As the director of Catholic outreach for George W. Bush's presidential campaigns, Deal Hudson says his Democratic rivals made his job easier. "The Al Gore and John Kerry campaigns operated as if all Catholics were quasi dissenters from the church who liked the pope personally but didn't agree with him," says Hudson. Neither candidate, for instance, attempted to soften his pro-abortion rights position for Catholic audiences, although that stance was clearly at odds with Catholic teaching. That may help explain how Bush beat Kerry, the first Catholic presidential nominee since John F. Kennedy, among Catholic voters.

Now, as a conservative Catholic activist working against many of President Barack Obama's policies, Hudson's job is more difficult. "They've packaged Obama as someone who respects the church, its teaching, its moral authority," Hudson, who runs the website Inside Catholic, says of Obama's Catholic advisers. "They came up with this 'common ground' narrative that gives the impression that Obama shares the Catholic concern about abortion."

In the coming weeks, the White House is expected to unveil a "common ground" plan to reduce demand for abortion without placing new legal limits on it, which the administration hopes will appeal to moderate Catholics. And with a handful of advisers keeping in regular touch with Catholic leaders and organizations, the Obama White House appears to be taking Roman Catholic outreach as seriously as President Bush did. Obama has spoken about Catholicism's influence on his own life, including in a sit-down with Catholic reporters before his first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI this month. Despite the criticism over Obama's May appearance at the University of Notre Dame from scores of U.S. bishops, the White House continues to court the church directly. "The Obama charm offensive is working in that there are no signals from the Vatican that they want to see a culture war climate in the United States," says John Allen, senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. "Every signal is that the Vatican wants a constructive relationship with this guy."

The appointment of a prominent Catholic doctor, Regina Benjamin, to be surgeon general won praise from Catholic conservatives like Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, is poised to be the court's sixth current Catholic justice—and the only one appointed by a Democratic president. And Obama lavished praise on the pope before their meeting, saying, "The holy father is a thought leader and an opinion leader on so many wide-ranging issues."

Aides say Obama has a personal affinity for the Catholic Church. His job as a community organizer in Chicago was funded largely by the church. His rhetoric on common ground echoes the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, whom Obama befriended. "Bernardin was strongly pro-life . . . but was very consistent in talking about a seamless garment and a range of issues that were part and parcel of what he considered to be pro-life," Obama told the Catholic reporters he met with before seeing the pope. "That meant that he was concerned about poverty, he was concerned about how children were treated, he was concerned about the death penalty, he was concerned about foreign policy."

Obama had a full-time Catholic outreach director and a stable of Catholic surrogates on his presidential campaign last year. They helped him garner 54 percent of Catholic voters, a 7 percentage point improvement over Kerry. Obama doubled Kerry's support among Catholics who attend mass most often, gaining 40 percent of their votes.

Today, Obama has three aides who reach out to Catholics and who advise him on Catholic concerns. "I talk with the president about church teaching and the Catholic view on policy matters as they come up," says Denis McDonough, a deputy national security adviser who works on Catholic issues. For instance, McDonough helped the administration coordinate with Honduras's Catholic archbishop after the recent coup there.

Two other Catholic outreach experts have recently joined the administration: Alexia Kelley, cofounder of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and John Kelly, former Catholic outreach director for the Democratic National Committee. The birth of progressive groups like Catholics in Alliance and Catholics United after the 2004 election, meanwhile, has helped the White House counter attacks from conservative Catholic interests like the Catholic League. "In the 2008 election, liberal Catholics got really organized for the first time," says Allen. "That created new vehicles for outreach."

But Catholic Obama critics like Hudson are betting that the president's abortion policies will undermine his outreach to the church and to moderate Catholics. The Democratic-controlled Congress is working to repeal the federal ban on government-funded abortions in the District of Columbia, a move the White House supports. And the administration has not ruled out funding abortion through healthcare reform. "The lipstick is about to come off," says Hudson.

Catholics close to the White House say Obama's relationships with the church will survive inevitable policy differences. But it's difficult to imagine the president's common ground plan on abortion will mean much if Obama starts funding abortion. The same may be true of his Catholic-friendly rhetoric.

By Dan Gilgoff
Posted July 31, 2009

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