Catholic League gives Durbin’s scorecard a failing grade

Washington D.C., Jun 7, 2004 / 22:00 pm

Senator Dick Durbin’s “Catholic Scorecard”, which ranks Catholic U.S. senators based on their votes on domestic, international and pro-life issues, is “ludicrous”, says the Catholic League in a recent press release.

The report issued by the senator of Illinois ranks Democratic senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy among the “most Catholic” of 24 U.S. senators despite being openly pro-abortion.

Durbin’s report is called “Evaluating the Votes and Actions of Public Officials from a Catholic Perspective.” It ranks senators concerning the issues listed in a document by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, called “Faithful Citizenship.” 

“To say that a senator votes better on Catholic issues because he has voted to increase the minimum wage while voting against a ban on killing a baby who is 80 percent born is ludicrous,” said Catholic League president William Donohue, referring to the recent act that was passed, banning partial-birth abortions. 

“Senator Durbin has done the same as some House Democrats last month, lumping together policy issues that do not have the same moral weight,” said Donohue. 

“Durbin has even gone so far as to say that the ‘right to religious belief and the separation between church and state’ may be ‘compromised’ by bishops who impose sanctions on pro-abortion lawmakers,” said Donohue. “This is ironic, coming from the senator who on the Judiciary Committee enforced a de facto religious test barring pro-life Catholics from the federal bench.”  

Durbin also said that bishops, who have stated that they might deny Communion to pro-abortion politicians, “cross the line in terms of what most Catholic Americans find acceptable regarding the relationship between their Church and their government.”

“The fact of the matter,” said Donohue, “is that the bishops have not only the right but the duty to speak on moral issues that play out in the public sphere; and Durbin’s inflammatory rhetoric is a blatant attempt to muzzle them.”