c. 1996 Religion News Service

(PORTLAND, Ore.)-Bishop Anthony M. Pilla, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, opened the bishops’ annual spring meeting Thursday defending the church’s role in the political process and warning groups seeking to mobilize the Catholic vote that they must have respect for the social-justice principles of the church.”Any individual or groups seeking to organize our Catholic people for political activity must respect the fundamental criteria for organizations of the faithful”as described in papal teaching, Pilla said.”The most pertinent of these criteria to our discussion call for such organizations to have a commitment to a society, which in light of the church’s social doctrine, places it at the service of the total dignity of the person,”Pilla said.”Therefore, associations of lay faithful must be become fruitful outlets for participation and solidarity in bringing about conditions that are more just and loving within society.” Pilla did not name any specific groups but the conservative Christian Coalition has been the most prominent political organization trying to organize Catholics. It has formed the Catholic Alliance, a subsidiary of the political action group founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson in an effort to organize conservative Catholics.

The coalition is closely aligned with the Republican party.

The coalition’s efforts have been a matter of concern to a number of bishops, including Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., and Archbishop Francis Stafford of Denver. They have argued that while the coalition’s position on some issues such as opposition to abortion are consistent with church teaching, on other issues, such as federal spending levels for welfare recipients, health care reform and benefits for immigrants, the bishops’ teaching is at odds with coalition positions.

In other action at the opening session of the three-day meeting, the approximately 250 bishops gathered in Portland also adopted a statement condemning a series of church burnings, especially of black churches in the South.”These evil acts not only destroy places of worship, they tear at the moral fabric of our nation,”the statement said.”We deplore any act of violence, but these sacrilegious acts, directed primarily against African-American congregations, seem especially horrible. Regardless of the source of this evil, our nation must take effective measures to expose its origin and stop its spread.” It is unusual for the president of the NCCB to give a presidential address at the spring meeting. But Pilla said he wanted to do so because of the upcoming presidential election and what he called”our nation’s rapidly developing social agenda and its impact on the conference’s pubic policy role.” Pilla alluded to recent court decisions on assisted suicide, and President Clinton’s veto of a bill banning a controversial late-term abortion procedure known as”partial-birth abortion.””…the atmosphere of an election year can … provide an opportunity to highlight our public policy concerns and to bring to our fellow citizens’ attention the kind of message”articulated by Pope John Paul II, he said.”Unfortunately, in the last few months we have also seen signs of how great an effort is needed if we are to counteract what the Holy Father has identified as a growing culture of death: the two judicial decisions in favor of physician assisted suicide and the veto of the partial birth abortion ban are prime examples,”he said.”In addition, in many parts of our nation, we bishops have observed a growing resistance to the needs of the immigrant and the poor,”he added.”These are not attitudes which reconciled with the Holy Father’s exhortation to us to be a hospitable and welcoming society.” Pilla strongly defended the church’s right to be involved in the public policy arena.”As bishops living in our democratic society-a society which, as the Holy Father points out, is often the model and pattern for other developing democracies-we agree wholeheartedly that our democratic society needs moral truth, moral reasoning and biblical wisdom in fashioning public policy and that to exclude those who would bring such a witness is to violate our rights and to endanger democracy itself,”he said.

At the same time, however, Pilla stressed that”our intention is not either to advance or to undermine the electoral fortunes of any individual or party.”History shows that, in our culture, at least, when religious leaders enter into electoral politics, it is more likely that religion will be debased than that politics will be elevated,”he said.”The desire to maintain respect for our principles and openness to them is essential to explaining why we bishops avoid partisanship when it comes to national and other elections.”JC END ANDERSON