A Heavier Cross To Bear

By Michael Sean Winters - New Republic
Thursday, July 31, 2008 - Web Link
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July 30, 2008

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius reportedly sit on top of Barack Obama's vice presidential short list. In late June, Barack Obama called Sebelius "as talented a public official as there is right now," and just two days ago, Politico reported that Kaine was "very, very high" up in considerations for v.p. What binds these two--aside from being effective Democratic governors of red (or reddish) states--is that they're both Roman Catholic. And given the fact that Catholics were such a difficult group for Obama in the primaries, and that they heavily populate swing states like New Mexico and Pennsylvania, Sebelius's and Kaine's Catholicism should be a point in their favor. (Joe Biden, another short-lister, is Catholic as well.) But their similarities mask a surprising gulf: Sebelius and Kaine have had markedly different political relationships with the Church.

Sebelius attended a Catholic women's college, but she has not made her Catholicism a central part of her political biography. She has stated that her religious beliefs are private, a position that liberal Catholics have been taking ever since JFK. When she gave the Democratic response to the last State of the Union in January, she did not mention her own faith or the nation's, and she didn't describe any of the challenges facing the nation as moral challenges. This reticence to apply her faith to her political life has a downside: It has severely limited her ability to articulate a moral rationale for her commitment to other issues such as universal health care, which the Catholic Church considers a moral obligation that society owes its members.

Beyond her decision not to "speak Catholic," Sebelius has a politically thorny relationship with her bishop. In April, she vetoed legislation that would have beefed up efforts to enforce restrictions on abortion providers in Kansas. The law was aimed squarely at Dr. George Tiller, one of the nation's fiercest defenders of late-term abortions. Sebelius said she vetoed the law because it was clearly unconstitutional and would invite frivolous lawsuits, a position that was supported by the Kansas City Star and various women's organizations. Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City--Sebelius's own bishop--saw it differently: He went public with his request that the governor refrain from presenting herself for communion. In a column in his diocesan paper, the archbishop called her behavior "scandalous" before going on to say, "The spiritually lethal message, communicated by our governor, as well as many other high-profile Catholics in public life, has been in effect: 'The church's teaching on abortion is optional.'" Sebelius did not offer any public response to the archbishop's edict.