In this election year, the matter of Catholic politicians who do not subscribe to the Church's pro-life stance on abortion has come to the forefront. It has become an issue largely because John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for president, is a Catholic politician who does not subscribe to the Church's pro-life position. The issue has become prominent in South Dakota as well, because these Catholic politicians include Senator Tom Daschle, who in 2002 sent out a fundraising letter on behalf of NARAL. This is a sea-change in Daschle's position on abortion, as he ran as a pro-life Democrat in 1978 (when he said "I am opposed to abortion. I do not support it. I have never supported it. It is an abhorrent practice. As a citizen and as a lifelong member of the Catholic faith I will do everything in my power to persuade others that abortion is wrong") and 1986 (when he said "I am unalterably opposed to abortion on demand"). In this election year, Daschle has been trying to have it both ways on the issue of abortion, as observed in a story last spring by Bob Mercer for the Aberdeen American News headlined "Anti-abortion group criticizes Daschle: Senate minority leader under fire for voting both for, against fetal rights."
Last week, Bishop Robert Carlson of the Sioux Falls Diocese published an article in the "Bishop's Bulletin" headlined "The responsibility to have a well informed faith life" declaring the following:
[Y]ou cannot vote for a politician who is pro-abortion when you have a choice and remain a Catholic in good standing....In the Diocese of Sioux Falls, those who act in defiance of these fundamental principles of life should not be honored or invited to speak at Catholic colleges, schools or parishes, or hold any office such as lector, Eucharist Minister, usher, parish council member or religious education teacher.
This passage means that the Bishop of Senator Daschle's home diocese has ordered parishoniers not to vote for him, and that Senator Daschle cannot speak at Catholic colleges, schools or parishes. While this is an extremely controversial and newsworthy event, there has not been anything reported about it in the pages of the Argus Leader at the time of this writing.
What is so interesting about this issue is that it in many ways is history repeating itself. While researching the papers of Senator George McGovern, I discovered a memo dated April 24, 1979 written by a McGovern staffer named Cindy Kranz to another McGovern staffer named Judy Harrington. The memo relayed sensitive information overheard by David Kranz on the issue of the Catholic Church and its opposition to the pro-choice position of Senator McGovern, who was worried that the issue would sink his reelection bid in 1980. David Kranz, of course, is the current dean of South Dakota political reporters who at that time was the managing editor for the Mitchell Daily Republic. Cindy Kranz is David Kranz's sister.
The memo in question has the initials "GVC" scrawled in handwriting above the text, which are the initials of George V. Cunningham, who was McGovern's chief of staff. Beside the initials is scrawled the word "WOW!" indicating that the contents of the memo were a big deal to the higher ranking staffers for McGovern.
The text of the memo details how David Kranz overheard a conversation in the Mitchell Holiday Inn between two priests discussing strategy on McGovern and abortion, subsequently approached Bishop Dudley (the bishop of the Sioux Falls diocese at that time) about it, and then passed the information gleaned on to the McGovern staff. Kranz then wrote a story for the MDR which included a purported quote from the Bishop asking people "not to involve themselves with politics and personalities" regarding the abortion issue. The story was then picked up by the AP wire. You can read the pdf copy of the memo as well as the attached background story on why the priests were at the Mitchell Holiday Inn by clicking HERE. Excerpt from the memo:
While removing his coat, [David Kranz] overheard two priests talking, one of whom he recognized as Father James Wolf, Holy Name Church, Watertown. The other one was younger with a beard. They mentioned McGovern and the pro-life people and the younger one told Wolf they have to sit back and take stock of the situation before they do anything as a unit. At that point, my brother pretended to make a phone call to overhear the rest. It sounded as though they had discussed the situation in some committee meeting and finally the younger priest convinced Wolf that they shouldn't be too hasty about their plans.With a chuckle, I commented to Dave that I should have "worked the meeting." He said he finished it for me. He talked to Bishop Dudley about the conversation and Dudley was just shocked and wanted to know who the priests were, but my brother kept his sources. Dudley said that the subject has never come up in this meeting or any committee meetings. He said he has written letters to the priests about pro-life, but is upset because the church is being misunderstood-by its own people, also. He says their goal is to advance life and not to mention or endorse any candidates toward that end. Although he said he cannot control what individual priests do on the altar, he will not issue any memo or mention any names when it comes down to elections. And, he will not encourage any such actions.
(Emphases added.) This memo indicates that Kranz was working as a McGovern operative, gathering and passing along intelligence to the McGovern campaign. He even tells the McGovern campaign who his sources are, but refuses to tell Bishop Dudley. As the memo states, the McGovern staffer wanted to "work the meeting" but David Kranz told the staffer that "he finished it for me." This behavior brings to mind a quote from a former lieutenant governor of South Dakota that "when George McGovern sneezes, it's Dave Kranz who catches the cold."
Four months later, Kranz wrote a story on the issue of abortion and McGovern that appeared in the September 6 Mitchell Daily Republic. The AP picked up the story and beamed it around the state. The Kranz story ran in the September 7 edition of the Argus Leader under the headline "Dudley: 'Baby killer' tacky pro-life tactic." The story quoted Bishop Dudley to the effect that people ought not involve themselves with politics and personalities on abortion. You can read a pdf copy of the AP story, along with an attached correction (to be explained below) by clicking HERE. Excerpt:
The proclamation by the Life Amendment Political Action group that Sen. George McGovern and other U.S. senators are "baby killers" does not meet with the approval of Bishop Paul Dudley of the Sioux Falls Catholic Diocese....Bishop Dudley said he was writing a letter to all clergy in his diocese asking the people of the parishes to treat the matter "with kindness and love" and not to involve themselves with politics and personalities.
The story caused an uproar. First, Kranz had mistakenly attributed the "baby killer" quote to the Life Amendment Political Action Committee. In fact, the quote had been made by "Americans for Life" which had no connection with South Dakota pro-life organizations. A curt correction was run the next day by the AP:
The Associated Press erroneously reported September 5 that the Life Amendment Political Action group had referred to Sen. George McGovern and others as baby-killers. The group which made the statement is known as Americans for Life.
Second, Bishop Dudley claimed to have been misquoted in the story by Kranz. Shortly after the publication of the AP story, the South Dakota Right to Life organization published an article in its newsletter headlined "Bishop Dudley Urges Political Involvement." You can read a pdf copy of the article by clicking HERE. The article included a letter Bishop Dudley had written in response to the AP story, which is excerpted below:
A recent AP news article has given rise to misunderstanding of my message on political involvement in the Right-to-Life issue. The article stated that I asked people "not to involve themselves with politics and personalities." That was misleading. I did state that I was writing to our priests and urging them to keep politics and personalities of politicians out of the pulpit. At the same time, I urged priests to motivate our people to fulfill their duties as citizens by getting involved in the political process.
Kranz was inaccurately quoting organizations and priests in his zeal to protect McGovern's political vulnerability on the issue of abortion. The Right to Life newsletter's article goes on to quote a letter to the publisher of the Mitchell Daily Republic and all daily newspaper editors written by the state coordinator of the Life Amendment Political Action Committee, which reads as follows:
This act of irresponsible journalism has had a devastating effect upon many people in the state of South Dakota. Attempts at correction have been spotty at best and unsatisfactory. Even the most concerted efforts at correction would never completely overcome the damaging effect of such careless reporting. One cannot be certain that the corrections reached everyone who heard or read the original report; and even if they could there is the overriding influence of first impressions.It is hoped that Mr. Kranz will be informed of the seriousness of his act and reprimanded for such careless journalism.
Clearly, Kranz was making efforts to undermine conservative politicians and enhance the prospects of liberal politicians twenty years ago, and continues to do much the same thing today. This past Sunday, Kranz wrote a column on the tiff between Native American activist Russell Means and John Thune. Of course, Kranz never wrote anything at length about Russell Means' endorsement of Thune last winter. Kranz's rich history of bias continues unabated.
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