For Immediate Release
September 20, 2004 |
Media Contact:
Michelle Ringuette
+1 (202) 986 6093;
+1 (202) 550 1321 |
Catholics for a Free Choice Files IRS Complaint Against Catholic
Answers’ Partisan Voting Guide
Antichoice group violates election law with biased
voter guide
Statement of Frances Kissling, President, Catholics for a Free Choice
Washington, DC—Catholics for a Free Choice today filed
a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service against Catholic Answers,
Inc. for
blatant violation of its charitable status. CFFC called on the IRS
to exercise its “authority to revoke the tax-exempt status
of Catholic Answers and bring an action to enjoin this organization
from
again distributing this guide through national newspaper advertisements
in October.”
On August 31, 2004, the antichoice group published
an ad containing the text of its Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics
in regional editions of USA Today. In the ad, Catholic Answers called
on readers
to “eliminate from consideration candidates who are wrong on
any of the five ‘non-negotiable’ issues” and called
for readers to give a tax-deductible donation to help distribute the
voter guide. Catholic Answers derives the “five non-negotiable
issues” from a selective interpretation of Catholic doctrine
and instructs Catholic voters “how to vote.”
Additional evidence shows that this guide targets at least one specific
candidate: Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry. Karl Keating’s
E-Letter of April 13, 2004 states Kerry “flunks the test given
in Catholic Answers’ Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics:
He is wrong on all five ‘non-negotiable’ issues listed
there.” This egregious violation of US tax laws, which prohibit
charitable organizations from endorsing or opposing candidates for
public office, is the latest example of a vicious campaign by various
tax-exempt organizations opposed to abortion rights and, by extension,
candidates who support these rights.
During this presidential campaign, antichoice activists and organizations
have violated both the letter and the spirit of the law. CFFC regularly
monitors comments and activities of these organizations to protect
the integrity of the election law. As a result, CFFC filed a complaint
in May against Operation Rescue West for running an ad in an ultra-conservative
national Catholic weekly that asked readers to make a contribution
to help “defeat [John Kerry] in November and enable President
Bush to appoint a pro-life Supreme Court Justice to finally overturn
Roe v. Wade.” Operation Rescue West cited the statements of several
cardinals and bishops who have attacked Catholic politicians for their
support of a woman’s right to choose and invited the support
of readers as they are “going into the middle of a war in Boston” – the
ad ran on the eve of the Democratic convention in Boston.
Electioneering by antichoice groups, and even the Catholic bishops,
is especially high this presidential campaign with bishops actively
opposing Sen. John Kerry. In May 2004, Americans United for Separation
of Church and State filed a complaint with the IRS against Bishop Michael
Sheridan of the Colorado Springs diocese in Colorado. While a handful
of bishops have issued statements threatening to deny prochoice Catholic
politicians communion, Bishop Sheridan issued the most wide-reaching
statement to date when he said he would deny communion to both prochoice
Catholic politicians AND Catholics who vote for candidates who are
prochoice.
The Catholic church, along with other religious institutions, is a tax-exempt
charitable organization. In return for that exemption, religious institutions
agree to neither explicitly nor implicitly endorse nor oppose any specific
candidate for elected office.
Numerous polls of Catholic attitudes have shown that the positions taken
by these groups are not mainstream Catholic positions. The most recent,
a June 2004 poll of 2,239 Catholics by Belden Russonello & Stewart
and commissioned by CFFC, showed that 83 percent of respondents believe
that Catholic politicians are not religiously obliged to vote on issues
the way bishops recommend and 61 percent of Catholics support legal abortion.
Charitable status is a privilege, not a right. Organizations are free
to educate their members and the public, but must do so within the legal
limits of their charitable status. Organizations even have the right to
participate in the election process if they choose to renounce their charitable
status. What they are not free to do is flout the federal statutes and
IRS regulations that govern all charities by endorsing or targeting candidates
during an election year.
Catholics for a Free Choice has called on the IRS to investigate Catholic
Answers’ direct engagement in political activity and to consider
revoking the tax-exempt status of this and any other organization that
violates the law.
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Catholics for a Free Choice is a non-partisan organization. We do
not support or oppose candidates for public office. CFFC shapes and
advances
sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflect a
commitment to women’s well being, and respect and affirm the moral
capacity of women and men to make sound decisions about their lives.
Through discourse,
education, and advocacy, CFFC works in the US and internationally to
infuse these values into public policy, community life, feminist analysis,
and
Catholic social thinking and teaching.