Washington D.C., Aug 11, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Bishop Rene Henry Gracida, the bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas, published a statement Aug. 10 in which he questions the usefulness of a questionnaire, issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to President George W. Bush and Senator John F. Kerry. He said he hopes both presidential candidates refuse to answer it.
The questionnaire was intended to help the bishops determine if the two presidential candidates’ positions on certain policy issues are in line with Catholic teaching.
However, several U.S. Catholic scholars and leaders earlier this week criticized the document as having a slant toward Democratic Party positions. It was also criticized for not making clear moral distinctions between important life issues, such as abortion, euthanasia, cloning, and embryonic stem-cell research, and a number of other social or economic policy issues. Critics have stated that the latter just do not bear the same moral weight and faithful Catholics are free to disagree on them.
In the same vein, Bishop Gracida commented Tuesday that the questionnaire does not make a distinction between imperative life issues and debatable social policy issues.