Washington D.C., May 18, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The Catholic League president says that Catholic politicians, who claim to personally agree with Church teaching, yet feel obligated not to vote that way, are guided more by “pure politics” than by “any alleged constitutional question” of church and state.
In a statement issued yesterday, William Donohue points out that Democratic Sen. John Kerry has expressed that his belief that marriage is the union of a man and a woman will determine his public position on the same-sex marriage question.
In this case, Donohue underlines, “Kerry does not believe that his opposition to same-sex marriage, which mirrors the teachings of the Catholic Church, creates a church-and-state dilemma for him.”
However, Donohue says, the same is not true when the subject switches to reproductive rights. In this case, Kerry says that he cannot allow his personal opposition to abortion to determine his voting on the subject, “because then he would be imposing his Catholic beliefs on others.”