Ethics Newsline®

WASHINGTON
Facing a tight election in November, President Bush earlier this month asked the Vatican to push its U.S. bishops to speak against social issues like same-sex marriage and abortion that align with his agenda, according to a leading newspaper covering Catholicism.

The request, which took place on June 4 shortly after Bush met with the Pope, was first reported by the National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper, according to the New York Times.

At the meeting, Bush reportedly asked Cardinal Angelo Sodano to “push the bishops to become more actively involved” in promoting the issues that appeal to his core voting bloc, social conservatives, according to CNN.

The president “complained that the U.S. bishops were not being vocal enough in supporting (Bush) on social issues like gay marriage and abortion,” a Vatican official privy to the discussion told CNN.

Bush’s request — an unusually explicit appeal to blur the line separating church and state — did not receive a response from Soldano, according to the official, who said, “it was the Vatican’s interpretation that (Bush) wanted (the bishops) to get involved in time for the campaign.”

The White House last week refused to clarify the meeting’s contents, except to say that “the positions of the president and the Vatican are well-known on those issues,” according to spokesman Scott McClellan. “I would just leave it at that.”

The increasingly vocal role of the Catholic church in the upcoming presidential election has raised many eyebrows, especially after threats from the church hierarchy of withholding communion from Catholics whose votes do not precisely align with church dogma.

Still, others say Bush’s appeal is nothing new. “Any head of state who goes to the Vatican will attempt to present a case,” one analyst told the Times. “That is why they go to the Vatican anyway. It is not an act of devotion. It is a political thing.”

Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a Catholic who has been targeted by such threats for his support of abortion rights, last week said Bush’s actions were “inappropriate,” saying the line separating church officials from state officials should be respected.

“There are many things that are of concern and taught by the church with respect to war, with respect to the environment, with respect to poor people, our responsibilities to each other, and I am very comfortable with where I am with respect to those,” Kerry told CNN.

“But I am not a spokesperson for the church,” Kerry said, “and the church is not a spokesperson for the United States of America.”