Catholic advocates eye nearing election

Diocese will hold voter registration Diocese eyes voter registration

Kathleen A. Shaw, T&G STAFF

WORCESTER- The Diocese of Worcester has issued a call for each parish to appoint a public policy advocate to attend one of two meetings to be held Wednesday at Ascension Church.

Also, the Catholic diocese has told pastors that voter registration drives will be held in the parishes the next two weekends in advance of the Oct. 13 deadline for voter registration in Massachusetts.

In a Sept. 23 memo to all pastors, the diocese suggested that the advocates could be drawn from parish marriage amendment coordinators, those people who worked for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage; people who are anti-abortion representatives, and people who support church teachings on end-of-life issues.

A request was made to consider parishioners who attended the annual diocesan men's conference, as well as members of the Knights of Columbus, an organization that is strongly anti-abortion and opposed to gay marriage. The groups listed were described as people who "may be interested in this volunteer position," but this was not mandated.

The advocates would be involved in organizing the voter registration drives and other political activity.

The Wednesday meeting, which will have sessions at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. at Ascension Church, 40 Vernon St., was spurred by a meeting for all diocesan priests that Bishop Robert J. McManus called Sept. 9. Former Vatican ambassador Raymond L. Flynn was the speaker.

Mr. Flynn said in a recent interview discussing his Catholic Citizenship initiative that only about 60 of the 130 invited priests attended, and he was disappointed with the turnout.

He said the diocese also had two lawyers present and he had two lawyers with him when he came out from Boston. The lawyers were there to discuss the legalities of conducting this type of political activity within the churches. Mr. Flynn held another meeting with Catholics last Sunday at Our Lady of the Assumption, in Millbury.

"At this important meeting, information and instructions will be provided for this parish contact to assist them in working with their pastor to implement the guidelines of the USCCB document "Faithful Citizenship,' and the simple details for conducting the parish voter registration drive will be explained," the pastors were told. The American bishops discussed their view that Catholics have a moral duty to vote in the "Faithful Citizenship' statement issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The voter registration drive comes as Catholics, who comprise a quarter of the American population, will be getting ready to vote in the Nov. 2 presidential, congressional and state elections.