Catholic voting tied to economy

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By Julia Duin

BALTIMORE | U.S. Catholic bishops at their annual meeting Monday brushed off an apparent disregard among Catholic voters for church doctrine on abortion, saying the economy, not their teachings, was to blame.

"It's 1932 revisited," Chicago Cardinal Francis George told reporters at the Waterfront Marriott, referring to the election pitting Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. "We have a Republican president, the depression has begun and, once again, the American voters have turned to another party. The economy was the foremost challenge."

Exit polls from the presidential election show that most Catholics favored Sen. Barack Obama, a pro-choice Illinois Democrat, despite pleas by 89 bishops before the election for believers to consider a candidate's position on abortion before voting.

"Very few people answered they were voting on social and moral issues," San Francisco Archbishop George H. Niederauer said, referring to exit polls. "What people had on their minds was the economic situation."

"We're going to discuss what worked and didn't work," Cardinal George said, referring to off-the-record sessions the bishops will hold during their three-day meeting. "We will have to come back and ask whether or not the way we've taught has been helpful."

Several bishops released statements this fall saying Catholics are morally obligated to vote for pro-life candidates.

Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn warned Catholics in his flock that they risked their "eternal salvation" by voting pro-choice.

Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput called Mr. Obama the "most committed abortion-rights presidential candidate" since abortion was legalized in 1973.

Cardinal George, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, added that the conference will "have to enter into negotiations" with the Obama administration "so that some of our concerns get ironed out."

Other bishops interviewed also blamed the economy.