Washington D.C., Oct 19, 2004 / 22:00 pm
A significant number of Catholic leaders around the U.S. have published an Open Letter to Sen. John Kerry this morning asking him to be coherent with his faith and with reason - saying he is incoherent on both counts – before Kerry is rumored to make a “big Catholic statement” to win the Catholic vote in swing states.
The letter entitled “An Open Letter from Fellow Catholics to John Kerry: On Faith and Reason,” was published in the wake of rumors that Kerry was to speak at a fundraiser at the College of Saint Catherine’s campus in St. Paul, Minnesota – a swing state with a large population of Catholics - on Thursday, October 21. However, Saint Catherine’s College has confirmed that he will not be there, and sources say he is to make a pitch to Catholic voters some time within the next week.
In an interview published in the Denver Post yesterday says that Sen. Kerry has pointed to a recent letter by Cardinal Ratzinger to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as saying that it is not a sin to vote for a pro-choice candidate if you are voting for him on the basis of other important issues, and is thus asking Catholics to look at his full record on voting with the Church positions, especially the American bishops’ stance on social issues.
However, the Open Letter noted that even though “disagreements will always exist in the civic arena,” such as those concerning social issues such as education and health, there exist certain “core truths around which… Catholics must rally. Not just because it is the word of the Church, but also because of reason. This is where we stand on opposition to abortion.”