SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Many Catholics sum up the recall election this way: California rejected one pro-abortion Catholic and replaced him with another.

But a priest who knows him holds out hope that Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger will have a change of heart.

Polls suggest that it was the budget that turned voters against Gov. Gray Davis in California's Oct. 7 recall election. Davis was in trouble with his bishop over his radical support for almost any abortion.

Schwarzenegger, an immigrant and actor, is a somewhat less pro-abortion Catholic. Schwarzenegger is against partial-birth abortion and supports parental notification for minors seeking abortion.

A priest in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles who knows Schwarzenegger said he might be swayed on issues of abortion.

This priest, who asked that his name not be used, said that the governor-elect is a regular fixture at Mass on Sundays -raising questions about Catholic pro-abortion politicians that the Vatican and the U.S. bishops are starting to address more vigorously (see page 7).

Schwarzenegger's fellow parishioner Bill Simon, a pro-life Catholic, ran against Gray Davis in 2002 and in the recall, before pulling out of the race and endorsing Schwarzenegger. He said Schwarzenegger, his wife, Maria Kennedy Shriver, and their children are regulars at Mass. “I always see them [at St. Monica's in Santa Monica] at the 9:30 a.m. childrens Mass,” Simon told the Sacramento Bee on Oct. 4.

“He, Maria and their four children are regular churchgoers,” explained the priest. “Arnold also asked a priest to dedicate his Los Angeles area campaign office when it opened, and he and his wife, Maria, worked to set up a Mass for the family on Oct. 7, the day of the election,” he added.

A large part of Schwarzenegger's religious sensibility comes from his wife, explained their priest acquaintance. And Maria Shriver's mother, Eunice Shriver, is a prominent pro-life Democrat.

“Maria has had an amazing impact on him,” the priest said. For one thing, “she has gotten him to go to church regularly.”

Schwarzenegger himself has been quick to claim his Catholic roots: “I'm Catholic. Yes, absolutely. I grew up as a Catholic,” he said in an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity cited in the Sacrament Bee.

Issues such as abortion seldom came up in the recall. And even a last minute series of attacks in the Los Angeles Times that alleged that Schwarzenegger was a serial “grop-er of women” did not derail his campaign, for it was fiscal rather than moral outrage that fueled the historic recall.

California went from a $10 billion budget surplus to a $38 billion deficit during Davis' five-year tenure. On his watch there were power outages and outrageous energy prices and a commonly held belief that political favors were for sale to the highest bidder to Davis' campaign war chest.

It was these issues, not Davis' pushing of a radical abortion and homosexual rights agenda, that were seen as the major issues that energized the usually apathetic California voters into determined “recall” voters and swept Schwarzenegger from Hollywood to Sacramento.

Though during and after the election, some expressed disappointment that Schwarzenegger is not more conservative on social issues, many hold out hope that he may be able to remove some of the tarnish from the Golden State both on fiscal issues and on those social issues of particular concern to Catholics.

“I am cautiously optimistic that he might be closer to our views than people think,” said Dan Brennan, who worked on Republican Bill Simon's campaign for governor last year and still works as a political consultant active in Sacramento.

Brennan said that rumors abound that indicate that Schwarzenegger may be a pleasant surprise, and, he pointed out, “At least he is not Davis, [who sent] out directives that are deliberately hostile to the pro-life movement.”

According to Brennan, several members of Schwarzenegger's transition team are decidedly in line with Church teaching on issues such as abortion and homosexual marriage.

Among the members of the team cited by Brennan were Simon, pro-life Catholic Dean Andal, and Rob Stutzman, director of the Protect Marriage Committee and the man who ran the successful campaign for California's Proposition 22, an initiative to have marriage legally defined as being between a man and a woman.

Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference — the voice of the Catholic bishops in the state's public policy arena — also expressed hope that Schwarzenegger and his administration will be easier to deal with than Davis was.

Dolejsi characterized the relationship between the bishops and Gov. Davis as “challenging.” Bishop William Weigand of Sacramento earlier this year urged Davis and other Catholic politicians who support legal abortion to voluntarily refrain from receiving Communion. Davis routinely and publicly flouted Church teachings and rejected attempts at dialogue by the hierarchy.

Despite the fact that Schwarzenegger has also been described as pro-abortion, Dolejsi said he was hopeful for a better future: “We hope that this governor will be more responsive in dealing with us on issues of importance such as abortion.”

Dolejsi pointed out that many of the people working for Schwarzenegger come from the administration of Davis' predecessor, Republican Pete Wilson.

Gov. Wilson, not a Catholic, clashed with the Church on abortion and immigration.

Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.