ror those of other Americans.” The Pope will certainly have plenty to say about that.


Flexing Political Muscle


Benedict was never expected to directly address the November elections during his visit to the U.S., but he surely knows that American politics are important to American Catholics, and that American Catholics are politically divided. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently released a centrist guide for voters in 2008, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” which asks vot- ers to keep Church teaching in mind in evaluating candidates in November. Other Catholic groups are less reti- cent in their advocacy. The conservative organization Catholic Answers offers “A Voters Guide for Serious Catholics,” and the more liberal Center for Concern offers its own pamphlet: “Voting for the Common Good.” But the two have little in common.


“Catholics must learn how to vote — not just as citizens but as Catholics too,” the Catholic Answers guide insists, judging candidates on their positions and eliminat- ing from consideration “any candidate who is wrong on any of these issues”: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning, and gay marriage — all of which Catholic Answers opposes. Befi tting its less traditional sensibili- ties, Center for Concern urges liberal Catholics to become involved “actively in the political process to address the nation’s problems.”


The Center’s agenda focuses on cli- mate change, healthcare, poverty, immi- gration, peace, and abortion.


MORAL ISSUES Catholics are urged to use their church teachings when voting for candidates.


That both groups mention abortion does not mean they share similar approaches to that touchstone issue, however. In addition to their stark political divisions, American Catholics dis- play profound spiritual contrasts as well. On one hand, America’s 70 mil- lion Catholics make the United States the world’s third largest Catholic nation (after Brazil and Mexico), although much credit for that distinc- tion rests with recent immigrants — legal and


illegal — from south of the Rio Grande. But observance of the faith among Catholics has been in sharp decline. As Robert Royal, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Faith and Reason Institute, said, “Only about a third of Catholics actu- ally practice their faith.” Other experts say the fi gure is closer to a fi fth.


Catholics may comprise more than a quarter of the U.S. population, but there are no Catholic mega-churches and you will rarely have trouble fi nding a parking spot for Sunday Mass. But from the fi rst Mass said in Florida in the 16th century to Pope Benedict’s celebration at Yankee Stadium on April 20, the American Church has always expanded and con- tracted . . . and expanded.


Cyclical changes, however, don’t account for the burgeoning of the Hispanic laity. Spanish-speaking Catholics are on the rise.


Given that Latin America itself is large- ly Catholic, it is no surprise that Hispanics represent the fastest growing segment of America’s Catholic population. Fully 68 percent of American Hispanics are at least nominally Catholic, and it is these nearly 30 million people who have been driving the Church’s growth. (See “Catholicism’s Charismatics” sidebar on page 58.) The Pope has made no plans to com- ment on the upcoming presidential elec- tion, especially since there will be no Catholic presidential nominee. But he must know that Hispanic Catholics, politi- cally liberal but culturally conservative (and registered Democrats by a margin of 3-to-1), may well be the margin of victory for one of the candidates.


Filling John Paul’s Shoes


Benedict XVI is just the third Pope to visit America, after Paul VI and John Paul II. Thanks mostly to Benedict’s immediate predecessor — John Paul came to America seven times during his nearly 27-year reign — papal visits may seem routine. But prior to Paul VI, who came to New York in 1965, no Pope had journeyed outside Italy in more than a century and a half. Because of his many foreign travels, Paul VI became known as the Pilgrim Pope. Yet his trips were far surpassed in number by those of John Paul II, who vis- ited more than 120 countries. According to a BBC report, he was “seen in the


The U.S. Church’s


growth is due to nearly 30 million American Hispanics — an increasingly infl uential and politically coveted voting bloc in the


upcoming presidential election.


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