Democrats Reel Under Charges of Anti-Catholic Bias

WASHINGTON, August 1, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Democratic minority in the U.S. Senate has stalled Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr.‘s appointment by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. The highlight of the process saw Democrats attacking Pryor’s “deeply held values,” a term Republicans said reflects discrimination against Pryor’s faithfulness to Catholic Church teachings.  Republicans accused Democrats of “religious McCarthyism”—giving them a taste of their own political medicine that sent them reeling.  The Senate voted 53 to 44 in favour of ending a Democratic filibuster against Pryor, 7 fewer than the 60 needed to close debate and force an up and down vote in the Senate.  Denver Archbishop Chaput commented that there is “a new kind of religious discrimination” on Capitol Hill, one that sees non-faithful Catholics like Senator Richard Durbin, who supports abortion, persecuting a judge like Prior, a faithful Catholic who is against abortion. “The bias against ‘papism’ is alive and well in America,” says Chaput. “It just has a different address.”  For Washington Post coverage:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10423-2003Jul31.html   For Archbishop Chaput’s commentary:  https://www.archden.org/archbishop/docs/7_30_03_pryor_anticatholic.htm