Good news: 55% of Catholics voted Democratic in 2006, compared with

[DemBones DemBones]

47% in 2004. Also, only 25.9% of Catholics respond favorably to information from conservative Catholic groups,
while 61.3% respond unfavorably to information from conservative Catholic groups.

The war in Iraq, political corruption, torture, the minimum wage, and health care coverage were issues of concern
to Catholics.

I feel sure that my fellow progressive Catholics and Orthodox Christians will agree that it's good to see
Catholics coming home to the Democratic Party. (Not to mention interesting that the media have not covered this
story!)


Quotes from the study:


I. The Catholic vote swung to the Democrats in 2006, including 20+ point shifts in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia
The 2006 election brought about a dramatic shift in Catholic voting patterns, with significant percentages of Catholics
changing their votes from Republican to Democratic candidates. In many cases, the shift of Catholic voters away from
incumbents resulted in the defeat of Senators who once enjoyed broad support among Catholics. Nationwide, Democrats
won the backing of 55% of Catholics this year, compared with 47% in 2004. Many of the most hotly contested races hinged
upon Catholic voters. In Ohio, the epicenter of grassroots Catholic organizing, Sherrod Brown was elected after winning 54%
of the same Catholic vote which supported President Bush by 11 points in 2004. Similarly, John Tester won Catholic Montanans
by 2 points – a constituency President Bush carried in 2004 by 13 points. Bob Casey won the Catholic vote in Pennsylvania with
a 59 to 41-point split, after John Kerry squeaked to a 2-point win in 2004.


II. The shift in Catholic voting was driven primarily by the elevation of “kitchen table” moral issues like corruption,
Iraq, and the minimum wage. From both National Election Poll (NEP) data and exit polling commissioned by Catholics in
Alliance for the Common Good and Faith in Public Life (CACG/FPL), this dramatic swing can largely be attributed to Catholic
voters’ prioritization of “kitchen table” moral issues such as corruption, the war in Iraq, the minimum wage and expanding
health coverage.


III. The ascendance of mainstream Catholic groups played a key role in shifting the moral debate among Catholic
voters, particularly by promoting the common good as the barometer of moral politics The Catholic social justice movement
helped elevate the War in Iraq, poverty, health care, torture, and corruption as moral priorities in 2006. Catholics in Alliance
has actively promoted the fullness of Catholic teaching through:

• Distributing 1 million print and electronic copies of a non-partisan voter guide;
• Full-time field organizing in Ohio and Pennsylvania; volunteers in all 50 states;
• Print ad campaigns in Ohio, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and weekly bulletin inserts on different
moral issues in hundreds of parishes;
• More than 150 media hits, including every major paper in Ohio, plus media training for 35 Catholic leaders.


Mainstream Catholic Groups are generating a much more positive reaction from Catholics than conservative groups
with narrow agendas. The CACG/FPL poll indicates that religious groups advocating civic participation based on issues
like the Iraq War, torture, poverty, and the minimum wage, have reached only half as many Catholic voters as
groups advocating voting strictly on abortion and same-sex marriage. Yet Catholics reached by conservative groups
are much more likely to respond unfavorably (61.3%) than favorably (25.9%) to these groups’ message. Conversely,
the message of Catholics in Alliance and its partners garners a favorability of 46% versus 38% unfavorable. That is a
20-point higher national favorability rating and a 23-percent lower unfavorable rating for mainstream Catholic
groups.



Graphs and more at http://thecatholicalliance.org/new/files/Catholic-Voting-Study.pdf

Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good is concerned with social justice from a Catholic perspective, with a home page at

http://thecatholicalliance.org/new/home.html

I'm still exploring the site to see all that they offer -- programs, resources, fliers you can print out and distribute. They
need volunteer parish organizers for grassroots outreach.

[CBHagman]

1. Thanks for cheering me up, Dem Bones.

I first heard of the Catholic Alliance for the Common Good six months ago or so ago, and it's a pleasue to have them around.

Recently the media has been advancing the notion that Catholics have more of an affinity with the GOP than with Democrats and various breeds of progressives. Some reporters and analysts even imply that publicly expressed faith is sincere and genuine when it comes from, say, a George W. Bush but is somehow not credible coming from a Democrat, particularly the social justice-oriented ones.

And though I know my fellow Catholics are a mixed bag politically, especially where I live (the DC area), it drives me crazy when parishioners hijack things for a right-wing cause. I've been involved in a job networking group and just got a list of job openings -- entirely Republican, except for one or two nonpolitical ones. :grr:

[DemBones DemBones]

3. You're six months ahead of me! I just learned about

the Catholic Alliance in an article about the anti-Catholic statements written by those "edgy" bloggers hired by the Edwards campaign. (Apparently, "edgy" now means vulgar and blasphemous writing with a strong anti-Christian and particularly anti-Catholic slant.) The article quoted a release from the Catholic Alliance in which it was made clear that the Catholic Alliance disagrees with Bill Donohue on many things but that he was correct to call attention to this matter.

The statistics show that Catholics are coming back to the Democratic Party so when we see/hear the media saying otherwise, we should correct them on it. I think the "we're pro-life" rhetoric of the party supporting an unjust war is wearing thin with a lot of people. I always want to ask * supporters who believes he's pro-life just what he's done to reduce the number of abortions in this country. He certainly hasn't done anything to help women who are pressured by their financial situation into deciding they can't afford to continue a pregnancy. Signing the "partial-birth-abortion" ban won't prevent a significant number of abortions and the ban will likely be overturned by the courts anyway.

Sorry about the job market, I guess D.C. will continue to have a lot of Republicans until we get a Democratic president as well as a Democratic Congress. I hope you can get a job you like.

[CBHagman]

5. Thanks, Dem Bones!

Actually, I think the GOP slant of that e-mail had more to do with the group than with the Catholicism. The church I attend seems to be a mixed group, and most of the priests are pretty cool. I do notice the youngest one is the most conservative, though!

As for the media and their sometimes weak grasp of Catholics and social teaching, don't get me started. The Washington Post used to employ Colman McCarthy as a columnist and now only brings him back for special projects, such as book reviews and the like. And while Jim VandeHei was at the Post, he repeatedly tried to link George W. Bush's policies to John Paul II!! You have to ignore a lot (such as, for example, WAR) to pull off something like that.

And then there's Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA), who gets high marks from pro-life organizations. There's just one problem. Hunter has repeatedly and publicly cited the Reagan administration's policies in El Salvador as a success and indeed as a model for Iraq. At press conferences and hearings, on talk shows, he makes the claim that the U.S. put a "military shield" around El Salvador and set up a democratic government. No mention of the massacres of civilians, no mention of infants and children being slaughtered, no reference to the murders of the Jesuits, the Maryknoll missionaries, and Oscar Romero. Weirdly, I haven't noticed anyone, even Catholic journalists, calling him on this.

[AngryOldDem]

2. So there's hope, then

Perhaps "conservative" Catholic groups aren't as popular as their vocal proponents make them out to be.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. Yes! And not just wishful thinking hope, either -- we've got stats to

show the trend is in favor of progressive values. Not only that, the study shows Catholics don't like the right wing literature that reaches them. Good news that offers more promise for the future, if more Democrats just go back to core Democratic values of supporting the working class (which I consider to include the "middle class"; "working class" to me means anyone who works for a living, regardless of what type of work they do, as opposed to having the option of living off inherited money, as the "leisure class" does.)