Catholic Vote: Group targets parishes with anti-Obama flier

An antiabortion brochure that claims voting for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama “flagrantly violates Catholic teaching” is being distributed to parishioners at Catholic churches across nine battleground states and beyond.

Randall Terry's brochure.The method of distributing the flier, titled “Faithful Catholic Citizenship Based Upon the Gospel of Life,” includes placing brochures on cars parked outside parishes, handing them out before or after Mass and distributing them online. No Catholic dioceses have sanctioned the brochure or its distribution methods and several dioceses told NCR they strongly disagree with the methods of disseminating the material. Several persons distributing the “Gospel of Life” brochures who refused to leave church properties have been arrested for trespassing.

Nevertheless, Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, told NCR he is targeting nine states he thinks are key to this year’s election -- Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada and Colorado. But he’s sending brochures to whoever requests them, even if the state is not in play.

“We have over 500 teams across the country who are distributing two different brochures,” Terry said, “and we’re looking for more volunteers. I recognize in many people’s minds we are skating on thin ice, but so was St. Thomas More and St. Catherine of Siena, and many prophets who spoke the truth when it wasn’t sanctioned.”

Terry’s brochure is designed to look like the November 2007 document put out by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops titled “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” which can be distributed freely in parishes. Terry referred to the visual similarities as “comic relief,” rather than an attempt to confuse matters, and noted that his brochure stresses “Catholic Faithful Citizenship.”

USCCB brochureArlington, Va., diocesan chancellor Mark Herrmann was not buying it.

“It seems that the goal was to mislead people into believing that these pamphlets were authentic church documents,” Herrmann said in a statement released by the diocese.

Herrmann was making the statement after Terry, Joseph Landry and Brian Sherwood were arrested at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington Oct. 5 for trespassing in the church parking lot. The release says all three men were arrested after they refused to move to the public parking lot.

A second brochure, titled “Is It Immoral to Vote for Obama for President?” is targeting non-Catholics and being distributed at Wal-Marts and malls as well as Protestant churches.

Terry would not give exact numbers of how many brochures are being printed, stating there are “a lot,” and agreed it was in the tens of thousands. He said the brochures are funded by donations and in-kind printing, but did not name specific sources.

The brochure, which is written in question-and-answer form and most often quotes Pope John Paul II, at one point references “certain clergy and laymen,” such as Catholic author Douglas Kmiec, who is quoted saying, “It violates no aspect of Catholic teaching for a Catholic voter to endorse, support or vote for Barack Obama.” The question asked is, “Are they correct?”

The answer: “No. They are not correct. Endorsing, supporting or voting for Obama in the 2008 presidential election flagrantly violates Catholic teaching.”

The argument that voting for a Democrat violates Catholic teaching because of the abortion issue has been cited as a key element in the 2004 victory for President George W. Bush, especially in Ohio.

Unlike that election, said Eric McFadden, former director of Catholic Outreach for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Democrats are not caught off-guard.

“This time around the left has a very strong and viable presence,” McFadden said. “They are taking opportunities to share the breadth of Catholic social teaching, not just one issue. Mr. Terry claims to be working with faithful Catholics, but they are openly defying the bishops.”

Joan Rosenhauer, associate director of the U.S. bishops’ department of social development and world peace, said the “Faithful Citizenship” document states, “We encourage Catholics to seek those resources that are authorized by their own bishops, their state Catholic conferences, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

Rosenhauer said the statement covers all political viewpoints.

“This position is clearly not a reaction to any particular materials because it was approved almost a year ago,” she wrote in an e-mail to NCR. “It is rooted in our commitment to promote the teaching of the bishops, rather than reflections produced by other groups that may or may not accurately represent Catholic teaching.”

Terry is not arguing that the bishops’ conference supports his stand. He disputes the bishops’ 2007 document, which states that “there may be times when a Catholic who rejects a candidate’s unacceptable position may decide to vote for that candidate for other morally grave reasons.”

“The faithful citizenship document is not the teaching of the Catholic church,” Terry said. “Evangelium Vitae [an encyclical issued by Pope John Paul II in 1995] is the teaching of the Catholic church. The ‘Faithful Citizenship’ document is a disaster. It’s being quoted by every pro-abortion group out there.”

Terry found at least one retired bishop to side with him. Rene Henry Gracida, bishop emeritus of the Corpus Christi, Texas, diocese, wrote Terry, stating, “I encourage you to disseminate the two documents as widely as possible. More and more bishops are speaking up in the way you desire.”

When contacted by NCR via e-mail, Gracida clarified: “Bishops who hold an official appointment from the pope and are still active in that appointment are not free to endorse or denounce specific candidates.”

But he defended his own right to speak out. “I am a private citizen and I did not lose my civil rights when I was ordained a bishop,” he wrote. “I do not represent any diocese or other entity in the Roman Catholic church. I speak only for myself.”

The Corpus Christi diocese confirmed that it does not speak out on specific candidates.

Terry’s group is deliberately doing acts of civil disobedience on church properties. His group is sometimes confused with the Operation Rescue in Wichita, Kan. Terry left Wichita in 1991 and there is pending litigation over the group’s trademark.

Landry, one of the three arrested in Arlington, was in court Oct. 14 on charges of trespassing at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore Sept. 14. He was arrested after being asked several times to leave the shrine’s property by security guards and later by police. Maryland is not considered a contested state, with polling showing Obama ahead by more than 20 points.

Michael Humphrey is a freelance writer in Kansas City, Mo.

National Catholic Reporter October 31, 2008