GOP immigration reforms risk alienating Catholic vote
Published 9:00 pm Friday, April 21, 2006
The national immigration debate is muddying Republican relations with Roman Catholics, who comprise about one-quarter of the electorate.
Catholic bishops and many Republican politicians share opposition to abortion, but they often split over immigration reforms. Church leaders are challenging – and in some cases even vowing to defy -tougher enforcement proposals by GOP lawmakers.
The issue highlights the roadblocks that the Catholic world view creates for Republicans and Democrats. Catholics are generally conservative on issues such as marriage, but tend to be liberal on social justice problems, limiting the appeal of both major parties and leaving Catholics “politically homeless,” said the Rev. James Heft, president of the Institute of Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California.
“I’d like to see more pro-life Democrats,” Heft said, “and social justice Republicans.”
“Right now, a higher proportion of Catholic voters (than in the past) would identify with the Republican Party, or some of the themes that the Republican candidates have been using,” said David Leege, professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame and an expert on Catholics and politics.
But the impact of the immigration debate is unclear. “The jury is out on the Catholic vote in long run,” Leege said.
Catholics, once solidly Democratic, have been moving toward the Republican Party for 25 years. When struggling Catholics established themselves financially, they started voting less according to religious ties and more according to economic interests. The Democrats’ embrace of abortion rights also drew them to GOP candidates.
President Bush, a Methodist, won the 2004 Catholic vote 52 percent to 47 percent over Democratic nominee John Kerry, a Catholic. Leading up to the election, bishops had warned Catholic lawmakers they risked “cooperating in evil” if they voted for candidates supporting abortion rights.
Church leaders insisted their position was nonpartisan, yet the timing of their statements was clearly a boon to Repub- licans since Kerry backed abortion rights.
