Religious Leaders Reject Charges of Anti-Catholicism
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 8/6/2003
Religious leaders and two Senators dismissed the idea that a "religious litmus-test" was applied to judicial nominee William Pryor. Following the contentious vote on Pryor's nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) charged Democrats with opposing Pryor's nomination due to his religious beliefs on matters such as choice and the death penalty.A conservative organization followed the charge with newspaper advertisements in Maine and Rhode Island showing a sign reading "Catholics Need Not Apply" on doors labeled "Judicial Chambers."
Responding to the accusation, the Interfaith Alliance sponsored a forum including Father Robert F. Drinan; Right Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon, a retired Episcopal Bishop; Rabbi Jack Moline; and Rev. Carlton Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
Referring to the controversy over Pryor's nomination, President of the Interfaith Alliance Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy insisted "the issue is not religion but the Constitution."
Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), both Catholics, noted that Pryor's right-wing extremism spurred the opposition to his nomination. Leahy called Republicans' anti-Catholic charge a "smear," contradicted by the many Roman Catholics among the 140 nominees the Senate Democrats had already approved.
Citing the separation of church and state in the Bill of Rights, Moline said it "behooves both the Senators and the nominees they examine to respect the values on which this country was founded."
Leahy and Durbin have proposed a new committee rule that would forbid any questions about nominees' faiths.
