By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
WASHINGTON, November 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – John Kerry lamented the fact that he lost the pro-life vote in the 2004 US presidential elections during a talk given at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life yesterday. The Catholic, former Democratic presidential candidate still did not, however, express any regrets about his pro-abortion position.
Kerry stated that he wished he had talked more about his personal view of what constitutes “Catholicism” earlier in the campaign, rather than waiting until the last three weeks.
The Senator acknowledged that the decision by four Catholic bishops to denounce him publicly and to deny him communion based on his pro-abortion stance had cost him dearly, and said that he “probably” should have done more to respond.
“President Kennedy’s challenge was to prove that he was not so Catholic that he could be president. My challenge was to prove that I was Catholic enough that I could be president,” he told the audience.
Reflecting an ongoing failure of most US bishops to adequately communicate Church teaching on the issue, Kerry also claimed that the position of the four Catholic bishops was somehow “not a church position. And what we didn’t do was make … sure the Catholic position was in front of people as much as it should be.”
In his attempt to articulate his “Catholic” position on abortion Kerry avoided any mention of Catholic doctrine, papal teaching, the Church Fathers or the Magisterium. The Senator’s personalized “Vatican II” religion seemed most characterized by his reference to “your value system”, “your beliefs”.
The prominent Democrat may have had his views reinforced by other prominent Democrat pro-abortion Catholics such as Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi and the now-deceased and very influential Jesuit Fr. Robert Drinan, none of whom have been seriously taken to task by local bishops.
The obligation to refuse to give communion to pro-abortion politicians has been reiterated recently by Pope Benedict XVI, who told the press earlier this year that in threatening to excommunicate such politicians the bishops of Mexico “did nothing new, surprising or arbitrary. They simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the Church . . . which expresses our appreciation for life and that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment” (see complete story at https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/may/07050901.html).
The former presidential candidate also employed two standard tactics used by pro-abortion politicians seeking to minimize the political damage caused by their position.
The first is to claim that they are really “against abortion” and want to “reduce the number of abortions” while simultaneously opposing any effort to criminalize it. The second is to call for “common ground” with their opponents. This approach has been used by Bill Clinton, Republican pro-abortion candidate Rudy Giuliani, and even Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the president-elect of Argentina.
“I think we have been guilty in the [Democratic] Party at times” of being pro-choice “without honoring the deeply held beliefs” of pro-lifers, said Kerry. “There are 1.3 million abortions in this country, and I don’t think anybody would disagree that that is too many.”
Kerry added that he thinks abortion should be “rare” and that he believes “very deeply that it’s not a contradiction to be pro-choice and against abortion.” He called on candidates to determine “how to use religion not as a weapon, but to use it to find common ground.”
Related LifeSiteNew.com Coverage:
Kerry hopes presidential candidates ‘get it right’ on religion in ‘08 race
https://www.abpnews.com/2840.article
Pro-Abortion John Kerry to Speak at Catholic University of America
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07091105.html
Pro-Abortion Kerry’s Lecture Cancelled at CUA Due to “Scheduling Conflict”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07092103.html
Fake ‘Catholic Voters Guide’ Published by Former Aide to John Kerry
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06092907.html
Kerry “Personally Opposed” to Assisted Suicide But Will Not Oppose Oregon Euthanasia Law
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/may/04051903.html
Likely Democrat Presidential Candidate Kerry – A Textbook Pro-Abortion Catholic
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/feb/040204a.html