In the News
Bush praises pope at prayer meeting
5-21-05
By Julia Duin
Washington Times
The Second National Catholic Prayer Breakfast yesterday rallied
local faithful with moving speeches from President Bush and Colorado
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, both of whom praised Pope Benedict
XVI and politicians who adhere to Catholic doctrine.
'Catholics and non-Catholics alike can take heart in the man who
sits on the chair of St. Peter because he speaks with affection
about the American model of liberty rooted in moral conviction,'
Mr. Bush said to 1,600 guests at the Washington Hilton.
Roman Catholic voters were crucial to Mr. Bush's re-election last
year: 52 percent chose him over Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John
Kerry, a Catholic, who garnered 47 percent of their vote.
Archbishop Chaput told the audience that their faith should affect
?our political decisions,? adding that public officials who aren't
pro-life are 'either very confused or they're very evasive.'
'If God is at the center of our lives, then of course that fact
will influence our behavior, including our political decisions,'
he added.
Catholics must work to keep religion from being banished from public
discourse, he added, because: 'Our bigger task is to help renew
American public life by committing ourselves ever more deeply to
our Catholic faith and acting like we really mean it.'
To be silent, he said, 'can be a very serious kind of theft from
the moral treasury of the nation because the most precious thing
anyone can bring to any political conversation is an honest witness
to what he or she really believes.'
'This applies to elected officials,' he added. 'It applies to voters.
It applies to you and me.
'When public officials claim to be 'Catholic' but then say they
can't offer their beliefs about the sanctity of the human person
as the basis of law, it always means one of two things. They're
either very confused or they're very evasive,' he said.
During an interview after the speech, Archbishop Chaput said he
had talked with one of Colorado's newest elected officials, Sen.
Ken Salazar, a Democrat and a Catholic, many times and that the
way to influence such conversations 'is through personal conversation.
I think they listen.'
He also said has no plans to deny the senator Holy Communion, as
a handful of bishops have suggested the church do with pro-choice
politicians.
'Catholics should decide for themselves whether they are in communion
[with the church] and then they make decisions from there,' Archbishop
Chaput said. The only exception is if they act publicly, such as
casting a vote that is contrary to Catholic teaching, he added.
“Then I'd say something.”
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