Kerry's Religion Director Linked to Anti-Catholic Group

NewsMax.com's Fr. Michael Reilly says there's something rotten about Sen. John Kerry's strategy to win the religious vote.

What was John Kerry thinking when he appointed Mara Vanderslice as his Director of Religious Outreach?

Catholic League president William Donohue finds her a curious choice:

"Here’s what we know about John Kerry’s religious outreach person. Mara Vanderslice was raised without any faith and didn’t become an evangelical Christian until she attended Earlham College, a Quaker school known for its adherence to pacifism.

"When in college, Mara was active in the Earlham Socialist Alliance, a group that supports the convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and openly embraces Marxism-Leninism.

"After graduating, Mara spoke at rallies held by ACT-UP, the anti-Catholic group that disrupted Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1989 by spitting the Eucharist on the floor. In 2000, she practiced civil disobedience when she took to the streets of Seattle in a protest against the World Trade Organization. In 2002, she tried to shut down Washington, D.C. in a protest against the IMF and the World Bank."

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats under the leadership of Sen. Richard Durbin have just released a "Catholic Issue Analysis" for all 100 United States senators, and guess who tops the list as the most Catholic of all senators: John Kerry.

According to Sen. Durbin:

A vote for or against the Dorgan Joint Resolution regarding broadcast media ownership is weighted equally [from a Catholic perspective] with a vote for or against the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.

A vote for or against the Kerry National Affordable Housing Trust Fund is weighted equally [from a Catholic perspective] with a vote for or against a ban on human cloning.

Why all this attention to the Catholic vote? Catholics make up 25 percent to 30 percent of the vote in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Furthermore, while Catholics once voted reliably Democratic, a new Time Magazine poll shows Catholics divided 45 percent for Kerry, 43 percent for Bush.

Bush leads by 23 points among Catholics who consider themselves religious, while Kerry holds a 46-point lead among Catholics who say they are not very religious. Those who deem themselves somewhat religious favor Bush by a margin of 47 percent to 43 percent.

With the poll showing only 7 percent of likely voters regarding Kerry as a man of strong religious faith, Mara Vanderslice can only reinforce his weak image among religious voters.

Editor's note: