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Category: Education Content: GOP urges Catholics to shun Kerry By Michael Kranish, Boston Globe Staff | September 26, 2004 WASHINGTON -- The Republican Party is attempting to convince Roman Catholics that Democratic nominee John F. Kerry is "wrong for Catholics" and at odds with his church..... Earlier this month, a nonprofit organization called Priests for Life announced a $1 million campaign, including television commercials, aimed at persuading voters to support candidates who oppose abortion. Another nonprofit, Catholic Answers, is issuing millions of voter guides that list five "nonnegotiable" issues for Catholic voters: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and "homosexual marriage." ...... In addition to the jabs at Kerry's stand on Catholic issues, the GOP has been pursuing a controversial program of asking church members to provide membership lists in an effort to register more churchgoers, whom the party believes are more likely to support President Bush...... Monsignor Francis Maniscalco, spokesman for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said a parish that formally provides a mailing list to the Republican National Committee would endanger its nonprofit status because that is "a valuable property which would be considered a contribution." But Maniscalco said, "this advice is not applicable to individual parishioners." A GOP memo urging collection of church directories has been published on the website of the National Catholic Reporter. It quotes an official of the Republican Party's Catholic Outreach as writing: "Access to these directories is critical as it allows us to identify and contact those Catholics who are likely to be supportive of President Bush's compassionate conservative agenda. Please forward any directories you are able to collect to my attention. . . . It is critically important in the 2004 election that faithful Catholics turn out to vote in record number." A Republican National Committee official verified the quotation is accurate. "It is outrageous that they organize by asking for church membership lists," Meehan said. Gillespie, the committee chairman, confirmed that the GOP is trying to collect church membership lists from members. "There has always been an ongoing effort to get whatever lists we can," Gillespie said. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/09/26/gop_urges_catholics_to_shun_kerry/ Locally, WBUR reports efforts to register Catholics by church activists and get them to vote for Catholic positions Monica Brady Myerov Go to wbur.org, for Monday, September 27 to listen to Catholic Voting Power Raymond Flynn calling on Catholics to join Catholic Citizenship, a Boston area activist group establishing a network of parish public policy groups, educating them on issues, urging them to vote a Catholic conscience.