Our Lord asked his followers to be light for the world. And the Catholic Church has always appealed to its members to take the initiative in bringing the light of Christ to others. How well we are doing that as a Catholic group? That question arises for me when I study the religious composition of Congress.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, one of the main survey takers in the United States, reports each year on the religious background of our elected national officials. The researchers note that members of Congress are more willing to identify with a particular religious group than the public at large. While a surprisingly large 16 percent of the American population do not declare their religious affiliation, a mere 1 percent of the present Congress do not. (Only one member of the current Congress, by the way, says he does not believe in God.)
The latest Pew report notes that the current 111th Congress has 161 Catholics serving in the House and Senate. This means that Catholics, who constitute about 24 percent of the population of the United States, make up about 30 percent of Congress: 135 Catholic Representatives (31 percent of the House) and 26 Catholic Senators (26 percent of the Senate).
The topics taken up by Congress are many. They include war and peace, taxation, military preparation, interstate commerce, education, finances, immigration, etc. And certainly different points of view of how to deal with these problems arise. For most of these topics there is more than one possible solution. But for some moral issues that is not the case, such as abortion. No one, absolutely no one has the right to take away the life of an unborn child. And no one has the right to try to finance such a procedure. This the Catholic Church teaches and has taught since the first century of the Christian era. I ask myself: if all 161 Catholic members of Congress were united in protecting the life of unborn children, would abortion-on-demand, such as we have in the United States, and federal subsidies for abortion remain? I think not.
The fact is that 31 Catholic members of Congress have a pro-life voting record of 0 percent — that is, “zero.” They have never voted pro-life during their entire time in the House or Senate! And an additional 22 have voted pro-life only one percent or two percent of the time. That means 53 Catholics in Congress have never or hardly ever given a favorable vote to protect unborn life. What a responsibility they carry before God. And some of our Catholic representatives have no qualms about taking money from pro-abortion groups for their political campaigns. One, from New York, has received almost half a million dollars from pro-abortion lobbies — and she has only been in Congress since 2007!
No doubt our Catholic congressmen and congresswomen support many worthy and moral projects in the House and Senate, projects very much in line with Catholic social teaching. That is commendable. But our bishops and recent popes have urged us to give preference to pro-life issues. The benefits of our American society are not possible if a person is dead.
Fortunately we have in Congress some outstanding Catholic pro-life representatives. Twenty-six (22 members of the House, two of which are from Texas, and four senators) vote pro-life always. And there is another group who vote pro-life almost all the time. But this is not enough to bring pressure to bear against extending abortion practice or paying for abortions with taxpayer’s money. And this may not be enough to prevent abortion coverage in the new health bill. To those who have been given much, much will be demanded. (Our Lord said this.) We Catholics have been given much and much will be demanded of us. Our legislators are gifted people, educated, articulate, savvy in winning campaigns. But why are so many pro-death?
Father John A. Leies, SM, STD, is president emeritus of St. Mary’s University and previously served as head of the Theology Department there.