justices appointed by conservative Republicans, how do you really think about promoting the culture of life?” he asked"
Sounds like a good
Sounds like a good question.
The GOP deceived millions of people and implemented extremely anti-life policies in the name of their flying the anti-abortion banner, plus millions of dollars in "faith-based initiatives" to church leaders.
With seven out of nine Supreme Court justices appointed by these anit-abortion GOP presidents doing nothing, and GOP majorities in both houses and in the White House producing no fruit, let us who must live out here on the real ground get to work on the social issues which drive women into the most desperate act of abortion, an act which no one freely chooses; rather than finding this just another rationale for bullying in church women and those who love women, let us solve the reasons which drive people to take such a desperate measure; let us establish social justice which turns people away from the despair of death, let us give each and every one in this nation, within this world of creation, not death and despair, but the audacity of Hope.
Amen.
Allelujia
Allelujia
For Hope is a Cardinal Virtue
A Theological Virtue
He sounds like the 'real'
He sounds like the 'real' fresh ticket. We should be concerned that some taliban bishop will take a lead from Deal Hudson and Newt 'the newbie' Some bishop may 'condemn' Perriello in order to get some press. Some of them think just being pro-Obama is new grounds for heresy and communion denial. The Catholic laity must form a new pro-life agenda and do it soon... The Notre Dame fiasco showed most laity the lack of heirarchal leadership. Note that there will not be any bishop apologies which would never be done anyway but there have not even been pro-forma 'climb downs' from the ND fiasco.. full speed ahead into the ditch..In case you missed the after-game analysis of the ND 'game'.. it was Obama/ND =60 vs 'the hard 70' = 0
There's one BIG difference
There's one BIG difference between supporting legal abortions and being pro-abortion. He is against enabling illegal, backroom abortions.
Abortions will continue to happen irrespective of legality. They did prior to Roe V Wade and will do the same if it is overturned, which I doubt ever will happen.
Rigid religionists have got to understand that their arguments against abortion in all cases are not persuasive nor compelling to a huge number of people throughout the world, including many Catholics. They will not be allowed to impose what they cannot persuade.
A good legislator will do all he can to minimize the destructive nature of abortions that are not handled in a safe, reponsible manner by people trained in the procedure.
Good Catholic + Republican =
Good Catholic + Republican = Oxymoron par excellence.
This is nothing new at all,
This is nothing new at all, just another abortion loving "Catholic", to whom justice is meaningless to the pre-born There are actually some good pro-life Democrats out there like Bart Stupack. Democrats for Life seem to be legitimately pro-life, yet I never see much about them here in NCR.
He supports the legal killing
He supports the legal killing of innocent human beings; that's not Catholic.
Pax et Bonum
Here we go again. I am a
Here we go again. I am a Latino and do like the position on social justice that Tom is bringing up. We call it in Latinamerica , Liberation Theology. It is a solid latinamerica appoach for the future, even though the Popes and Hierarchy have not been in touch with that reality as usual. But of course we had and have people like Archbishop Oscar Romero and many others, which are great signs of hope. I hope they publish my comment, because usually people in NCR don't seem to like us that much. Maybe because we are the future of the Catholic Church in the USA and not the white anglosaxon protestants. I understand the process, and many latinos are por-choice, because we already have the life. In the Anglo world they claim such a pro-life even though they will never take a black or latino kid in their homes. We know all the hypocritical status of many people in the Christian and Catholic traditions. Live and let live American conservatives should learn about life and respect the pro-choice for real freedom. No wonder the Europeans look down at us when they see so many Dummies together in the Americas. Arriba, arriba!
Interesting comments,
Interesting comments, anonymous, whoever you may be and whatever your actual heritage might be, and how interseting of you to share these sentiments, no matter what your actual background might be.
I invite you in any case please to read the excellent articles here upon the NCRonline.org pages concerning our wonderful new US Ambassador to the Vatican, Dr. Miguel Diaz, and I urge you please to read very carefully the excellent academic work of Dr. Diaz, including his On Being Human and From the Heart of a People.
Perriello is the wave of the
Perriello is the wave of the future. We are beginning to see that supporting a pro-war, pro-death penalty, pro-rich political party -- without any critique -- was a huge contradiction of our faith as Catholics, as Christians, as people of faith.
ah, another of our
ah, another of our "progressive up & coming leaders"........
leading us where, to whom, to what?.........
close the door, put out the for sale sign, Jesus' has left the left for the last train to.......?
ah, the NCR, step-daughter to the NYBehindtheTimes.........taliban bishops? please, get a life......oh, sorry for the slur, i forgot, you are pro-death.....
spare us, O Lord......
The fundamental question
The fundamental question is--is abortion murder? Is a human being being killed without benefit of being convicted of a crime or tried by a jury of his/her peers and without recourse to appeal? And please do not call it a "fetus". Hitler used words to dehumanize the Jewish people so he could kill them. Does this "fetus" if allowed to live grow to be a tree or a cat? No, it grows into a human being. So the only essential question here is....is abortion murder? And are splendid human beings like Dr. Tiller, murderers? Oh, by the by, Dr. Tiller made a ton of money killing babies who would otherwise have been viable. So please do not spout a lot of pap about "the good of humanity, etc." Human rights are God given and very important. But what good are they without the most fundamental right of all? Yes, yes I mean the right to life. And since everyone seems to make this into a Dem.vs Rep. battle, I am neither. I am a Distributist (for clarification read GKChesterton or H. Belloc.
Frère Charles du Désert OSB
Frère Charles du Désert OSB Oblat (Subiaco Congregation),
Let me be completely honest here...your posts always irritate me! I think it's because you pass yourself off as some sort of religious, priest or deacon or something, and imply that your views have some sort of official Catholic sanction. I am just a lay person but even I know that you are NOT promoting official Catholic doctrine/dogma. Let the reader beware!
Now you say it..."Sounds like a good question."...OK, the question was...
“If it wasn’t overturned with seven of nine justices appointed by conservative Republicans, how do you really think about promoting the culture of life?” So now defend the question. You said it sounds like a good question, well, it's not even a logical question. It makes no sense at all! The first clause is not even in doubt, it(Roe vs Wade) was not overturned, that's a matter of historical fact. But the point is, if 7 judges, in fact if only 5 judges, voted against it(Roe vs Wade), then it(Roe vs Wade) would have been overturned. That's the way the system works. The President(executive branch) and Congress(legislative branch) can do very little until the judicial branch(Supreme Court) overturns it(Roe vs Wade).
And then the second clause, "how do you really think about promoting the culture of life?", doesn't even apply to the first clause, in fact the second clause doesn't even make sense on its own! How do I really think about promoting the culture of life? Let's see, I think about it contemplatively; I think about it longingly; I think about it willingly; I think about it deeply; etc. etc. What the hell difference does it make how I think about it? And you say it sounds like a good question?
Well, maybe it does sound like a good question to someone who later says in the same post...
"the social issues which drive women into the most desperate act of abortion, an act which no one freely chooses;"
...so now we don't have free will anymore? And one more thing, you said...
"The GOP deceived millions of people and implemented extremely anti-life policies in the name of their flying the anti-abortion banner, plus millions of dollars in "faith-based initiatives" to church leaders."
...The GOP deceived? Sounds like some projection on your part, Chuck...you're the one guilty of deception around here. And faith-based initiatives are a good thing, by the way. I want all the readers here to realize that this fraud does NOT represent the Catholic Church!
"Nowhere is moral credibility
"Nowhere is moral credibility more important than on the abortion issue, Perriello says. Perriello, like Obama, is committed to lowering the abortion rate and argues that concerns about overturning Roe v. Wade are a sideshow."
Such talk sounds good, but in reality Obama opposes any restrictions on abortion. In other words, he believes that the option of abortion should always be available without restriction to women who decide they want one.
Only someone with a broken moral compass could hold such a view. Killing one's child to escape difficulty and adversity (which is the case in the vast majority of abortions) is never a morally acceptable solution. So why should we admire anyone who supports unrestricted abortion rights?
Pope Benedict (then Cardinal
Pope Benedict (then Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith), in a 2004 letter to the U.S. Bishops notes the gravity of abortion and explains that abortion is never licit and, unlike other controversial practices, such as capital punishment and war, is not subject to debate:
[The Church teaches that abortion or euthanasia is a grave sin. The Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, with reference to judicial decisions or civil laws that authorize or promote abortion or euthanasia, states that there is a "grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection...In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to ‘take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law or vote for it’” (no. 73). Christians have a “grave obligation of conscience not to cooperate formally in practices which, even if permitted by civil legislation, are contrary to God’s law. Indeed, from the moral standpoint, it is never licit to cooperate formally in evil...This cooperation can never be justified either by invoking respect for the freedom of others or by appealing to the fact that civil law permits it or requires it” (no. 74).
Not all moral issues have the same weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.]
It seems to me that
It seems to me that proclaiming one'sself anti-abortion but rejecting reduction in the numbers of abortions taking place as a desirable goal is totally crazy. The law by itself is not the perfect good. Jesus said the law was made for man, not man for the law. Being rational and compassionate rather than blindly clutching to the letter of a law is Jesus' way. The Church has lost its path here in its concern about keeping the law rather than having compassion for our neighbor. Fortunately recently there are numbers of people who support the law, but whose focus is on the need for compassion and care, and who are founding Women's Care Centers and supporting women and children and families rather than standing in the streets and shouting out the law again and again, and helping nobody. Jesus was for helping people. Even women and already born children. His proposal about him who is without sin throwing the first stone at the woman caught in adultery implicitly chides the men reaching for stones, hinting, I believe, that part of the blame lies with the men as well. Who are are the real Christians here?
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