THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 9, 1995 TAG: 9512090306
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 134 lines
The Chesapeake-based Christian Coalition is rolling out its new Catholic wing today in Boston, a city that takes pride in its Catholic heritage, Kennedy-style liberal Democrats, and a Yankee coolness to strangers.
Leaders of the 1.7 million member group are driving the coalition toward new, even hostile, territory in pursuit of a vision: Getting bigger.
The coalition, founded by Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson, took six years to build itself into a conservative political powerhouse by signing up evangelical voters and teaching them how to organize local chapters and distribute voter guides in their churches. Now, the coalition wants to do the same thing in Catholic churches, using the 250,000 Catholics who have already joined the coalition as its pioneers.
``There's clearly growth potential there,'' said Mike Russell, the coalition's spokesman.
But some Catholic leaders in the Boston area - which has 1.9 million Catholics, 52 percent of the total population - aren't rolling out the welcome mat for what the coalition is calling its ``Catholic Alliance.''
Today, in the same elegant hotel where the coalition is holding its one-day conference, opponents are announcing a new multi-faith group to oppose the coalition's efforts.
``The Christian Coalition has not been active in the state, and one of the goals is to ensure that it remains that way,'' said Jill Hanauer, a spokeswoman for the Interfaith Alliance.
The coalition has been bold about announcing its impending arrival. Some Catholic leaders received a fund-raising letter and a congressional scorecard, and many got letters urging them to attend the conference and publicize it to parishioners.
The coalition also took out a full-page ad in the Nov. 24 issue of the Pilot, the official newsletter of the Boston archdiocese. That has been widely understood by many Catholics as indicating tacit approval by Cardinal Bernard Law, who oversees the diocese. But Law's spokesman said Thursday that the Catholic leadership is officially neutral, ``neither endorsing nor condemning'' the group.
The conference was advertised with a bevy of speakers, including author and former Reagan administration official William Bennett, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H.
None of them could make it, Russell said, leaving U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., as the headliner. Hyde, who is Catholic, is sponsoring a bill in the House of Representatives that would expand prayer in schools and pave the way for government-funded vouchers for private school tuition - two issues that the coalition supports.
He will appear along with Ralph Reed, the coalition's executive director, and Keith Fournier, a Catholic lawyer who is executive director of Robertson's legal action group. By Thursday, Russell said that 450 people had paid the $25 registration fee, most of them coming from the New England states.
The coalition's Catholic Alliance has caused confusion in the ranks of Catholic leadership nationwide. Mostly, they have questions:
Will its name, ``the Catholic Alliance,'' confuse parishioners and lawmakers about who it represents?
Will it undercut bishops' authority as teachers on social policy?
While the coalition and the Catholic church both oppose abortion and support prayer in school, what should be done about issues where evangelicals and Catholics are often at odds, such as welfare reform and capital punishment?
Is the coalition seeking to pull Catholics toward the Republican Party, with which it is allied?
Even among the Catholic church's top national leadership, there is no united response. Cardinal John O'Connor in New York was one of the key players who enabled the coalition's founder, Robertson, to meet Pope John Paul II during the pope's visit to the United States this fall.
When the nation's bishops met in November, Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany called the coalition's initiative ``startling and offensive - another effort to split Catholics from their bishops.''
Hubbard said the church should ``bring our religious-moral vision and tradition to bear on the social and ethical issues of the day.'' The coalition, he said, is more worried about partisan politics than ethics.
After Hubbard's speech was published in a Catholic newsletter, Bishop James T. McHugh, of Camden, N.J., issued a letter calling for more dialogue with the coalition. ``In the face of the secularism of our political landscape and the trivialization of religion by some of our most prominent political leaders, Christians should strive to find many more areas of agreement in developing political strategies.''
So far, Bishop Walter F. Sullivan of the Richmond diocese, which includes Hampton Roads, is the only bishop who has sent a letter to his parish leaders warning them to resist the coalition's efforts to distribute voter guides in Catholic churches.
The coalition seems to be making more headway in dealing with groups of Catholic laity. Leaders of the Knights of Columbus, a 1.2 million member fraternal benefit society, have met twice with Christian Coalition leaders, said Russell Shaw, the Knights' spokesman at its Washington headquarters.
The Christian Coalition hopes to get members of the Knights, which is a respected and entrenched organization in the Catholic community, to help distribut voter guides.
``The Knights have established a more community service type role,'' Russell said. ``They haven't gotten into voter education, precinct work and elections. There is an opportunity to work with them. We can do some of the civic work and they can help us distribute the literature.''
Shaw said it is unlikely that the Knights of Columbus would ever take on distribution of the coalition's voter guides as a national project, or even recommend it to its 10,000 local councils nationwide.
Shaw, who is attending the coalition's event today, said it's far too early to pass judgment on the Christian Coalition.
``We are open to and sympathetic to the Christian Coalition's on its pro-family and pro-life issues,'' he said. ``We're happy to talk to these folks.'' MEMO: CATHOLIC HEARTLAND
When the Christian Coalition goes looking for Catholics to join its
new offshoot, the ``Catholic Alliance,'' it travels north to Boston from
its home in Chesapeake.
Why? Because that's the nation's heartland for Catholic life.
Some statistics:
Virginia:
Catholic population: 464,000 - 7 percent of total population
- Arlington diocese: 294,100
- Richmond diocese: 169,900
Regions within short driving distance of Boston, where the Christian
Coalition's event is being held:
Massachusetts:
Catholic population: 2.9 million - 49 percent of total population
Rhode Island:
Catholic population: 641,800 - 64 percent of total population
Connecticut:
Catholic population: 1.4 million - 41 percent of total population
New Hampshire:
319,000 - 28 percent of total population
New York City and immediate environs
2.3 million Catholics
KEYWORDS: CATHOLIC CHURCH STATISTICS RELIGION AND POLITICS
CHRISTIAN COALITION by CNB