There are thoughtful conservatives who are consistent in their beliefs. One example is Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) who while opposing abortion, also opposes the death penalty and takes no tobacco money. Congressman Peter King (R-NY) is similarly consistent. More often than not, however, this is the exception, not the rule.

Unlike either Congressmen Smith or King, the Catholic poster child for religious hypocrisy is the aforementioned US Senator, Rick Santorum (R-Pa).  Now the junior senator from the Keystone State is set to be one of the featured speakers for the upcoming Justice Sunday III set to take place Sunday, January 8th.

Senator Santorum's appearance serves two purposes: first, to help save his floundering reelection campaign (he now running behind the probable Democratic nominee, Bob Casey); and secondly to position himself for a run at the 2008 Presidential GOP nomination. As a Catholic he is attempting to build evangelical support.

Santorum's basis for reaching out to this socially conservative religious constituency is that he is "pro-life." His opposition to abortion, artificial birth control and embryonic stem cell research is well known. But what is not so well known is that there is a limit to his pro-life activities.

During the period from 1993 through 2004 the "pro-life" senator accepted $67,500 in tobacco industry campaign PAC contributions. 1

Taking tobacco money certainly isn't pro-life! Doesn't smoking harm the fetus? And while he opposes embryonic stem cell research (supported by the Presbyterian Church, USA, Church of England, United Church of Christ, all three branches of Judaism, Islam a well the majority of American Catholics) which may someday cure disease, Senator Santorum furthers big tobacco's agenda whose product clearly causes disease.

Perhaps it is his ambiguous association with the ultra-conservative Catholic organization, Opus Dei prevents that Catholic leadership such as Richard M. Doerflinger, the Deputy Director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from ever chastising him for taking this blood money.

Senator Santorum has also been one of the leaders in the quest to privatize Social Security and hand it over to his friends on Wall Street. Well informed economists such as Paul Krugman and Peter Orzag have documented how privatization will bankrupt the system, not save it. Money that is now used for benefits payments would instead go for investment fees. Senator Santorum's actions tell us that his primary concern is not with the vulnerable, the widowed or disabled, but with patrons of unbridled self-interest such as Wall Street investor Mallory Factor 3

What makes the hypocrisy harder to swallow is that many "traditional" Catholics 3 such as Senator Santorum are the very same folks who are cutting gapping holes in the nation's safety net. He has also tried to emasculate labor unions with large Catholic memberships. He seeks to legislate and promulgate administrative regulations that relax worker safety standards and gut environmental protection policies: all for the sole purpose of increasing profit. And in doing so, the Church undermines the whole Catholic concept of community.

Senator Santorum once gushed that he regards George W. Bush as "the first Catholic president of the United States."

Perhaps someone should remind the junior Senator from Pennsylvania of President Bush's 2000 campaign visit to that ardent bastion of Catholic theology, Bob Jones University. 4

But then again, only a hypocrite could make such a claim.

Footnotes:
  1. Source: opensecrets.org
  2. See-"The AMT For Bush's America," posted July 25, 2005, Link: http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/politics/national/features/12265/index4.html
  3. This is a commly used code term usually meaning Opus Dei or some other fringe membership.
  4. National Catholic Reporter, January 18, 2002. Link: http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/011802/011802f.htm