Catholics in the US mid-term elections. (The Church and State).

VOTING RESULTS IN THE November 2002 mid-term elections in the United States have confirmed that Catholics vote their conscience, rather than under instructions from the bishops.

In Pennsylvania, with more than 2.3 million registered Catholic voters, Ed Rendell, a secular Jew, defeated an antichoice Catholic candidate, State Attorney General Mike Fisher, despite Fisher's appeal to 75,000 Catholic leaders highlighting his support for the hierarchy on almost all key issues. (He "respectfully disagrees" about the death penalty.) In polls just before the election, likely Catholic voters indicated they would vote 2:1 for Rendell. The state previously elected Tom Ridge, a prochoice Catholic, as governor.

In Michigan, Cardinal Adam Maida intervened in an election dispute over a letter written by some priests apparently supporting the prochoice stance of Catholic candidate for governor, Jennifer Granholm, the eventual winner. Writing in response to religious criticism of Granholm's support for abortion rights, Revs. Chateau, Nowlan and Kaucheck and Dr. Kosnick used official church teachings to show that Granholm's public stance on abortion is not at all incompatible with her Catholic faith.

Their letter pointed out that "Catholics have a responsibility to give careful and prayerful consideration to official Catholic teaching. But when that teaching proves incomplete, or unconvincing, Catholics have both the right and responsibility to follow their well-formed conscience." The letter concluded, "It is clear that in this decision [to adopt a prochoice position] Jennifer Granholm has chosen to follow her conscience. This is perfectly compatible with her responsibility as a Catholic and as a good citizen." It appears that Cardinal Maida's intervention resulted in days of "prayer and penance" for the "disciplined" priests.

And in New Mexico, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe may have violated the law after the Holy Child Parish in Tijeras distributed fliers endorsing an antiabortion candidate for governor. The archdiocese-approved flier comparing the abortion voting records of the two candidates was changed to show one candidate was "100 percent prolife" while his opponent's "record shows a lack of respect for human life." A parish typist then inserted information from a local antiabortion group in the approved flier. Pastors are not allowed to endorse any particular candidate because of Internal Revenue Service guidelines dealing with tax-exempt organizations. Distributing voting records on a range of issues is allowable, however. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the IRS to investigate the situation.