It can be quite difficult to follow a US Presidential election campaign from over the pond. The subtleties of state/national politics and of the different personalities can be quite confusing when you aren't able to follow it all day-to-day.
As far as the Presidential nominees go, Diakonia has a useful post comparing Senator McCain and Senator Obama on a range of issues of interest to Catholic voters. I think Senator McCain, the Republican candidate, scores best ...
Senator Nancy Pelosi's comments, which suggested that the Catholic Church was not clear in teaching the moral wrong of all procured abortion, also drew a strong comment from Diakonia, criticising her misrepresentation of Catholic teaching. Fr Ray provides a list of links to the reactions- pleasingly hostile - of Catholic bishops in the United States. Senator Pelosi is a Democrat, speaker of the House of Representatives and a Roman Catholic (well, sort of?).
And then we come to the Vice-Presidential candidates. Senator Obama has chosen Senator Joe Biden. Senator Biden is a Catholic who is "personally opposed to abortion" but has supported it in the US legislature. As I understand the situation, he is someone to whom a policy of "Eucharistic consistency" means that he should not approach to receive Holy Communion.
And today's bombshell. Senator McCain, the Republican candidate, has chosen the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his Vice-Presidential running mate. The BBC News site has a profile of her here. And one of the bloggers on my blog roll is so cock a hoop that Sarah Palin's choice as running mate might well lead her to vote Republican instead of Democrat later this year ... Go here and look around the blog for Radical Catholic Mom's several posts on Sarah Palin. Thanks to her blog, I recognised the implications of Sarah Palin's being chosen as soon as I heard the name (I am very proud of that!) and before hearing any further explanation.
Oh, by the way, Sarah Palin is not a Catholic - according to Radical Catholic Mom, "she is a good Christian gal, but not one of our own" - and she is "strongly opposed to abortion". In other respects she is politically strongly conservative, which may not be everyone's cup of tea. But, as I say, the Presidential election just got interesting for American Catholics ...
PS: Go here for some of the US Catholic reaction ....
1 comment:
Zero says
I was reading in the Times yesterday that Sarah Palin was "one of us" until her family moved to Alaska when they joined the Pentecostals. I wonder why the change. Being rural would there not be a Mother church in the vicinity? was there more of a welcome from the Pentecostal church or did they do more evangelising?
But as it is said Once a catholic..."
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