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Soul-Searching, and a Full Plate of Foreign Worries for Obama

We’ve already touched on the U.S. bishops meeting this week in Baltimore and the fruit of their discussion on abortion and politics – namely, how to approach a political climate that doesn’t promise to be friendly to the pro-life movement.

As the country’s prelates were wrestling with those questions – remember Bishop Tobin’s musing comment about the need to “reclaim” their prophetic voice to the people – the Republican Governors Association were meeting in much-warmer Miami, facing the post-mortem of their disappointing election season.

Not to draw any inaccurate parallels between the two groups of leaders, but it is interesting to note the degree of soul-searching that seems to have occurred at both events: while the bishops undoubtedly have strong consensus over the need to oppose abortion, the atmosphere was reportedly tense when discussing how, exactly, to implement that opposition, especially in terms of dissenting Catholic politicians. 

Likewise, it’s a given that the Republican Party needs new direction after its defeat last week. Its state governors sat through a gloomy presentation on poll results and maps pointing out where the GOP is struggling most.

But the means of rebuilding the party promise to spark the most passionate debates – as Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty said, “The Republican Party is going to need a lot more than just a comb-over. … Ronald Reagan was president a long time ago.” 

On one side of the rebuilding team is the opinion voiced by Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist, who advocates following the Democrats’ lead in reaching out to key demographics and bringing moderates into the party fold.

“You have to be inclusive, you have to work for a big tent,” Crist said in a Wall Street Journal article on the meeting.

And in a Time magazine opinion piece, Crist is quoted as saying that “right now, people want commonsense answers to problems that are not always ideologically based. … When it comes to pocketbook issues, I think they want … a more bipartisan approach that aims for the sweet spot between hard right and hard left.” (It’s noted that Crist stayed away from campaigning for Florida’s marriage ballot initiative – the amendment passed, defining marriage as between a man and a woman, but Crist’s avoidance seems reflective of his leaning away from the social issues traditionally associated with the Republican Party.)

On the other side, one finds governors like Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, who has been stressing the need to return to the party’s original, conservative message.

“We need to show that conservative principles work,” Jindal said in a Fox News interview. “We don’t need to just copy the Democratic Party. Let’s be authentic. Let’s show them we have real solutions for the problems that people care about.”

Pawlenty struck a balance between the two: “We can be both conservative and we can be modern at the same time,” he said.

And what of the Democratic Party? Over at the National Catholic Register, Angelo Matera offers the intriguing idea of faithful Catholics harnessing the pro-life, pro-family beliefs of much of the electorate and making a place for themselves within the Democratic Party itself.

“A one-party strategy hasn’t worked,” Matera wrote – now reflecting the soul-searching of pro-lifers after a particularly brutal election. “It leaves the pro-life movement in the political wilderness when Republicans are out of favor.”

He continued, “Democratic-leaning Catholics shouldn’t be forced to choose between their pro-life and social justice convictions every four years. The one-party strategy leaves a good chunk of faithful Catholics without an outlet for expressing their faith fully in the public square.”

What do you think? What results can you see coming from such post-election soul-searching?

*****

Meanwhile, outside our borders: we once again have a host of daily reminders that President-elect Obama will have his hands full come Jan. 21.

Russia’s Medvedev is pushing for presidential term limit extensions, fueling speculation that Vladimir Putin is waiting in the wings for a return to the position: a rumor the former president and now-Prime Minister hasn’t exactly defused, himself. As the London Times reports, if Putin steps back into office, he could hold power until 2021.

Russia, by the way, has rejected the most recent set of U.S. proposals over a missile defense system, saying “we will speak to the new administration” about it – certainly meant as a test for Obama.

Unrest and violence continues in Afghanistan and Iraq, from acid attacks on schoolgirls to yet more brutal murders of Christians.

A week after President Ahmadinejad’s unprecedented congratulatory letter to Obama, Iran suddenly pulled an about-face and not only test-fired another missile – this one with a range capable of attacking Israel, or even parts of Europe – but declared their wariness of talks with the new administration.

“People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous,” said the deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps – a remark that all but mentions Obama by name.

And, finally … the developed world is officially in a recession, declared the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Germany’s economy – the largest in Europe – has especially been hit hard in this third quarter as it enters in its worst recession in 12 years.

Any encouraging news?

Cardinal George reminded his fellow prelates of Pope Benedict XVI’s words at the recent Synod of Bishops last month, in which he compared the Word of God – “the true reality” and “foundation of everything” – to the ever-changing events in the world today.

“The Holy Father offered these reflections in the face of bank closures, the collapse of giant corporations, the uncertainty of political regimes, with full awareness of the insecurity and suffering of so many around the world,” Cardinal George said.

And yet – “The Pope invites us to place our hope in what lasts forever.”

Single-Hearted

A week after the election, the United States bishops have released their official statement from USCCB president Cardinal Francis George to President-elect Obama.

Whispers in the Loggia has the text here.

As expected, Cardinal George assured the incoming president of the bishops’ desire to work with the new administration on issues such as education, healthcare, religious freedom, immigration and fostering peace “at home and abroad.”

However, he said, “the fundamental good is life itself, a gift from God and our parents.”

From there, the Chicago cardinal laid out the bishops’ most pressing concern: the potential passage of the Freedom of Choice Act, which Cardinal George said would enshrine the “bad law” of Roe v. Wade in “bad legislation that is more radical than the 1973 Supreme Court decision itself.”

The statement lists what FOCA threatens to take away from what inroads have been made in reducing abortion rates via parental notification, informed consent and born-alive protection acts, as well as other “modest restraints and regulations on the abortion industry.”

In particular, the statement warned, FOCA would greatly impede healthcare workers’ freedom of conscience – a consequence that would greatly affect those whose moral beliefs prevented them from cooperating with abortions, potentially cutting funding to or shutting down Catholic hospitals and charities across the country.   

The bishops left no doubt as to their resolution to oppose the Freedom of Choice Act if it comes up again in Congress next year (and which President-elect Obama has pledged to sign into law): this legislation, they said, “would be an evil law that would further divide our country, and the Church should be intent on opposing evil.”

Again on the topic of division, Cardinal George alluded to the president-elect’s call for unity, especially in America’s time of financial crisis. The election was won because of concerns about the economy, the statement said – unity will not be achieved if the future president interprets his win as an ideological mandate for abortion.

Finally, the bishops offered an interesting and insightful point as to what ultimately motivates them to speak up in defense of life and against the evil of abortion. The quote’s worth copying in its entirety:

On this issue, the legal protection of the unborn, the bishops are of one mind with Catholics and others of good will. They are also pastors who have listened to women whose lives have been diminished because they believed they had no choice but to abort a baby. Abortion is a medical procedure that kills, and the psychological and spiritual consequences are written in the sorrow and depression of many women and men. The bishops are single-minded because they are, first of all, single-hearted.

Toward their conclusion, Cardinal George repeated the bishops’ desire and willingness to work with politicians in achieving the common good – not “the sum total of individual desires and interests,” but “the working out of a common life based on good reason and good will for all.”

Over at American Papist, Thomas Peters highlighted another poignant quote from one of the bishops present, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, R.I.

Obama’s steady focus on hope and change, Bishop Tobin said, “carried him to the presidency.”

He continued, the bishops should pick up on Obama’s succinct delivery and learn to craft their message in a way “less political, less politically correct, and more prophetic. We need somehow to reclaim the prophetic voice on this issue.”

Between that quote and Cardinal George’s statement – made in the name of the entire body of United States bishops he represents – what’s perhaps most striking, yet under-noticed, is the realization that this is a battle over reaching, and changing, people’s hearts.

The bishops’ statement launches a strong offensive against the bad law of Roe and the threats of FOCA – but at the same time, they are pastors “who have listened to women whose lives have been diminished” by their abortions. They have witnessed the psychological and spiritual consequences to this “medical procedure that kills,” the men and women affected by post-abortive sorrow and depression. Out of all this, they are single-minded in their stand “because they are, first of all, single-hearted.”

How this single heart-and-mindedness will be implemented by diocese remains to be seen; as Cardinal George reminded his fellow prelates at the opening of their gathering, the Church was not founded with national, episcopal conferences, but with individual shepherds given authority over their flocks.

But stalwart resoluteness to oppose evil and defend life, hand in hand with compassion for all the victims of abortion is a good place to start.

Bishops United in Opposing Pro-Abortion Laws

The bishops meeting continues in Baltimore with at least one consensus: that legislation that will loosen restrictions on abortion must be vigorously opposed.

Whispers in the Loggia has been blogging continuously about the meeting points, as has the Catholic News Service. Check out either for a quick snapshot of what’s going on; of note is CNS’s just-posted report that President-elect Obama has called up Pope Benedict XVI to thank him for his congratulatory telegram. There’s no word on anything else the two leaders talked about.

Likewise, here’s a preliminary text of what the bishops will advise Cardinal George – the president of the USCCB – to include in his own letter to the incoming president. They stress that they wish to work with Obama on issues of healthcare, the economy, religious freedom, immigration reform, education and more – but that the Church is “intent on opposing evil” and the bishops “completely united and resolute in our teaching and defense of the unborn child from the moment of conception.” They specifically pointed out the need for healthcare workers’ conscience protections and said the election was decided on the basis of the nation’s economy and did not serve as a mandate on abortion.

Speaking of the economy, Cardinal George issued a brief statement on the nation’s current financial crisis, reminding the faithful that “we are all in this together” and encouraging people to turn to each other instead of choosing isolation in the face of hard economic times.

One of the most interesting things to come out of the discussions is a blessing for unborn children, which can take place within or outside the context of the Mass and includes prayers for the mother and her baby, as well as intercession for government officials “that they may perform their duties with justice and compassion while respecting the gift of human life.”

And, finally, the debate over Latin-English liturgical translations arose once again, with, of all phrases, “the gibbet of the cross” becoming the crux of the argument over translations faithful to the original Latin prayers or those more accommodating of contemporary idioms.

“We want to make it accessible, as well as to draw upon the rich diversity of our Biblical and theological language,” said Bishop Serratelli of Paterson, New Jersey.

For the record, a gibbet is an “upright post with a projecting arm for hanging the bodies of executed criminals as a warning,” according the Webster (the word would be used during Holy Week liturgies). In defense of their word choice, the International Commission on English in the Liturgy has pointed out that “guillotine,” “gallows” or even “electric chair” are all more modern, understandable terms that convey the same or similar meaning as “gibbet,” but clearly do not work as a proper translation.

John Allen reports that, in several cases, the bishops scratched the word completely and left it as “cross” – although Rome still has to approve the new text, anyway. 

The Bishops, Politics and Abortion

For naysayers of America’s bishops who thought the Church’s shepherds were too partisan in their stalwart outspokenness on the priority of life this election, or thought the bishops would back down from public policy after the Catholic vote went to Obama: read Cardinal Francis George’s speech to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at their annual meeting in Baltimore.

John Allen grasps the significance of Cardinal George’s strong affirmation of the Church’s defense of life and the core of Catholic social teaching: that only in protecting the dignity of the human being can true social justice ever be enacted.

“The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice,” Cardinal George emphasized.

The cardinal – who is the president of the USCBB and, like President-elect Obama, from Chicago – noted the historic nature of Obama’s win, saying that “we must all rejoice” that a country that once upheld slavery has elected an African-American to be president.

However, just as Obama was not asked to put aside his race in order to run for president, Catholics in public life should not be expected to put aside their beliefs in Catholic teaching, Cardinal George said.

In a direct address to Catholic politicians, Cardinal George conveyed the bishops’ respect, love and prayers “that the Catholic faith will shape your decisions so that our communion will be full.”

(On a related note, the bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee recently wrote Sen. Biden a letter in which – after detailing the Catholic Church’s constant teaching on abortion and noting that the senator attended Mass in the diocese during the campaign – he urged the future vice-president to examine his conscience before receiving Communion.)

The speech drew a standing ovation from the bishops.

In his blog write up of the speech, Allen noted: “George’s comments, and the reaction of the floor, offered the first indication that the election of a pro-choice Democrat to the White House is unlikely to induce the bishops to soften their emphasis on abortion and other ‘life issues.’”

In another seeming reference to events that transpired within the American Catholic hierarchy over the past month, Cardinal George commented on the nature of the episcopal conference, acknowledging that shepherding lies with individual bishops.

The U.S. conference of bishops was formed for the sake of spiritual unity, especially in the face of dissent, Cardinal George said. However, “the Church was born without episcopal conferences” and instead “only with shepherds, with apostolic pastors, whose relationship to their people keeps them one with Christ, from whom comes authority to govern the Church.”

His comment brings to mind Scranton Bishop Martino’s emphasis that, as opposed to the USCCB’s “Faithful Citizenship” text, his own letter on abortion as the key election issue was the standing, authoritative document in his diocese.

Read the speech – it serves as a strong, encouraging address not only to the U.S. bishops, but to all our nation’s Catholics, that even amidst political transitions, financial crisis and the sweeping chorus for change, we “place our hope in what lasts forever.” 

Obama's First Moves -- Revoking the Mexico City Policy?

This weekend saw some of the after effects of Election Day, from opponents of Proposition 8 still protesting the marriage amendment’s passage – and promising a comeback – to hints at President-elect Obama’s first moves once in office.

Proponents of same-sex marriage have been protesting ever since Proposition 8’s passage on Wednesday, holding rallies from San Francisco to the state Capitol building in Sacramento, to angrily marching at Mormon temples (the Mormon church being a large supporter of Proposition 8).   

Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called the passage “unfortunate” and hoped the issue will go back to the courts, and others vow to bring the issue back to the ballot.

This weekend also brought news from Obama’s transition team as to what Bush policies the new president will be most likely to overturn soon after entering office.

Included on the list were the Mexico City Policy -- which prevents U.S. aid to international organizations that help women receive abortions -- and Bush’s restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

Susan Wood, the co-chairman for Obama’s advisory committee for women’s health, said the president-elect will not be restrained by “narrow, political ideology” in his approach to health issues that particularly impact women.

Wood cited Obama’s plans to reverse strategies of AIDS prevention that focus on monogamy and abstinence, as well as his commitment to revoke the Mexico City Policy.

A Bloomberg article cites Woods as saying that current requirements of an emphasis on abstinence, as well monogamy over condom use, have hurt the global cause of preventing sexually transmitted diseases and advocating family planning.

However, the Bush $45 billion AIDS prevention program has met success in countries like Uganda, where HIV infection rates have slowed.

The executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association urged Obama to not discount the success of abstinence and monogamy education.

“If the president-elect wants to be science-based in foreign sex-education policies, it would be wisest to continue this way because it’s shown to be effective,” she said.

As for the economy, Obama’s future chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said that the president-elect will push for his middle-class tax cuts soon after his inauguration. Coupled with those, though – what Emanuel called a “net tax cut” for the overall economy – will be increases in taxes for families making over $250,000.

Looking Ahead...

As we wrap up election week and head into the weekend, it would be worth it to take a look ahead at the news fast approaching:

• The U.S. bishops will be in Baltimore early next week for their annual meeting, and of all their discussion items, the one to surely attract the most outside attention will be “the pastoral and practical implications of political support for abortion.” As Religion News Service pointed out, the topic was especially thrust upon them this election season with a Catholic vice-president who supports abortion rights, Biden and Pelosi’s Meet the Press comments and  interpretations of “Faithful Citizenship” that led some prominent Catholic voices to declare support for Obama, despite his strong pro-abortion record.

• Speculation is at full force when it comes to guessing who will be on President-elect Obama’s Cabinet. Of note is the news that two names in particular, Tom Daschle and Kathleen Sebelius, have been floated around for possible secretaries of the Department of Health and Human Services. Both are Catholic, and both have voting records favorable to abortion. Whoever is the Health and Human Services secretary under Obama’s administration would oversee abortion policy in the country, as well as conscience protection for doctors and other healthcare workers.

• Just when we thought we were having a respite of storms, Hurricane Paloma is bearing down on Cuba and is expected to make landfall tonight or Sunday morning. It’s currently a Category 4 storm and downed trees and buildings while ripping through the Cayman Islands. It’s projected to turn away from the U.S. mainland.

Around the World

Joe Biden may have been right, after all, when he said his running mate would be quickly tested by an international crisis.

As the world celebrated Obama’s win, Russian president Dmitri Medvedev addressed his own nation, slamming the West for supporting Georgia. He also announced the deployment of missiles within Europe, a direct reaction to the United States’ deal with Poland to establish a missile defense shield in Russia’s western neighbor.

United States officials have been preparing for talks with Russia over missile shield plans and a Cold War-era arms reduction treaty, and Medvedev’s recent comments highlight his country’s vehement disapproval of what America insists is protection against warheads from rogue states like Iran.

(Speaking of which, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a congratulatory letter to Obama, who received much flack over his campaign for saying he would meet with the anti-Israel leader without preconditions. Ahmadinejad’s reaching out to Obama is an unprecedented act from any Iranian leader since the country’s revolution in 1979.) 

Anyway, Medvedev’s Kremlin address reflects Russia’s increasing self-assertion as a returning dominant player on the world stage – a challenge that Obama will certainly face soon, as shown by Medvedev’s choice of timing for his belligerent remarks.

From Germany, Der Spiegel looks at the Russia challenge, as well as other foreign policy issues Obama will have to meet head on. While clearly not favoring the United States’ foreign policies over the past eight years (and, in turn, celebrating Obama’s election), the article is a fascinating look at the delicate and volatile balance of world affairs, from Damascus to Moscow. 

In more hopeful news, the Vatican’s landmark forum between Catholic and Muslim scholars has completed, with both sides expressing pleased satisfaction at the talks.

One Muslim professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford University described the forum’s atmosphere as “very good, very frank,” and the director of the Islamic Society of North America said it “exceeded our expectations.”

The forum grew out of a letter sent to Pope Benedict XVI by over 100 Muslims after what’s become one of his most well-known speeches: the Regensburg University address, when Benedict the theologian extolled the relationship between faith and reason. He inadvertently angered Muslims worldwide, however, by quoting a Byzantine emperor who criticized some of the teachings of Islam as being “evil and inhuman.”

In his address to the forum, Pope Benedict stressed ways Catholics and Muslims can work together and put aside prejudices of the other religion. A large part of this could take place through charitable work around the world, he said, stemming from both faiths’ belief in the sanctity of life.

“Only by starting with the recognition of the centrality of the person and the dignity of each human being, respecting and defending life which is the gift of God, and is thus sacred for Christians and for Muslims alike – only on the basis of this recognition, can we find a common ground for building a more fraternal world, a world in which confrontations and differences are peacefully settled, and the devastating power of ideologies is neutralized,” he said.

It’s a powerful statement, and one can only guess at its impact. Still, the leaders’ 15-point joint declaration at the end of the meeting is hopeful, with statements on the dignity of human life, the importance of the youth in both religions, and the importance of religious freedom. 

An archbishop from Iraq urged the Muslim leaders present to speak out against persecution of Christians in his country and for clerics to preach of the shared values between Christians and Muslims.

Differences in theologies, anthropologies and methods of evangelization and conversion were also acknowledged and discussed at the forum, and the last point of the declaration was to continue the discussion in 2010 in a Muslim country.

Christians React to a President-Elect Obama

The campaign might finally be over and done with, but that doesn’t mean the deluge of election-related news has abated.

From a Catholic perspective, here’s a round-up of headlines from Day 1 of President-elect Obama:

• In terms of the “Catholic vote,” exit polls are showing that Obama took a comfortable lead of anywhere from eight to eleven percentage points ahead of McCain. However, Beliefnet’s Steven Waldman took preliminary exit polls and broke down the “religious vote” into weekly v. occasional churchgoers – and the results begin to get interesting:

According to Waldman’s data, Catholics who attended Mass weekly voted for McCain 54 percent to 45 percent. But Catholics who did not attend Mass weekly went 61 percent to Obama, versus 37 percent to McCain.

Still, it seems that Obama overall made gains among both Protestants and Catholics – regardless of how often they attended a religious service – compared to Kerry’s infamous “God Gap” of 2004. His most significant gain seemed to be among Catholics who do not attend church regularly.

Waldman speculates that abortion may have something to do with these numbers.

“Mass-attending Catholics are more likely to care about abortion than those who go less regularly,” he said.

Newsmax also has an analysis of the “religion factor” in Obama’s election win.

• The Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, filled its front page with two stories on America’s “choice that unites” and the Pope’s congratulatory message to Obama and his family.

• At home, prominent Catholics from Archbishop Chaput to reporter John Allen are beginning to comment on the implications of an Obama presidency on the Catholic Church in the United States. Their reactions range from hope that high-profile Obama supporters like Doug Kmiec will persuade the president to back down on his hard stances on partial-birth abortion and the Freedom of Choice Act, to pointing out ways the Church can work with Obama on issues like poverty.

• Various Christian groups have been expressing their reactions to election results. From the left, organizations like the National Council of Churches USA have stepped forward and offered their help in working with Obama on social justice issues.

On the conservative side, an official from Focus on the Family Action acknowledged that “God can use any president for his own purpose” – the organization was very vocal in its opposition to Obama’s pro-abortion stances.

Likewise, the CEO of Americans United for Life pointed out that Obama’s commitment to seeking common ground with abortion opponents would be severely challenged if he likewise makes good on his word to sign the Freedom of Choice Act.

Thoughts? Feelings?

Sen. Barack Obama swept the electoral vote last night, finishing this morning five percentage points  ahead of McCain in the popular vote – and, once again, it looks like Catholic voters chose the winner.

In his victory speech in Chicago, Obama noted that “change has come to America” – an observation duly echoed by media pundits across the networks as the poll results came in.

Without a doubt, one of the most remarkable and praise-worthy changes is the sign that America’s belief in and fight for civil rights has transcended racism and fear.

As Bill Whittle wrote in National Review, “We have, after a long and hazardous journey, taken the final step in erasing the one real stain on our nation’s history. That war is not over, but it is won. And we may all take a great deal of pride in that.”

Some U.S. bishops have likewise already extended their congratulations to Obama.

“We recognize that this election of the first African-American president is an historic moment … and we rejoice with the rest of our nation in the significance of this time,” wrote Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington.

He added his hopes that the nation’s leaders will be guided by “a deep respect for and commitment to the sanctity and dignity of all human life and support for the most vulnerable among us.”

As the breakdown of voters becomes clear, it will be noteworthy to try to understand what shape the American electorate is making of itself: has the nation taken a significant lurch to the left? Or do we view ourselves as more “moderate” than in the typical camps of liberal or conservative?

Though Obama’s command of the electoral vote is nothing short of impressive, his hold on the popular vote is 52 percent to McCain’s 46 percent – another reminder that, despite the huge challenges McCain faced in this campaign, the GOP candidate fought well and better than expected. Despite America’s clamor for change, that split in the popular vote reflects a very divided country.

McCain seems to have won with Protestants – not that small a feat, considering his testy relationship with evangelical leaders not that long ago – but exit polls give the Catholic vote decisively to Obama. What does that say about us? Have the “pro-life, pro-Obama” arguments of Kmiec, Cafardi, et al resonated more with us than the pastoral direction of more than 100 bishops across the nation? Or did we just follow the rest of the country in voting with our wallets and savings as the foremost issue on our mind?

In terms of ballot initiatives, Nov. 4 was a hard-hitting day for the culture of life. California and South Dakota rejected initiatives that would have limited abortions; while the South Dakota ban would have banned almost all abortions in the state, California’s proposition was merely for parental notification for minor girls – an amendment still vehemently opposed by abortion advocates under the banner of a woman’s “right to privacy.”

Colorado voted three to one against the “Personhood Amendment,” which would have defined “personhood” as beginning at the moment of fertilization.

Washington state approved assisted suicide.

And Michigan voted to greatly loosen restrictions on embryonic stem cell research.

Any good news? Both Arizona and Florida passed amendments defining marriage as only between one man and one woman – and while California’s major battle over Proposition 8 is still too close to call, those are two meaningful victories for those states.

Connecticut, the most recent state to legalize same-sex marriage, voted against having a Constitutional Convention, which many think would have been the best chance for advocates of traditional marriage to amend the state constitution.

What’s next? If Obama keeps his word, the Freedom of Choice Act will be on our hands very soon, come late January – legislation that will most certainly not reduce the number of abortions and will take much effort from the grassroots up to oppose.

Also, a Vatican spokesman reminded us that we should be praying for our president-elect now, that “God may enlighten him and give him a hand in his huge responsibility, so that he will govern well.”

The spokesman added that Pope Benedict himself has sent a personal message to the Obama family, assuring them of his prayers “that God would help him,” particularly in matters of peace, solidarity and justice.

What do you think this election cycle has revealed about American voters and their values? If ballot initiatives are reflections of the will of the people, does “change in America” mean a preference for moderate, “transcendent” politics over the protection of human life? How can we, as people of and for life, rise up and meet that change?

... America, Defend Life!

Will you stay up for the election results tonight?

The predictions are all over the place: whether it will be an early night landslide for Obama, or a tooth-and-nail battle stretching past 11, 12 o’clock – and even then, it could go either way. With a large number of voters still undecided, and polls showing a fairly tight race, it could be a long night indeed, and one that. Most are betting that Obama emerges victorious, but the results could show him barely eking out - or even losing - the popular vote in hotly-contested states like Ohio and Florida. And lest we have a repeat of Dewey defeating Truman in the papers but not the final tally, let's wait for all ballots to be counted before declaring the winner.

Headline Bistro has followed this campaign from the site’s inception, only a couple months ago. But in that short period of time, we have brought readers the information they, as Catholics, need to know – not only about the day-to-day campaign happenings, but about the candidates themselves: their past, their legacies and worldviews as politicians, their faith and their characters.

We leave you, then, with just two last election-related opinion pieces to consider today. The first is by Robert P. George, Princeton professor and strong voice in defense of the dignity of the unborn. The second author, a television/film writer, actor and director, may work in completely different circles than George, but Tim Kelleher offers a strong, concise case for why Catholics are not “single-issues voters” but instead are acting truly American when they uphold what our Founding Fathers counted as the foundational right of mankind: the right to life.

“That wasn’t minted in the Vatican but rendered by the Founders themselves—a group largely antagonistic to Rome,” Kelleher wrote. “It doesn’t require episcopal ordination to acknowledge that, in the unique edifice of state designed by the Founders, the right to life was set as the cornerstone.”

And later:

“Christians ought not be welded to any single issue,” concluded Kelleher – who said he saw much to admire in Sen. Obama and lamented his pro-abortion stances. “Neither can they deny that there is one issue, without which, the ennobling others have no hope of stability. That issue is as singular as the cornerstone it is.”

As for the politicians themselves, George revisited the old argument, most recently asserted by Sen. Biden, that abortion is a private matter of, at the most, one’s own beliefs and faith and not to be pushed on a “pluralistic society.”

“Biden is perfectly correct about when a life begins — at conception,” George said. “But he is wrong to suppose that this is a mere matter of personal opinion or a position deriving only from religion. It is a matter of biological fact. Politics should not be permitted to trump it.”

George likewise outlined the nature of the abortion debate today, explaining the reason why so many arguments seem to go in circles despite clear, scientific evidence that human life begins at conception.

“The debate over when human life begins has never been about the biological facts,” he wrote. “It has been about the value we ascribe to human beings at the dawn of their lives.”

The fact that we are separating those two points at all is what’s horrifying, as science declares that a unique, human being is formed at the moment of conception yet champions the use of embryos in destructive research, or politicians fumble their way through bad biology to defend a women’s “right of privacy” or “right to choose” over doctors’ consciences or pro-life laws enacted since Roe v. Wade (laws that could be wiped away with the Freedom of Choice Act).

The term “culture war” has become somewhat tired and clichéd, with many heralding this election season as the one that transcended such old battles. But George’s point ought to remind us that there is a culture of life we are called to defend, and that it is under very real attack. The hundreds of people who participated in this fall’s 40 Days for Life campaign – and counted nearly 450 unborn lives saved through the time, efforts and prayers poured into the movement – would be among the first to tell us that.

And so, if you haven’t done so yet – get out and vote, vote for candidates who will support life, regardless of the office they seek or the party they are affiliated with. And if you feel uncomfortable voting for the pro-life candidate in a particular race, it may be the best thing to withhold your vote for that particular office. If Catholics said no to candidates of any party who supported abortion, we could change politics as we know it in this country.

As Pope John Paul II told our country during his visit in 1987 and reiterated at the Denver World Youth Day in 1993, “America, you are beautiful and blessed in so many ways. … But your best beauty and your richest blessing is found in the human person.”

“The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless ones,” he said. “The best traditions of your land presume respect for those who cannot defend themselves. If you want equal justice for all, and true freedom and lasting peace, then, America, defend life!”