American Life League's Crusade for the Defense of Our Catholic Church has been actively exposing the scandal of pro-abortion Catholic public figures and the reception of Holy Communion for almost two years now, and will continue the campaign until all U.S. bishops uphold Church teachings. "The Catholic bishops are bound, by their vocation, to teach and defend the faith," said Brown. "This campaign has absolutely nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the clear and simple Catholic teaching that you cannot be both Catholic and pro-abortion."

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Problem is, Kerry actually did spend a lot of time talking about his faith. How many times did he remind us that he was an altar boy, or that he carried a rosary in Vietnam? How many times did we hear him quote that verse from James (as if he knew nothing else from the bible)?

But if this election established anything, it's the fact that many Americans had simply heard enough about faith from John Kerry, and no amount of pandering to the pews could conceal the moral incoherence of a "pro-choice" politician with a 100% pro-abortion legislative record proclaiming himself a "good Catholic" in open defiance of the nation's bishops and the moral teachings of his Church. Spin all you want, but that is an ugly fact that played a greater role in this election, and in the minds of Catholic voters, then Democrats would care to admit.

Looking back at the presidential race, I can think of no more perfect an illustration of Democratic alienation from America's religious voters than the moment during the third debate, when a young woman by the name of Sarah Degenhart asked Senator Kerry whether he could provide her with assurance that he wouldn't use her tax dollars to support abortion.

Kerry responded by professing his "respect" for her question, and the moral convictions that her concern implied. . . . and then he proceeded to defend abortion as a constitutional right, and the necessity to preserve that right with taxpayer dollars. He went on to denounce religious criticism of abortion as a product of "rigid ideological restriction," a phrase he had often used on the campaign trail. And then, to top it off, he informed Ms. Degenhart that she would "do do a better job, I think, of passing on moral responsibility" by abandoning her opposition to taxpayer-funded abortion and embracing his pro-choice stance.

Senator Kerry's complete failure to understand her basic point, and his utter lack of respect for her religious convictions, spoke volumes.

If Kerry -- and his fellow Democrats -- want to connect to the American heartland, it will not be by talking the talk, but walking the walk.

To do so, they must reconsider their allegiance to -- indeed, completely severe their ties with -- the abortion industry; repudiate those who would sacrifice the unborn in utilitarian pursuit of "scientific progress"; forsake their support of legislative policies in blatant opposition to Judeo-Christian values; recognize what it means to believe in the sanctity of life from conception until death -- and why, with that conviction, many Christians find themselves unable to adopt a corrupt and morally-incoherent stance of "personally opposed, but . . ." when it comes to the deliberate murder of the unborn.

Democrats don't need to talk about "moral values." They must truly understand what it means to embodythem.

Until then, I see no way for Democrats to "heal the divide" or "reconnect with the heartland."

Let this election be a wake-up call.

The very same people who falsely accuse the Church of silence during the Nazi regime and the Holocaust are often the very same people demanding that the Church stay out of current affairs, especially the abortion holocaust and the immoral policies of groups like the United Nations Population Fund. –John Mallon, Contributing Editor, Inside the Vatican

It's a fact that 40 million unborn children have been aborted since 1973. In some way...as Catholics we have to ask ourselves, "What have we done?" If all Catholics would join those Catholics and other people of good will who were working to promote the respect for human life, this situation wouldn't be what it is. –Archbishop Raymond Burke, St. Louis, MO

The "Catholic vote" is, therefore, a nice phrase without much substance. Today, even the bishops of the United States cannot seem to agree that protecting Christ in the Holy Eucharist from sacrilege is serious enough to deny pro-abortion Catholic public figures access to Holy Communion. –Judie Brown, American Life League

In order to win this struggle we must avoid trying to win it. We must do what we do against abortion not because this or that action will secure us a victory but because it is right to perform that action. –Robert McFadden, Human Life Review

What evil could be so grave and widespread as to constitute a "proportionate reason" to support candidates who would preserve and protect the abortion license and even extend it to publicly funded embryo-killing in our nation's labs?

Certainly policies on welfare, national security, the war in Iraq, Social Security or taxes, taken singly or in any combination, do not provide a proportionate reason to vote for a pro-abortion candidate. –Archbishop John Meyer, Newark, NJ

It's a good time to reflect on the meaning of the Kennedy-Cuomo legacy. In brief, it’s OK to be Catholic in public service as long as you're willing to jettison what's inconveniently "Catholic." That's not a compromise. That's a deal with the devil, and it has a balloon payment no nation, no public servant and no voter can afford. –Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

On his first day in office, President John F. Kerry will take Holy Communion from the hand of a Jesuit priest at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown. Shortly thereafter he will retire to his new office in the White House and proceed to carry out his "personally opposed but" policy toward the deaths of millions of unborn children. –Austin Ruse, Culture of Life Foundation

Without first securing the protection of all human life, it makes no sense to discuss how best to provide for the progress of that life. If life is not first secured, it is pointless to consider other issues. The Declaration of Independence would be severely weakened, if not rendered totally meaningless, if the order of unalienable rights was listed as liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and life. There is no liberty or pursuit of happiness to be had if we do not first recognize that the "inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual." –St. Blog's own Fr. Stephen Hamilton, Pastor, St. Peter's Church, Guymon, OK

• WeVoteProLife.com - find information for candidates for Congress and statewide office. (Local races are just as -- perhaps more -- important as the presidency in the struggle to build a culture of life.
  
• Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics from Catholic Answers. (Read it online or print it out, before you vote).
  
• What Every Catholic Should Know About Voting, addresses such questions as "Don't I have freedom of conscience to vote as I see fit?" and "What about 'separation of church and state'?". (Our Sunday Visitor Publications).
  

1. Spoken at the January 21, 2003, NARAL Dinner, John Kerry promised: "I will not overturn Roe v Wade; I will not appoint judges hostile to 'choice;' I will allow poor women to have free abortions; I will never outlaw abortion; I will increase American taxpayer's dollars on population control efforts around the world."
   
   
2. Magisterial means those bishops who teach as the Pope infallibly teaches. This is called the "ordinary Magisterium." If a Bishop or priest teaches contrary to the Magisterium, that Bishop is asked to reconsider his beliefs which are outside of the Catholic community; next the cleric is disciplined and, if necessary, then sanctioned.
   
   
3. The distinguished list of bishops to date (10/7/04) is: Archbishop Raymond L Burke of St. Louis, MO; Archbishop John F. Donoghue Archbishop of Atlanta, GA; Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz of Lincoln NE; Bishop Henry Rene Gracida, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi, TX; Bishop Robert F. Vasa, Baker, OR; Bishop Joseph Galante of Camden, NJ; Bishop John M. Smith of Trenton, NJ; Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, CO; Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger of Evansville, IN; Bishop Robert J. Baker Bishop of Charleston, SC; Bishop Peter J. Jugis Bishop of Charlotte, NC; Bishop John Y. Yanta, Bishop of Amarillo, TX.

(Thanks Bill Cork).