"Mobilizing America's Nonbelievers for Political Activism"
A cardinal has called for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to be denied the right to receive communion at a Catholic Mass because of his position on abortion. This is a church matter. But now, Catholic cardinals have called for not inviting Kerry to the Alfred E. Smith memorial dinner in the fall. Every four years, the presidential candidates attend this dinner and it becomes a news item to see how the cardinals react. Jimmy Breslin thinks not inviting Kerry amounts to endorsement of President Bush, which would cost St Patrick's Cathedral its tax-exempt status.
Link to New York Newsday Article, reproduced below.
Church should pay for its politics
Beautiful. I think the best thing to come out of the big Catholics in New York, the Powerhouse, St. Patrick's Cathedral, in many years is the shucking of this cloak that tries to cover their right-wing politics. It never really did. Now they campaign openly as right-wingers in the national election.
Absolutely marvelous! They can just step right out and hang a campaign banner from the front of St. Patrick's Cathedral:
Vote Bush! He Stops Abortions!
The big Catholic clergymen are right-wing Republicans. I always felt sorry that they had to keep hiding this. No more. This year they have finally come out for all to see what they are.
They don't want this Kerry. He is a liberal Democrat. Kerry votes in favor of women having the right to choose on abortion. Ask anybody at the top of the church. This man is for murdering babies. He and his liberals are against the war in Iraq, and for women in the church, money for education in poor schools. Catholic bishops are for staying in there in Iraq. No matter how many funerals we have to run in poor neighborhoods. And for how many years, they were for capital punishment. They have a passionate denial of women in any role, no matter what the wreckage caused by old, white-haired males who leap onto altar boys.
The cathedral now is an official political clubhouse for the right. The cathedral and the residence take up the square block, Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets, and down both streets to Madison Avenue and the cardinal's residence.
In a fair society, the property would have a real-estate tax of $10 million a year. It is unique for a large religion to lose a tax-free status. But at the same time, the Catholic church here seems so obsessed with playing an open role in Republican Party politics that I guess they are willing to pay $10 million a year for the right.
The only years that really count are the national election years. But they must pay the tax in off years. So that means they would actually be paying $40 million each four years for the right to back a Republican presidential candidate. I admire them for it.
I pass St. Patrick's and the place brings tears to my eyes. They are not hypocrites. They truly mean what they say. They don't want the Democratic nominee for president to be part of their business. I don't agree with them on one issue politically. But, by God, if they are going to lose their real-estate tax exemption and put out $40 million to support George Bush, then I give them a slight bow. Beautiful!
If the Catholics are going to do something, then let's do it big. They already have started open political campaigning by saying that John Kerry probably won't be invited to the cardinal's famous Alfred E. Smith memorial dinner in the fall. I'm all for that. At last, Catholics are letting everybody know exactly the real Catholic positions on an election.
The bishops don't want liberals under the same roof. Already, a Cardinal has called for Kerry to be denied the right to receive communion at a Catholic Mass. This is centered in Massachusetts and has nothing to do with New York realty taxes.
The Smith dinner is named for former New York Gov. Alfred E. Smith, whose laws after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire still protect workers. Every four years the dinner becomes a national story, with the presidential candidates attending and everybody watching how the cardinal acts toward them.
The most famous appearance was in October in 1960 when Cardinal Spellman rooted so hard for Richard Nixon alongside him, and forget this Kennedy; he says he's a Catholic but he's not mine. Kennedy got up and put Spellman in shock and stole the room: "Cardinal Spellman is the only man so widely respected in American politics that he could bring together, amicably, at the same banquet table, for the first time in this campaign, two political leaders who are increasingly apprehensive about the November election, who have long eyed each other suspiciously, and who have disagreed so strongly, both publicly and privately, Vice President Nixon and Governor Rockefeller."
His charm carried the room and went out of it to the nation. Nobody on either side can do that this year. But we do have principles. We don't want John Kerry at the dinner because he supports abortions and our big Catholics seem ready to put up $40 million to say it. Absolutely marvelous!
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.