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A Disingenuous Election-Year Ad By Msgr. George G. Higgins The Yard Stick November 6, 2000  Catholics Speak Out ran a full-page advertisement in the Oct. 23 issue of the New York Times titled "An Open Letter to Candidates for Office From Roman Catholic Voters." The return address suggested that the ad's real sponsor was the Quixote Center based in Hyattsville, Md.  Because the ad's print was so small, it was impossible -- for me at least -- to determine the exact number of signers, but I would guess the number ran into the thousands. I found it difficult to determine whom, if anyone, they represented. So far as I can tell, they all signed as individual Catholic voters.  The ad's sponsors were at pains to say that it was not an endorsement of any candidate or party. I couldn't help but suspect that this caveat was included on advice of counsel to protect the center's tax-exempt status in asking for financial contributions to cover the ad's cost.  The ad started with a familiar quotation from Vatican Council II's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World: "The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ." Presumably this quote was meant to certify that the sponsors and signers were committed to Catholic social teaching and convinced that their proposals stemmed directly from it. They explicitly stated that their approach was "deeply rooted in the Gospel and the social justice teachings of the church."  The trouble is, they left the impression that their judgments on specific issues (except, predictably, abortion) more or less necessarily followed from Catholic social teaching. That's rather presumptuous. I say this as one who agreed with many of their proposals. I would hesitate, however, to imply, as they appeared to do, that my judgments on these issues are the only judgments enlightened Catholic voters are entitled to make.  Of the specific issues they raised, the only one on which the ad's sponsors even suggested there might be room for legitimate debate was abortion. Catholic opinion on this issue, they say, "is not monolithic." They could have said the same about all their other issues but did not.  Having quoted Vatican II's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World as a kind of cover, I think they should have been honest enough to point out that that document emphatically and unambiguously condemns abortion. Moreover, since they claimed to be guided by Catholic social teaching, they might have pointed out, as Pope Paul VI did in "Octogesima Adveniens," that in concrete situations one must recognize a legitimate variety of possible political options and that the same Christian faith can lead to different commitments.  One example will suffice to illustrate why I found the ad disingenuous. Its sponsors and signers said that universal health care, accessible to all regardless of income, is "a human right, not a commodity." I have said this for half a century. But I would argue, as they do not, that the right to life of the unborn is also "a human right, not a commodity." Their failure to mention, let alone reject, partial-birth abortion -- obviously a serious issue in the political campaign -- was a dead giveaway.  I conclude that the ad was a poorly disguised effort to rationalize the Quixote Center's stand on abortion. The sponsors and signers, of course, will claim that the ad was a nonpartisan, objective application of Catholic social teaching. The ad clearly favored one political party. So be it. But why would they deny it? To protect their tax-exempt status, of course, but I suspect that alert readers of both political parties readily understood what was going on here.   Papal Social Encyclicals   Other Catholic Social Teachings General Articles of Interest  Catholic Worker Connection Msgr. George Higgins  Home Page E-Mail: Fr. Sinclair Oubre