No "Validation" for Dissenting Catholics

A graduate school classmate, whose strong Catholic beliefs I highly respect, captured in one word what was at stake in a potential Kerry election victory: "validation" for Catholic dissidents. Some will say that a Kerry victory has no canonical or theological standing: dissent is still heterodox no matter who becomes President.

But reality is much more complex. Call it what you will--ambience, momentum, the Zeitgeist--but having a dissident Catholic as President of the most powerful nation in the world and in the constant media spotlight worldwide would have culturally validated the dissenting Catholics of Call to Action, FutureChurch, the National Catholic Reporter, Dignity, and Commonweal. Of course, there would have been no theological validation of heterodoxy, but there would have been a big rise in social credibility for the agenda of liberal/dissenting Catholics.

It is no secret that dissenting Catholics have no problem with gay civil unions or even marriage. It is no secret that dissenting Catholics view the pro-life stance of the Church as expendable. Kerry's election and ensuing prestige would have culturally validated those views for many other Catholics.

Yet, the majority of Catholic voters backed Bush. Some will say that Bush captured the majority of Catholic voters because of the greater trust voters in general have in Bush's ability to fight the war on terror. Surely, there is some truth in that view.

But clearly social issues like abortion and gay marriage played a key role. As noted in a recent Catholic World News story, while John F. Kennedy captured 78% of the Catholic vote in 1960, Kerry captured only 47% of the Catholic vote. Kerry is the first Catholic presidential nominee in American history to lose the Catholic vote (devout Catholic Al Smith got 80% of the Catholic vote in the 1928 presidential election won by Herbert Hoover, according to Catholic World News).

In my view, if terror had been the only reason for Catholics to vote for Bush, Kerry as a Catholic candidate should have at least tied Bush in the Catholic vote, as Gore, a non-Catholic, basically did in 2000. My hunch is that something else pushed the Catholic vote decisively against Kerry: the social issues.

The evidence for this view is the lopsided majority of votes that Bush got among practicing Catholics.

In the end, we can say that this election was good news not only for social issues of special concern to Catholics, but also for keeping the dissident Catholic agenda marginalized within the Church.