In the News
Catholic breakfast draws officials
4-28-04
By Julia Duin
Washington Times
The first National Catholic Prayer Breakfast drew an overflow crowd
of more than 1,000 yesterday, including several members of Congress
who used the occasion to reinforce the denomination's stance on
hot-button political issues.
However, a few politicians who spoke at the Renaissance Mayflower
Hotel admitted to some inner turmoil.
"I'm a publicly elected official who's a Catholic and a Democrat,"
said Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan. "It seems that in recent
weeks that we've been confused as to which comes first: a Catholic
Democrat or a Democrat who's a Catholic. Depending on how you look
at it, it can be both a blessing or a curse."
His father, Mr. Stupak said, "would often say, 'Bart, always
remember that the bum on the street may be your boss tomorrow.'
No truer words were ever spoken for those of us who choose to serve
in elected office."
Mr. Stupak's was the only veiled reference during the two-hour
event to the controversy surrounding Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive
Democratic nominee for president whose stance on abortion, human
stem-cell research and homosexual civil unions contradict church
policy. Mr. Kerry insists that he remains a Catholic in good standing
with the church. He didn't attend the breakfast.
On the opposite end of the political spectrum, Sen Rick Santorum,
Pennsylvania Republican, said descriptions of his battles on the
Senate floor last year to ban partial-birth abortions "sound
rather heroic" but weren't.
"For five years, I was in elected office and never said the
word 'abortion' on the floor of the United States House or the Senate,"
he said. "It took a herculean effort on my part just to get
up and mumble a few phrases on an issue that should shake every
person's consciousness."
But it doesn't, because "one of the reasons American Catholics
are not as fervent is because many in our clergy are not as fervent
in teaching the faith," he said.
The statement was aimed at priests and nuns who "teach a culturally
influenced American Catholicism, instead of what the true faith
is," the senator said. "Catholics have not been given
a proper Catholic formation. Priests get up and talk around issues
and not at them."
The prayer breakfast was modeled after the 52-year-old National
Prayer Breakfast, which is evangelical Protestant in style and draws
about 5,000 people, including the president and the first lady.
The Catholic version included several "Hail Mary" prayers,
a speech by a nun, an exhortation by a local priest for single men
to consider the priesthood and a keynote speech by Cardinal Avery
Dulles on moral freedom. It was prefaced by a Mass and rosary recitation.
Others at the breakfast included eight members of Congress; Health
and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson; Republican National
Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie; Tim Goeglin, deputy director of
the White House public liaison office; and Matthew Schlapp, director
of the White House Office of Public Affairs.
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