Scorecard rates Kerry highest on Catholic Church priorities

WASHINGTON — Sen. John Kerry, who has come under fire from Catholic bishops for his support of abortion rights, is the senator who most frequently votes in line with the church’s legislative priorities, according to a report issued by Senate Democrats on Wednesday.

The report, compiled by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., gave the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee an overall score of 60.9 percent, the highest of all 24 Catholics in the Senate.

On domestic policy Kerry scored 95 percent, along with 50 percent on international policy but just 11 percent on “pro-life” issues, which surveyed votes on abortion, the death penalty and contraception.

Durbin ranked just behind Kerry at 60.5 percent, and Ted Kennedy, the other Catholic Democrat from Massachusetts, ranked third at 60.4 percent.

“John Kerry has been a man of faith his entire life, and today’s scorecard is another indication that shows how he has put his beliefs into action,” said Mara Vanderslice, director of religious outreach for Kerry’s campaign.

The report looked at 24 of the 101 issues that were identified by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as legislative priorities in the current Congress, as well as a 2002 vote authorizing war in Iraq.

Issues included, among others, an increase in the minimum wage, labor policy, immigration reform, capital punishment and abortion. Senators were scored based on their support of or opposition to legislation in which the bishops had staked a position.

“None of us can expect to measure up perfectly against the church’s full agenda of political engagement,” the report said.

“What Catholic politicians can hope to see, however, is an attempt to evaluate their work comprehensively, not on the basis of only a narrow slice of the church’s teachings.”

Overall, Republicans scored lowest on a host of issues in Catholic social teaching that Democrats say have been overshadowed by a preoccupation with abortion.

Only three GOP senators _ Mike DeWine of Ohio, Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois and Sam Brownback of Kansas _ scored better than 50 percent, compared to 11 Democrats who voted with the church at least 50 percent of the time.

Sen. Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican who is one of the most conservative and outspoken Catholics in the Senate, dismissed Durbin’s survey as election-year politics.

“It’s clear to me that this is a selective attempt to pick out selective issues to make John Kerry and a whole host of liberal Democrats … look like faithful Catholics,” said Santorum, who scored 40.8 percent in Durbin’s survey.