Former Boston mayor Raymond Flynn doesn\u2019t see a lot of Republicans at the 9 o\u2019clock Sunday Mass at St. Vincent\u2019s Catholic Church.<\/p>\n\n
This is a South Boston parish, the kind of place where Irish parishioners cherish photos of old-timers \u2014 like Flynn\u2019s dockworker dad \u2014 marching on feast days with Cardinal Richard Cushing and a young John F. Kennedy. These are hardcore, working-class, union-card Catholics.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThese people have never voted Republican in their lives,\u201d said Flynn, who also served as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican in the Clinton years. \u201cBut now they feel like homeless Democrats in their own party. They\u2019re pro-life and pro-family and pro-marriage and pro-justice and pro-poor and they have no idea who to vote for anymore. They\u2019re homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Nevertheless, Flynn said it\u2019s too easy to tie this scene to the \u201cpew gap\u201d that has made headlines in this election year. It\u2019s true that surveys say the safest way to predict how voters will vote is to chart their worship habits. Voters who worship more than once a week go Republican \u2014 2-1 or more. A Time poll said the \u201cnot religious\u201d crowd backs Sen. John Kerry over President Bush, 69 percent to 22 percent.<\/p>\n\n
Some strategists see this as \u201cgood Catholics\u201d who back Bush versus \u201cbad Catholics\u201d who back Kerry. They want to divide America\u2019s 64 million Catholic voters into two political flocks.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no way you can do that,\u201d said Flynn. \u201cI know there are politically conservative Catholics out there and they\u2019re Republicans because that\u2019s what they believe. I also know there are liberal Catholics and they\u2019re still comfortable voting Democrat. But what about all of us who are just Catholic Catholics? \u2026<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIn the media, the fact that we\u2019re pro-life makes us conservative Republicans. Right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Nevertheless, journalists are not the only insiders who think that way. Leaders of the Democrats for Life organization are reeling over platform language adopted quietly at the recent Democratic National Convention.<\/p>\n\n
The 2000 platform said Democrats stand \u201cbehind the right of every woman to choose, consistent with Roe v. Wade.\u201d However, it also said the \u201cDemocratic Party is a party of inclusion. We respect the individual conscience of each American on this difficult issue, and we welcome all our members to participate at every level of our party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The 2004 platform replaces this conscience clause with a statement that Democrats \u201cstand firmly against Republican efforts to undermine\u201d abortion rights.<\/p>\n\n
Democrats for Life director Kristen Day asked: \u201cSo what are they saying, that because we want to protect the rights of the unborn our own party says we\u2019re automatically Republicans? <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Boston mayor Raymond Flynn doesn\u2019t see a lot of Republicans at the 9 o\u2019clock Sunday Mass at St. Vincent\u2019s Catholic Church. This is a South Boston parish, the kind of place where Irish parishioners cherish photos of old-timers \u2014 like Flynn\u2019s dockworker dad \u2014 marching on feast days with Cardinal Richard Cushing and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1532,294,1544,738,925],"class_list":["post-1295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholics","tag-democrats","tag-politics","tag-republicans","tag-white-house"],"yoast_head":"\n