WASHINGTON — Catholic voters and other people of faith turned out in droves Nov. 2, electing pro-life President George W. Bush to a second term and telling the world that moral values were the most important issue in this year's election.

Those values ranked higher than the economy, terrorism and the war in Iraq, according to exit polls by USA Today and CNN. Twenty-two percent of voters put moral values first, with 80% of them voting for Bush and 18% supporting Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry, according to CNN.

“The issue of moral values and people who go to church regularly put George Bush over the top,” said George Marlin, author of The American Catholic Voter, a book published shortly before the election.

“Catholics said ‘values matter,’ and they were heard in this election,” he said.

Kerry conceded Nov. 3, shortly after poll results showed Bush had won the hotly contested state of Ohio.

Bush received more than 51% of the popular vote, making him the first president elected with more than half of the popular vote since his father, George H.W. Bush, was elected in 1988. He picked up 52% of the total Catholic vote to Kerry's 47%. Churchgoers who attend more than once a week backed Bush 64% to Kerry's 35%, according to CNN.

Exit polls also indicated that Catholics made up 27% of the electorate. The race was the first time a Republican presidential candidate has won the Catholic vote since 1988. Bush showed a gain in that vote since the 2000 election, when then-Vice President Al Gore won 50% of the vote and Bush won 47%.

This year's campaign, which galvanized the nation, was seen by many people as a decision about which way the country would go in terms of protecting innocent human life and families. More than 60% of registered voters cast ballots — 120 million in all. That's the highest level since 1968, according to the non-partisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate.

For the pro-life and pro-marriage movement, there were a string of victories, but some significant defeats as well. Eleven states approved amendments prohibiting same-sex unions, and Florida passed a ballot initiative requiring parental consent for a minor's abortion. But California voters decided to spend millions of dollars of taxpayers' money on embryonic stem-cell research.

In South Dakota, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a supporter of abortion rights, became the first Senate leader in half a century to lose a bid for re-election. National pro-life groups had made his defeat and the election of Republican John Thune one of their top priorities, said Joe Cella, executive director of The Ave Maria List, a Catholic political-action committee dedicated to restoring the culture of life.

“John Thune is pro-life and represents South Dakota values,” Cella said.

Thune is one of seven new pro-life senators, all Republicans: Mel Martinez of Florida, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, David Vitter of Louisiana, Richard Burr of North Carolina, TomCoburn of Oklahoma and Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

A larger Republican majority in both houses of Congress holds out hope that Bushwill have an easier time getting pro-life legislation passed and pro-life federal judges — including probable Supreme Court nominees — confirmed.

But in Pennsylvania, where 21 electoral votes went to Kerry, pro-abortion Sen. Arlen Specter was reelected to a fifth term. Specter is poised to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, giving him power to schedule hearings on nominees and influence whether a nomination makes it to the Senate floor for a vote.

“When you talk about judges who would change the right of a woman to choose, overturn Roe v. Wade, I think that is unlikely,” Specter told the Associated Press the day after Bush's re-election. Mentioning Senate Democrats' filibustering of Bush nominees during the first term, Specter said: “I would expect the president to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning.”

Kerry's Faith Exit polls also showed more Catholic support for Bush among regular attendees of Mass. Catholics who attend Mass weekly favored Bush 56% to 43%, while those who go less often gave Kerry a slight edge over the president, 50% to 49%.

Despite Kerry's loss, many of his Catholic supporters say faith shouldn't be a factor in selecting a president. Eric McFadden, an Ohio Catholic who launched CatholicsForKerry04.org, says the Massachusetts senator's Catholicism should never have been an issue.

“I don't think there's ever a ‘Catholic candidate,’” McFadden said. “He's not running for pope. He shouldn't have to wear his faith on his sleeve.”

But Marlin says Kerry didn't talk about his faith because he feared a backlash from faithful Catholics. In fact, prior to the second presidential debate, he said, only 23% of voters knew Kerry was Catholic.

“He never even tried to galvanize the Catholic vote,” Marlin said.

McFadden concedes that Republicans did a better job of connecting with Catholics. “My hat's off to the GOP,” he said. “They've been at it for four years, reaching out to Catholics and the bishops.”

The last Catholic to make a bid for the White House, John F. Kennedy, garnered 78% of the Catholic vote in 1960. McFadden says Catholics voted for Kennedy because of the hype surrounding his faith.

“We'd never had a Catholic president before and Catholics were excited about Kennedy being president — and that was pre-Roe v. Wade,” he said. “The Republicans used that wedge issue very well, and they used a handful of bishops to get that message out.”

But Cathy Cleaver Ruse, spokeswoman for the bishops' Pro-Life Secretariat, says abortion isn't a wedge issue, but a fundamental human-rights issue embraced by Catholics and other Christians across the country.

“Pope John Paul II, years ago, called abortion the greatest civil-rights issue of our day,” she said. “That has been reflected in many of the bishops' statements on the issue — the distinction of it being a matter of religious doctrine — which it's not. Rather, it's a matter of civil rights and the common good.”

Nick Thomm, a graduate of Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, agrees.

“A majority realizes where this country is headed and where issues like abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and gay ‘marriage’ will take us,” said Thomm, who produces “Kresta in the Afternoon,” a nationally syndicated Catholic radio program. “The Massachusetts decision (to legalize gay ‘marriage’) and rogue court decisions have refocused our attention on how quickly our values can be taken away from us.” Cella notes that while many political observers in the mainstream media were surprised that moral values edged out Iraq and the economy as the No. 1 issue for nearly a quarter of voters, many Christian groups expected it, he said.

“We're in a cultural war, and people are thirsting after truth in a relativistic society,” he said. “Because human life and the family are being attacked, people are eager to engage their faith in the political arena to protect these hallowed institutions.”

However, Marlin said, Catholics will have to fight to sustain those values, especially when it comes to appointments to the Supreme Court. With Chief Justice William Rehnquist suffering from thyroid cancer, many pro-life supporters are eager to see justices appointed who will strictly interpret the Constitution, he said.

“We have some tough battles on our hands,” he said. “We (prolifers) are seriously in the game, and we have a man in the White House who will not hinder us.”

Patrick Novecosky writes from Ann Arbor, Michigan.