Catholic Bishop Who Opposed Clinton Visit To St. Marys Has No Such Objections For Huckabee
By Vince Leibowitz on Feb 20, 2008 in 2008 Presidential Race
It comes as no surprise that Archbishop Jose Gomez–who last week voiced objection to New York Senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaking at St. Mary’s University said yesterday that he has no objection to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee speaking at the school.
From the San Antonio Express-News:
Gomez issued a rare public statement denouncing the decision by St. Mary’s to allow Sen. Hillary Clinton to speak last Wednesday. He said her support for abortion rights — and his duty as archbishop to preserve sound Catholic doctrine at local Catholic universities — prompted the admonishment.
Critics questioned whether the archbishop would take aim at other presidential hopefuls who speak at St. Mary’s, particularly when their stances on other issues conflict with Catholic theology.
Huckabee, a Republican who is a Baptist and a former Arkansas governor, opposes abortion and embryonic stem cell research, which Gomez noted in Tuesday’s statement is in keeping with Catholic beliefs.
However, Huckabee’s support for the death penalty and the war in Iraq is at odds with Catholic Church teachings, critics point out.
“Given Pope John Paul II’s strong statements in opposition to the war in Iraq and the death penalty, I assume that Archbishop Gomez will be as concerned about Gov. Huckabee on those issues as he was about Sen. Clinton’s on abortion,” said Larry Hufford, a St. Mary’s political science professor.
In Tuesday’s statement, Gomez, who came from Denver three years ago to be archbishop, said he is not telling Catholics how or who to vote for but that abortion is a matter the Catholic faith requires him to condemn.
That is a weak, weak, weak argument. Gomez is trying to tell Catholics how to vote! Clearly–and especially in the Catholic Church–church members from an early age are taught the understanding of following the teachings of the Pope and other church elders. By Archbishop Gomez deciding to step into this debate, he has, whether he thinks so or not, told Catholics how to vote.
Have to disagree with you here. Catholic-Church members (even those raised as such from an early age) have minds and thoughts of their own, and don’t necessarily blindly obey the bishops or the pope.
If you doubt it, take a look at how many Catholics follow the Church’s teachings on contraception or (especially here in Texas) the death penalty.
Let the bishops say what they will — Catholics may give their words more weight, or may not. But to suggest that Catholics follow the teachings of the Pope or church elders without engaging their own conscience in the process harkens back to anti-Catholic prejudice that, I hope, died out with the previous century.
To put abortion and capital punishment in the same category is simplistic and ignorant. Abortion is the taking of innocent and unprotected life, plain and simple. Capital punishment (although as a Catholic I am not a supporter of it either) is much more complicated - you are dealing with people who have usually committed heinous crimes and some form of tough punishment is justified. If asked, Gomez should make this distinction.
And so what if he is subtlely telling people how to vote? He is a leader, he takes public stances on certain issues and it is left up to the public to make up their own minds. Anyway, religious leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton openly tell people to vote for Democrats all of the time.
However abortion and capital punishment do have one thing in common - their legality should be determined by the states, not the federal government.
Iraq is a whole different issue altogether. If Larry Hufford is so concerned about the archbishop’s consistancy in the applications of Catholic teachings relating to war then why didn’t he mention Afghanistan too? And does he not forget that Clinton, not Huckabee, actually casted a vote to support the Iraq war? So why bring it up now? Oh yeah, how could I be so stupid…he is a political science professor with an agenda. So typical.