Torture and Catholics

The National Catholic Reporter of March 24, 2006 http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2006a/032406/032406h.htm reports on a

Pew Center survey:

   

Survey by Pew Research Center       for the People & the Press Oct. 12-24, 2005; nationwide survey conducted   among 2,006 adults

Do you   think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain   important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely   be justified, or never be justified?

 

                                   

	Total public	Total Catholic
Often   Sometimes   Rarely   Never   Don’t know/refused	15%   31%   17%   32%   5%	21%   35%   16%   26%   4%
	White Protestant	White evangelical
Often   Sometimes   Rarely   Never   Don’t know/refused	15%   34%   16%   31%   4%	13%   36%   16%   31%   4%
	Secular
Often   Sometimes   Rarely   Never   Don’t know/refused	10%   25%   16%   41%   4%

Tom Carney writing for NCR states: “But the portion of Catholics who justify torture is even higher, according to the survey [than the general public]. Twenty-one percent of Catholics surveyed said it is “often” justified and 35 percent said it is “sometimes” justified. Another 16 percent said it is “rarely” justified, meaning that nearly three of four Catholics justify it under some circumstances. Four percent of Catholics “didn’t know” or refused to answer and only 26 percent said it is “never” justified, which is the official teaching of the church.”

I think it entirely possible that George Bush won the last election because people felt safer under him than they would have under John Kerry. A part of that perception of safety was that Bush was willing to torture. Note that John Kerry did not raise torture as an election issue, a likely sign that he knew it would have cost him votes. In other words, torture was a plus for George Bush. If you believe in using the Eucharist as a stick (I do not), I do not see why a politician’s endorsement of torture should not qualify as specially ignominious.