BOSTON — Just as bishops start cracking down on the Catholic politicians whose votes protect abortion laws, a Catholic abortion-supporter has become one of the leading candidates for president.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's victories in nearly all of the Democratic primaries in Arizona, Delaware, Missouri as of Feb. 9 placed him as the front-runner among the Democratic candidates vying to face off against President Bush in November.

In his 2003 book, A Call to Service: My Vision for a Better America, Kerry says he is a “believing and practicing Catholic, married to another believing and practicing Catholic.”

Yet Kerry supports all forms abortion, including partial-birth abortion. Six times, he was faced with legislation that would outlaw the procedure in which a doctor kills a baby with scissors as the baby is being born. Six times, he voted to keep the procedure legal. Kerry has promised that, if he becomes president, he will only appoint Supreme Court justices who support abortion.

“If you believe that choice is a constitutional right, and I do, and if you believe that Roe v. Wade is the embodiment of that right … I will not appoint a justice to the Supreme Court of the United States who will undo that right,” Kerry said in January while campaigning in New Hampshire.

NARAL Pro-Choice America has described Kerry as having a 100% pro-abortion voting record, and Kerry hired NARAL's vice president as his communications adviser.

Catholic pro-life leaders say Kerry should choose one or the other: abortion-support, or his faith. “Many men and women, in many races throughout the nation during Election 2004, claim to be Catholic and want to keep abortion legal,” said Father Frank Pavone, executive director of Priests for Life. “The two claims are as irreconcilable as claiming to be Catholic and not believing in God.”

Father Pavone pointed to the U.S. Catholic bishops’ 1998 document, “Living the Gospel of Life.”

“We at Priests for Life, and I personally, will not tire of repeating all year long what the bishops declared: ‘Catholic public officials who disregard Church teaching on the inviolability of the human person indirectly collude in the taking of innocent life. … No public official, especially one claiming to be a faithful and serious Catholic, can responsibly advocate for or actively support direct attacks on innocent human life.’”

Based on Kerry's record, John-Henry Westen, editor of LifeSiteNews.com, described the senator as “a textbook pro-abortion Catholic.”

Kerry has his Catholic supporters. It was widely reported that a majority of those voting for him in the New Hampshire primary were Catholic.

“We believe that we can make a positive impact if we address the conditions that cause women to consider abortions,” said Ono Ekeh, a small-business owner who has organized a Catholics for Kerry group online. “I believe if women's issues were addressed adequately, such as child care, economic empowerment, domestic violence, health care and the like, that would positively impact the percentage of abortions considered or performed.”

But Father Frank Pavone says that next to the right to life, other issues pale. “The fundamental human right is to life — from the moment of conception until death. It is the source of all other rights.”

Ekeh, of Waldorf, Md., also argued that “Kerry is consistent in keeping his personal faith separate from his public duties as a legislator. We have to remember that this is not the Catholic Republic of America.”

Frank Pavone quotes Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput in response to that argument. “John Kennedy promised a group of Protestant ministers that he would-n't let his Catholic faith interfere with his service as president if he got elected,” wrote Archbishop Chaput. “I think all Americans — not just Catholics — have been paying for that mistake for 40 years.”

Kerry describes his Catholicism as having three particular implications that bear upon his candidacy. In his book he describes them as: “Our obligation to love God with all our hearts, souls and minds and to love our neighbors as ourselves”; his commitment to “equal rights and social justice”; and the “constitutional principle of the separation of church and state.”

Princeton Professor Robert George argued in his recent Register interview that the Church/state principle doesn't keep a Catholic from following Church teaching. “There is no conflict between the two. Properly interpreted, there is nothing in the Constitution that a Catholic should reject.”

Speaking specifically of abortion, he said, “Those constitutional doctrines that are incompatible with Catholic faith have been manufactured by willful judges.”

Benedictine Father Matthew Habinger, director of Human Life International, said the faith actually helps a politician.

“A Catholic politician should have a keen sense of morality. He or she naturally looks to the Church for moral guidance. The Church is a universal teacher, and proclaims the truth about human dignity and human rights everywhere in the world. She only proposes the truth; she does not impose it. But when dealing with her own sons and daughters, she expects that basic moral truths are firmly grasped and that basic human values are respected.

“How can a Catholic vote for abortion, or slavery, or discrimination against any grouping of people? If all human life is sacred, then how can a Catholic politician turn against it at any stage?”

Bishops React

Kerry's position has also come under fire by U.S. bishops.

During Kerry's campaigning in Missouri, St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said if Kerry were to present himself for Communion, he would deny him.

“I would have to admonish him not to present himself for Communion,” Archbishop Burke told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I might give him a blessing or something. If his archbishop has told him he should not present himself for Communion, he shouldn't. I agree with [Boston] Archbishop [Sean] O'Malley.”

“The archbishop has the right to deny Communion to whomever he wants, but Sen. Kerry respectfully disagrees with him on the issue of choice,” said Kim Molstre, a Kerry campaign spokeswoman.

Last summer, Archbishop O'Malley released a statement saying that a Catholic politician who supports abortion should not receive Communion. He did not, however, bar priests from giving it.

Late last month, Archbishop O'Malley told LifeSiteNews.com, “These politicians should know that if they're not voting correctly on these life issues than they shouldn't dare come to Communion.”

Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.