Santorum’s selective invitations to catechism
Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum makes no effort to hide the fact that he’s a devout Roman Catholic. What’s interesting, though, is that he’s taken to organizing classes on Catholic doctrine for members of Congress in his private office.
Santorum has brought in the Rev. Michael Sliney, a local priest, to oversee the course, which seeks to broaden the members’ understanding of Catholicism during the weeks leading up to Easter.
“It’s one of the great things,” Santorum said in a telephone interview, when asked why he had organized the course. “We have great freedom of religion. It’s an opportunity [to worship] for those in a tough town in a place that can in a sense drive you to things that are not consistent with your faith. Having a little support group is a good thing.”
In a February letter inviting a select group of members to attend the courses, Santorum wrote, “I believe that this will be a great opportunity to discuss our faith and to create greater unity between the Catholic members of the House and Senate.”
On its face, I don’t have a problem with any of this. Santorum is using his office as he wishes — in this case, for a course on his faith, the creed, the sacraments, the Ten Commandments, etc. It’s a private/voluntary matter, which doesn’t seem to conflict with church-state separation at all.
The odd part, however, is Santorum’s guest list.
Among those invited is Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), a former Protestant whom Santorum helped convert. Other Republican senators invited are Mel Martinez (Fla.), John Ensign (Nev.), Mike DeWine (Ohio), George Voinovich (Ohio), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Pete Domenici (N.M.), John Sununu (N.H.) and Jim Bunning (Ky.).
The invited House members are Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), whom Santorum credits with starting the group, Lincoln Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Mike Ferguson (N.J.), Devin Nunes (Calif.), Melissa Hart (Pa.) and Rick Renzi (Ariz.).
I’ll give you one guess as to what all 16 of these lawmakers have in common.
They’re all Republicans.
Santorum’s committed to creating “greater unity” for Catholic lawmakers, discussing Catholic issues, and offering support to one another, but if Catholic Dems are looking for an invitation, they’d be wise not to hold their breath.
As a friend of mine put it:
Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, when told about the course, said he normally would not be too alarmed about members’ practicing religion in the Capitol. Nevertheless, he said, “This is headed up by Senator Santorum, who has repeatedly attacked the separation of church and state and seems to believe that it’s perfectly permissible for him to base public policy on his ultra-conservative religious beliefs.”
“Everyone invited is a Republican,” he continued. “If this is about faith, and not politics, some Democrats would be invited to come along.”
Congress is filled with Catholic Democrats in both chambers. In fact, some of the caucus’ most high-profile members — John Kerry, Dick Durbin, Nancy Pelosi — are Catholic, but are not invited to Santorum’s catechism.
When asked why only Catholic Republicans were invited, Santorum said he only reached out to “sort of a handful of folks on our side.”
It just goes to show what Republican partisanship has come to. For years, lawmakers have gotten together for religious gatherings — prayer meetings have been especially common — but they’ve always been bi-partisan. Historically, it’s supposed to have been an area in which your party takes a back seat to your faith tradition. As is often the case with Santorum, it’s party first.
There’s been a certain political culture in Washington for decades that has encouraged cooperation and cordiality across the aisle. It seems Republicans have gone out of their way to scrutinize that culture … and destroy it.