GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Sen. John Kerry waited too long to talk about religion and when he finally did, it was too late to try to win the Catholic vote, according to William D'Antonio, head of Catholics for Kerry.
An author and adjunct research professor at Catholic University in Washington, Mr. D'Antonio said yesterday at a conference on religion and the presidency that Senator Kerry hurt his presidential chances by insisting until the l1th hour that religion should not be an issue in the campaign.
He said the Democratic challenger's advisers "were afraid to speak out about religion" until Mike McCurry and Joe Lockhart joined the Democratic candidate's staff a little more than two months before the election.
Mr. D'Antonio said the Catholics for Kerry organization didn't even get off the ground until July and its organizers were "nave" in thinking they could compete with Karl Rove and President Bush's campaign advisers who had been working for four years to lock up the evangelical Christian and conservative Catholic vote.
His speech was part of a two-day conference with 25 presidential scholars and authors at Grand Valley State University here and in Allendale, Mich.
Mr. D'Antonio said after he agreed to head Catholics for Kerry, he was frustrated by the Massachusetts senator's reluctance to woo the Catholic vote.He said, for example, that he made arrangements for Bishop Anthony M. Pilla of the Cleveland Catholic Archdiocese and the Rev. Edward Glynn, president of John Carroll University, a Jesuit college in Cleveland, to appear at a rally for Mr. Kerry in the pivotal state of Ohio, but the senator passed.
"American Catholics had a lot to contribute to the election," Mr. D'Antonio said, adding that Catholic social policies and the Democratic platform align on education, health care, and opposition to the death penalty.
"It seemed wrong," he said, for Catholics to support President Bush solely on the basis on his opposition to abortion rights.
He urged Senator Kerry to "test the pro-life spirit" of the Republicans by challenging them to guarantee health care to everyone under the age of 18, saying that would be a true "pro-life" policy.
He also said he urged Democrats to change the language of the debate by saying they are "sustaining the Constitution," rather than supporting abortion rights.
Although Catholics for Kerry was late and disorganized in this campaign, Mr. D'Antonio said he plans to build on the work that was done. The key, he said, for future elections will be to bring in other religious groups and create an interfaith alliance that supports the Democratic Party's policies on religious and social issues.
He also said unless the dialogue on abortion changes, he doesn't believe a Catholic could be a viable presidential candidate in 2008.
The conference on religion and the presidency moves to nearby Allendale today for panel discussions on "the Modern Presidency," "Religion and the Bush Presidency," and "Religion and the 2004 Election."
Contact David Yonke at:
dyonke@theblade.com or
419-724-6154.
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