I've already commented on the attempts of some Catholic bishops to dictate their morality on American voters and elected Catholic officials. However, in doing some research I was reviewing Brian Meyer and Mary Murray compiled a book of quotations of Mario Cuomo entitled Quotable Cuomo which I read some years back. I was reminded of the attacks made on then New York governor Cuomo by New York City’s Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Austin Vaughn in 1990. Governor Cuomo refused to ask for a constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion. Bishop Vaughn attacked him saying he was a "Sunday Catholic" who risked going "straight to hell if he dies tonight" for his pro choice stance on abortion. These statements were typical of the rhetoric involved in attacking Cuomo by the Catholic bishop and other Catholic religious leaders. I was impressed with Cuomo’s response. He said:

"I accept the Catholic teaching on abortion…the question is, why am I required to ask for a constitutional amendment…? I’m not required to do that. I’m not required, because I’m a Catholic to make everybody else Catholic by passing a law. I’m not required to use politics to achieve what the church cannot achieve through the pulpit…I am the governor of all the people and I think it is not my place to try to convert all of them to Catholicism and insist that they live the ay I believe I privately should live."

In 1984 he had given a talk at the University of Notre Dame where he said in part:

"I believe I have a … mission as a Catholic. Does that mean I am in conscience required to do everything I can as governor to translate all my religious values into laws and regulations of the state of New York or the United States or be branded a hypocrite if I don’t? …I accept the church’s teaching on abortion. Must I insist you do? By law?

Many of us remember John F. Kennedy’s famous speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association September 12, 1960. He said in part:

"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute–where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote–where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference–and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish–where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source–where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials–and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all."

I am in complete agreement with John Kenndy's views. It is unfortunate that judgmental Bishops think they have the right to impose their morality on elected officials political choices in carrying out their sworn duty to represent all the citizens in our pluralistic society. The founders of this country were determined to escape state imposed religions and religious rules on citizens. As a Catholic I believe the Bishops who are guilty of trying to dictate their religious morality to American elected officials violate this sacred principle. I believe it is entirely consistent with Catholic teaching to respect considered and studied individual freedom of conscience. I believe it is Un-American for any religion to dicate the freedom of vote in America.