The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[Alex]

I don't know, I think she's right. The leadership of the church may be pretty unified but if you view "Catholic Church" as not only the leadership by all of the people in it as well, then the American Catholic Church is deeply divided on the issue.

More than half of Americans who view themselves as Catholic label themselves as pro-choice according to some polls (the number is less in other polls but they tend to be limiting themselves to more devout Catholics). 70% say that they have no obligation to vote against a pro-choice candidate.

There are plenty of examples of pro-choice Democratic Catholic politicians who have no problem at all dominating among the Catholic vote (Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, and Nancy Pelosi being three obvious examples).

So I don't know how much it hurts among the Catholic laity. And it might help elsewhere if the bishops gets their collective panties in a twist. Americans generally hate it when church leaders try to overtly sway the political process...so long as the leader isn't from their own church.