Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, has sparked controversy-- and outrage-- by writing that President Barack Obama reflects the views of American Catholics better than the Pope.
Kennedy-Townsend, eldest of Robert Kennedy's 11 children, asserted: "Obama's pragmatic approach to divisive policy.........and his social-justice agenda reflect the views of American Catholic laity much more closely than those vocal bishops and pro-life activists." She noted that while Obama and Pope Benedict XVI "disagree about reproductive freedoms and homosexuality,"American Catholics "know Obama's on their side. In fact, Obama's agenda is closer to their views than even the Pope's."
Among the voices decrying Townsend's column is Judie Brown, president and co-founder of the American Life League, a pro-life organization. She calls Kennedy-Townsend's views "misguided" and states: "Reproductive freedoms, for those unfamiliar with the culture of death's propaganda, is a code phrase for abortion on demand,sex instruction in schools, birth control for kids, and all manner of bizarre propositions that help the purveyors of smut to define the human person as an animal incapable of self-control....."One can easily tell that her thought process has little to do with Catholic identity and, in fact, is contrary to all that is Catholic. There is no other explanation for her inane claim that Obama is somehow more in tune with American Catholics than the Pope."
Townsend goes on to say that the Church hierarchy "ignores women's equality and gays' cry for justice because to heed them would require that it admit error and acknowledge that the self-satisfied edifice constructed around sex and gender has been wrong."
She went on to blast the Pope's recent encyclical, "Charity in Truth," claiming it gives "moral credence to Obama's message."
But Brown counters, "In fact, the encyclical's message is something else entirely......'Without respect for the human person, it is impossible to bring about a just society, and in a just society, there is no room for heinous crimes such as abortion. This is the underlying theme of the entire encyclical, which Kennedy-Townsend apparently overlooked entirely."
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