Bush pitches for Catholic vote

HERSHEY, Pa. — President Bush yesterday met with Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, as he continued his election pitch to the nation’s 65 million Catholic voters.

With Catholics making up more than 25 percent of the electorate — including large populations in the battleground states Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Florida and Ohio — Mr. Bush is seeking to increase his share of that vote, which he lost to Vice President Al Gore in 2000 by three percentage points.

“If you win Pennsylvania Catholics, you win the state and probably the election,” said Terry Madonna, a pollster with Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. He said Catholics make up as much as 40 percent of the state’s voters, and a majority voted in 2000 for Mr. Gore, who won the pivotal state by 4.2 percentage points.

Mr. Bush, a Methodist, has made 41 trips to Pennsylvania, including several stops in and around Philadelphia and its suburbs, home to 1.5 million Catholics.

He met yesterday for 30 minutes with Cardinal Rigali in a church rectory in Downingtown, Pa. White House spokesman Scott McClellan would say only that the pair “had a good discussion about shared priorities.”

Just this month, Cardinal Rigali said in a homily that Catholics have “a duty and responsibility” to vote for candidates who “hold with our Catholic teaching that respecting all life from conception to a natural death is inviolable.”

Although he did not name Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, who is Catholic, the line was clearly aimed at the pro-choice candidate.

The Massachusetts senator rarely discusses abortion, but during the Oct. 8 presidential debate, he said he “can’t take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn’t share that article of faith, whether they be agnostic, atheist, Jew, Protestant, whatever. I can’t do that.”

Mr. Bush has begun to emphasize his conservative social stances, which resonate with religious voters.

A rally yesterday at Hershey Park, which drew more than 23,000 supporters covered in plastic ponchos to protect against a cold drizzle, had a strong religious flavor, from Christian rock bands to an opening prayer in which a local pastor called on “heaven to shine down upon President Bush.”

“In changing times, we will support the institutions that give our lives direction and purpose: Our families, our schools, our religious congregations,” Mr. Bush said to cheers from supporters packed into a football stadium. “We stand for a culture of life, in which every person matters and every being counts. We stand for marriage and family, which are the foundation of our society.”

Mr. Bush also painted his opponent as out of the mainstream on religious issues, whose “words are a little muddy, but his record is pretty clear.”

“He says he supports the institution of marriage, but he voted against the Defense of Marriage Act.” The crowd booed loudly.

“He voted against the ban on the brutal practice of partial-birth abortion.” The crowd booed even more loudly.

Mr. Bush has made an effort to win the support of more than 4 million evangelicals who opted not to go to the polls in 2000. Throughout his term, he also has met with prominent Catholics, including three times with Pope John Paul II.

The candidates are running even among all Catholics, according to national polls, although Mr. Bush leads among white Catholics. Democrats carried the Catholic vote in the past three elections, narrowly in 2000 and handily in 1996 and 1992.

Mr. Kerry, the first Catholic candidate for president since John F. Kennedy in 1960, is being hammered by conservative Catholics, some of whom have sought to have him excommunicated for his pro-choice stance on abortion.

Yesterday, five swing state newspapers published a full-page ad, “An Open Letter from Fellow Catholics to John Kerry,” in which other Catholic elected officials and voters chide Mr. Kerry.

The ad, funded by the Bush-Cheney campaign, is running in midsized newspapers with strong Catholic readership in Pennsylvania, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Florida.