Anti-Catholicism Charged Against US Senator

By Austin Ruse

     (NEW YORK – C-FAM) During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing held on July 19, senior Senate staffers charged that Senator Barbara Boxer's (D-Ca.) statements and demeanor exhibited a strong anti-Catholic bias. An observer of the hearing claimed that "Boxer treated the Catholic Church as if it were a peculiar cult with thirty or forty people rather than a world faith professed by more than one billion people."

     Boxer chaired the hearing on the Bush administration's reinstatement of the "Mexico City Policy," which forbids US taxpayer dollars from supporting overseas groups that promote or perform abortion. Boxer's allegedly anti-Catholic comments occurred during often-heated exchanges with Cathleen Cleaver, Director of Planning and Information, Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Cleaver testified at the hearing to explain Catholic support for the "Mexico City Policy."

     The most contentious moment came when Cleaver stated that Boxer would consider abortion a form of family planning. Boxer responded, "No, no, no, no, no. Time out. Time out. I don't tell you what you believe, and you don't tell me what I believe." Boxer also questioned if the Church was being "intellectually honest" in its support for the Mexico City Policy.

     Boxer repeatedly asked Cleaver about the Catholic Church's stance on artificial contraception. Cleaver responded, "Well, Senator Boxer, the position of the Catholic Church with regard to contraception is very clear and very well-known, artificial contraception." Boxer interrupted, "Well, I don't know, so perhaps you can enlighten me because it may have changed from when I was paying attention to it." The tone of these remarks led one observer to label the Senator's comportment toward Cleaver "rude and embarrassing."

     Boxer sought to establish that the "Mexico City Policy," what opponents call the "global gag rule," "will cause women and families increased misery and death." According to Cleaver, "The truth of the matter is poor women in developing nations are not calling for help to abort their children. They are calling for food, housing, and medicine for themselves and their children so that they can lead lives of full human dignity."

     In July, 2000, Boxer personally blocked a Senate endorsement of the Catholic Church's presence at the UN, which had passed the House of Representatives with only a single dissenting vote.

     Boxer also voiced approval for the first international homosexual celebration – World Pride 2000 – that was held in Rome during the Church's own celebration of the Jubilee Year. Boxer wrote that "I applaud this creative effort to celebrate diversity." Organizers of the event have said that they selected Rome so that "Christian pilgrims will have to share the city with gays and lesbians from Greenland to Afghanistan who are to converge on Rome to party, parade and polemicize.no wonder the Vatican is scared."

     Senate observers are increasingly concerned that Bush nominees who are practicing Catholics will not receive a fair hearing from Senator Boxer.

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