Nation: The House: Matters of Morality

Fighting the Church

When the Vatican ordered Massachusetts Democrat Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest, to withdraw from public office last May, 15 politicians lunged for his seat in Congress. By August, polls indicated that Barney Frank, 40, a Harvard-educated former aide to Boston Mayor Kevin White and a popular state legislator for eight years, was the clear favorite. Frank had been endorsed by Drinan and Senator Edward Kennedy. Moreover, voters in the largely liberal district, which includes wealthy Boston suburbs and factory towns in central Massachusetts, liked the rumpled candidate's advocacy of more public spending on mass transit, senior citizens' programs, and housing for the poor.

But the district is also heavily Catholic. On the Sunday before last week's primary, priests in the Boston-area Catholic churches read a pastoral letter from Humberto Cardinal Medeiros. Proclaimed the archbishop: "Those who make abortion possible by law cannot separate themselves from the guilt which accompanies this horrendous crime and deadly sin." His targets were two front runners who had been outspokenly liberal on abortion: first-term incumbent Congressman James Shannon, a Catholic, in the Fifth District, northwest of Boston,* and Frank, a Jew, in the Fourth District, who is a strong supporter of the ERA and equal rights for homosexuals, as well as public financing of abortions for poor women. His chief opponent, six-term Waltham Mayor Arthur Clark, a Catholic, had staunchly opposed abortions and had received heavy financial support from anti-abortion groups. Said Clark: "The church has the right to step in because there is an erosion of moral fiber in this country."

But others in the Boston area were upset with Medeiros for having crossed the line between church and state. When Worcester's Monsignor Leo Battista and 29 other Catholic clergymen asked Drinan to withdraw his endorsement of Frank, the priest refused. He warned the hierarchy that it risked damaging the church by involving itself in the race. Said he: "The authority of the church in parts of this district is dreadful."

Despite the clergy's opposition, Frank won the nomination by a slim margin of 4,499 votes. More than half of his support came from the richer and less Catholic eastern end of the district. Said Frank: "I sometimes felt as though I was wrestling a tag team, with different people coming into the ring against me." Winning the district's Democratic nomination is usually tantamount to election. Moreover, Frank's Republican opponent is little known: retired Army Dentist Richard Jones, 45, a conservative from the town of Harvard, who opposes gun control and federal funding of abortions. But Frank intends to take no chances, and will run flat out. The conservatives' tag game almost worked last week—and in one of the most liberal districts in the country.

Tucking Tail and Running Claude ("Buddy") Leach's political future looked bleak indeed after he narrowly won his congressional seat in Louisiana's Fourth District two years ago. He was subsequently indicted for buying votes in both the primary and general elections. A total of 35 people have been convicted in the scandal, including the mayor of Leach's home town of Leesville, but Leach was acquitted.