From Paul Kokoski.

I don't think that Casey Ahern ("The American election: Another perspective"; "Editorial reader's comment", March, 2005) was so much trying to paint President George W. Bush a "Dispensationalist" as much as he was trying to demonstrate the fact that Bush is dangerously inconsistent in his pro-life beliefs. Ahern could have easily done this merely by mentioning Bush's disingenuous initiative in Iraq which was condemned by Pope John Paul II and with virtual universal assent. Also, the U.S. would not have been justified going into Iraq even had there been demonstrated proof that Iraq was harbouring weapons of mass destruction. So the Editorial reader's comment which attempts to refute Ahern on these points is moot.

In any event, Ahern correctly alludes to the all-important fact that Bush's inconsistent pro-life position is in keeping, not with "the" Catholic view but more with the "standard conservative Catholic view"--as propagated by periodicals such as Catholic Insight and well known Catholic intellectuals such as George Weigel, Michael Novak and Father Richard Neuhaus who attempted in various ways to defend Bush's unjust war. Readers will recall, for example, the article "Presumptuous Catholics and a 'Just War'" (Catholic Insight, April 2003) in which disingenuous author Edward J. McBride makes a case--no less while attacking the Catholic Catechism--for the unjust war in Iraq--this despite the Vatican's previous warning of the foreseen consequences which have come to pass.

President Bush's rushed initiative has tragically undermined the theory of a just war and has led to a proliferation of war and other acts of aggression. To what extent this will end no one knows.

Ahern is thus justified in questioning whose inconsistent pro-life position--that of Bush or Sen. John Kerry--is ultimately more dangerous. He is thus also justified in ultimately asking whether in such a case it is not prudent for voters to reject both camps and "stay away from the polls as an expression of Catholic solidarity".

The editorial reader's comment rejects this theory saying: "Staying away from the polls and not voting to show we have power is not a reasonable position." Only recently, however, the Spanish bishops, with the Pope's approval, urged Catholics in Spain to boycott their nation's referendum on the European Constitution. Spokesman Father Martinez Camino said that the bishops were departing from their usual position of encouraging people to do their civic duty. He said: "Abstention ... is legitimate when it is not possible to overcome the complexity (of the issue) or for people who do not agree with the conditions in which the referendum is being organized."

After the Cardinal of Madrid, Antonio Rouco Varela, led a delegation to the Vatican, Pope John Paul II expressed support for the bishops' position, saying he was "concerned to see a mentality creeping into Spain that is inspired by secularism and which progressively leads to restrictions in religious freedom."

One can argue that the culture of death in which we now live has in fact been largely due to the routine practice of "compromising" at the polls.

Hamilton, ON