A Letter from

Is America's Greatest Arcudicxiese Really in Decline?

Thomas F, Roeser You BE the judge. An official Chicago arch- Joseph Cardinal Bernardin cautioned last Septem diocesan report notes that, of 5.6 million ber, when the report was released, that "our re people in Cook and Lakecountieswhich sources are limited.... We must dream but from constitute the archdiocese (not the entire those dreams let's come up with ideas and recom Chicagoland area, let it be noted), about 2.3 mil mendations that are practical. And if we can't do lion, or 41 percent, are Catholics. However, of the everything at one time, let's decide what steps we Z.3 million, only one-quarter attend Mass on Sun can take." day. Despite this modest (somewould say, pedestri There are 73 fewer parishes than in 1975. an) statement appended to the gloomy report. Dr. Of the 429 elementary schools in 1965, 309 re James Hitchcock of Saint Louis University, church main. Despite explosive growth in the Hispanic scholar and historian, says that Chicago's cardinal population—with basic Catholic heritage— is as effective in his way, as was James Cardinal throughout the archdiocese, enrollment of stu Gibbons of Baltimore (1834-1921). Gibbons served dents of Hispanic background in Catholic schools when many Americansfeared Catholic immigrants has remained relatively flat since 1987. as tools of a foreign prince in Rome. Denying Since 1965, enrollment in Catholic elementary claims of and-Catholics that his church was an un- schools has declinejd 6z percent; enrollment in American invader, the cardinal successfully ex high schools during |the same period declined 52 plained Rome to manyAmericans, and,conversely, percent. Only a handful of seminarians was or explained America to a late-nineteenth- and early- twentieth-centurycuria that didn't fully understand dained priests for Chicago last year. democracy. Parishes finished the year with a $12.8 million Like Gibbons, says Hitchcock, Bernardin is deficit. A pastoral center operated at more than a achieving success withexquisite subtlety butfardif $5.7 million deficitin 1992, including $1.9 million ferently. "He haspresented himself asan authentic in costs associated with alleged clerical sexual mis and at the same time 'moderate' spokesman when, conduct with minors. But, not counting the mis in fact, he basically supports the liberal agenda. conduct costs, it ran a $3.8 million deficit due to That doesn't mean I agree with Bernardin—far smaller than anticipated collections of The Cardi nal's Appeal. from it," says Hitchcock Does it mean Bernardin employs a bait-and- While the report and the video tape accompa switch in favor of liberal positions? "You could say nying it cite poverty, concentration of African- Americanpoor without Catholic heritageor funds it hke that," answers Hitchcock. to pay to church support, they do not discuss the In the past, priests avoided controversy,leaving lack of Catholic growth in the suburbs of Lake it to the laity—butnot so in Chicagotoday. At least and Cook counties, where many former city one angry pastor. Father Anthony Brankihof Saint dwellers now reside. Thomas More , has publicly denotmced litur The man responsible for the archdiocese's spir gical laxity that has gone uncorrected despite re itual and financial well-being describes the condi peatedpleasto the archdiocese. "The problem," wrote the youthful pastor in a tion of both with typical calm and understatement. communication faxed widely in Chicago, "is spiri Thomas F. Roeser is a former Fellow of the John F. tual; it is deep and profound. . . . What I mean to Kennedy School of Government, Harvard, a business sayis that for 25 yearswe have beensetspiritually executive, and columnist forthe Chicago Sun-Times. adrift by forces beyond anyone's control—certain-

July-August 1994 »«• Crisis 43 ly beyond the control ofany of us. For 25 years we now head of DePaul University's office for Com have been victimized by modernists and reformers munity Affairs, went public with his defense of who do not believe the same things you and I be Ms. Simmons. lieve—^and have always believed. "Adele Simmons is a woman of the highest in "They changed the way we worship and that ef tegrity," he wrote to the Sun-Times. Unconcerned fected a change in the way we think, the way we about MacArthur's use of a bogus Catholic orga feel, the way we believe, the way we live, and the nization to fund abortion counseling, Monsignor way in jwhich we regard the Body of Christ, the Egan instead called for a "public apology" to the Catholic Church. foundation president. "Oh it was slow; but it was sure. They told our Father George Helfrich, an erstwhile canon high sctool students they don'thave togoto Mass lawyer formerly assigned to the chancery, is now anymoije—so they don't. They told our college stu retired. Close to but not a direct participant in lib dents there were no absolute moral standards any- eral or radical priestly activism, Helfrich is a friend more^and that's the way many now live. ... of his ex-classmate Father . (Of all They hire agnostics to teach philosophy and non- these sources, I know Father Helfrich the best; he believers to teach religion in Catholic universities is not only my cousin but the family member to and seminaries. They sledge-hammered altars and whom I am closest. Our views of the Church are at remove|d statues. They tore up rosaries and called as great a variance as our tennis games: he's al Benediction*cookie worship.'... most a pro, I'm a duffer.) "I believe until we bite the bulletand finally face Father Helfrich believes that the Church has up to the spiritual chaos that has reigned for 25 hardened into two groups. The official church is years, all the financial finagling in the world will too clergy-dominated. When the pastor ripped out not soon be able to put us back together again. kneelers at one parish where Father Helfrich ".. LTuesday's newspaper had a lovely photo served—an arbitrary step unsanctioned by Church graph of a pro-abortion rally held at Loyola Uni policy—Helfrich was supportive. Kneelers mean versity under the auspices of Loyola's newly ap too deferential a supplication, he says,citing Gree- proved pro-abortion club, the Women's Center. ley's belief that our role instead should be that of Loyola? Remember Saint Ignatius? The Catholic loving children. Father Helfrich suspects church? Society ofJesus? Catholic families who Bernardin's chancery is not as supportive of dis helpedIbuild the two-campus traitor? My alma senting priests as he thinks it should be. mater?; While Bemardin has been widely criticized, it is "Arid I'll bet they have to gall to still send out commonly agreed in Chicago that the cardinal is fund-raising letters hoping to cage the last dime popular—^not because of accomplishments but for from some poor widow who thinks she's con being exonerated of a baseless charge of sexual tributing to the cause of Christ." abuse. On November 12,1993, a former seminari In contrast, there is Monsignor John J. Qack) an, Steven Cook, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Egan. An elderly priest celebrated for his early Cincinnati, allegingthat Bemardin, while archbish work in civil rights, whose years have not dimmed op there some 17 years before, had sexually his outlook on liturgical matters, Egan worked in abused him. Cook's suit, which drew national at the 1940s with the late Saul Alinsky (author of tention, was based on allegedmemoriesof abuse he Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals) in had "recovered" only a month before the suit was building urban protest organizations. He em filed. On February 28,1994, to the immense relief ployed the same technique to empower supposedly of Catholics in Chicago and elsewhere. Cook egalitarian church causes in a local version of a dropped Bemardin from the lawsuit, saying he no "Call to Action" program. Egan's objectivewas to longer trusted his own hypnotically recovered incorporate grass-roots democracy within the memories. The exoneration won widespread na church to push for far-reachingsocialand litui:gical tional praise for the cardinal, who had handled the programs. Later he helped found the Association of mortifying charges with deconmi and grace. ChicagoPriests,which censuredthe lateJohn Car Bernardin's most articulate defender i« Dr. Eu dinal Cody. gene Kennedy, in his book Cardinal Bemardin: When the MacArthur Foundation's president, Easing Conflicts and Battling for the Soul of Adele Smith Simmons, was criticized by The New American Catholicism (Bonus Books, 1989). World(Chicago'sarchdiocesannewspaper) and me Kennedy is professor of psychology at Loyola Uni (in my Chicago Sun-Times column) for contribut versity of Chicago and an ex-priest married to an ing over $i million to "Catholics for Free ex-nun. He writes that, just as New York Govemor Choice"—a pro-abortion group admittedly with Mario Cuomo, the first Italian-American to achieve out a membership roster, run by a former abortion national prominence, threads his way to publicso clinic owner who had assailed the Pope—Egan, lutions, so Bemardin, the first Italian-American to

44 Crisis ^ July-August 1994 become a cardinal; seeks "human compromises es. The remainder were German, Polish, Italian, that avoid clashes while honoring the integrity of Lithuanian, Estonian, or Russian. Even the Irish the disputing parties.** Kennedy cites Bernardin's fought among themselves. In 1900, when the pas skill at weaving a "seamless garment" of pro-life, tor of a prosperous West Side parishwentpublic anti-capital punishment, and anti-nuclear weapon to try to thwart appointment of Reverend Peter ry positions a decade ago. On the basis of that Muldoon as auxiliary bishop, Muldoon explained contribution, former Vice President Walter Mon- that "it is the old story of the Irish-born priests dale argued that he ^as more "pro-life" than Pres againstthe American-bomIrish priests.** ident Ronald Reagan, who was firmly committed At least one saint to anti-abortion policies. emerged from Chicago «_ , Kennedy isnot theonly observer to compliment (Saint Frances Cabri- BERNARDIN S TROUBLE Bernardinon his talent in forging difficult coali ni). Children were edu tions. Commenting on Bernardin's role as chairman cated largely by "Mer- IN PACIFYING REST- of the bishops* drafting committee for thepastoral cy nuns"—Religious less ANGRY CaTH- letter "The Challenge of Peace,** Michael Novak Sisters or Mercy from credits the cardinal for his skill inresolving thecon Ireland, who also ran OLICS RECALLS THE flicts that arose as |the letter's final passage was hospitals and homes being debated: "Bernardin drove his five-bishop for the destitute. (They DIFFICULTIES OF drafting committee to prior consensus on every line, and he managed an emotional two-day meet ingin Chicago, which could easily have been stam "S.Sr.S? man. Of HIS PRED- peded, toward the best achievable outcome under lessors through- the circumstances.** I Lyne. A superb hospi- OUT THE ARCH- tal administrator, she BERNARDIN*s trouble in pacifying restless was named the city's DIOCESE'S HISTORY angry Catholics recalls the difficulties of commissioner of public many of his predecessors throughout the health by Mayor Rich- SINCE ITS FOUNDING archdiocese*s history since its founding in 1844. ard M. Daley. Sister 10// TlMt year (assisted bythree other Lyne maintaLs that IN 1844. priests) unhappily accepted episcopal consecra she is personally pro- tion. Schools, not churches, were thefirst require life but favors continuation of public abortion ser ment—although Saiiit Mary*s, the first church built vices for the poor. Recently she declared in a news in the city, became a national symbol of architec conference that theClinton health care program is ture, notfor its beauty but its utility. The product too important to be jeopardized by the abortion ofa carpenter named Augustus Deodat Taylor, it controversy, for which shewaspicketed bya mili was constructed the way barns are built, on a tant pro-life group. In June, 1991, after a session framework of two-by-fours set close together to at the City Club of Chicago, I asked if she had re which roof and siding were nailed, rather than on ceived any admonition from Cardinal Bernardin. a frame ofmassive heavy beams. It wascalled "bal She said no. "He wished me good luck and knows loon-frame** by critics who wrongly feared itwould how difficuk this job is." Recently the chancery has be blown away by prairie winds. Instead, it expressed reservations about, but no censure of. spawned buildings that could be knocked together Sister Sheila.) quickly by a team ofamateurs and was adopted Contentious though it was, the Church grew everywhere across the West whensettlements went enormously inthelate-nineteenth and early-twenti up at a gallop. eth centuries, guided by Archbishop James Also ballooning was Chicago*s Catholic ethnic Quigley*s urging that there beone Catholic parish diversity. This produced friction sogreatthat Bish per square mile "so a parish should be such a size op Quarter died in his mid-40s, only two years that the pastorcan personally know every man, after consecration. In 1855, hundreds ofangry Irish woman, andchild in it." Forthe most part,parish gathered to protest Bishop Anthony 0*Regan*s es were governed with benign tolerance of the or transfer oftwo priest-instructors from an early dinary until theappointment in 1915 of Archbish school. Later, Bishop was perceived opGeorge William Mundelein, who imposed order as slowly going mad. His closure ofaseminary sent for the first time. Mundelein, a fast-riser in New at least one priest to Rome to protest andto secure York, believed in tight-fisted control. But his first Bishop Duggan's admittance to an insane asylum task was to survive his city-wide inaugural ban where he died. quet. By a year before the Great Fire, it was As a huge crowd waited at theprestigious Uni reckoned that the Irish controlled 15 of Z3 parish- versity Club to sup in honor of thenew prelate, an

July-August 1994 Cwsrs 45 anarchist cook seasoned Mundelein's favorite fronted a dynamic and rebelliouschurch. The only soup with a lethal mixture of arsenic and mercury, corporation solely undiminished by democracy in the hope of wiping out all of Chicago's leader didn't work. When Cody died in 1983, he was ship, spiritual and temporal. A last-minute decision under federal investigation for allegedly diverting to water down the soup saved all lives, but mid Church funds to aid an elderly woman said to be way in the ceremony dignitaries raced for the lava his "step cousin." (He ordered that all Church in tories. Mundeleiri dined undisturbed since—unac surance be purchased from her son.) Father An countably—he had declined his favorite soup. In drew Greeley became the best known priest of the the next days, while the Chicago establishment re day for his writings about Cody and, some say, his covered from illness, he gained an aura of stability triggeringof this probe. by striding into a judge's chamber and taking the Enter Joseph L. Bernardin. He was as welcome oath of the corporation sole, thus becoming the to Chicagoans as warm sunshine after winter. first prelate to take full advantage of an 1861 Illi Born in South Carolina in 1928, he swiftly moved nois statute allowing him to take personal charge of up the ladder to become auxiliary bishop of At all Church property. Thereafter he dealt with the lanta, where he servedas understudy to the South's parislies as a tough-minded CEO, approving bud great liberal, Paul Hallinan. When Hallinan died, gets, ordering expansions, transferring priestswith Bernardin was bypassed as successor, diverted in out difficulty. As Archbishop of Chicago and first stead to what friends and critics alike believed cardinal of the West, he reigned over the second would be a dead-end: general secretary of the largest closely-held estate in the city, outranked weak National Conference of Catholic Bishops only by holdings of the Marshall Field family. (NCCB) in Washington, D. C. By the timeMundelein died in hissleepin 1939, Bernardin took what was meant to be a do-little he had built a preparatory seminary and a major bishops' trade association and converted it into a seminary which he envisioned as the Catholic Uni liberal-progressive think tank, gathering around versityof the West and for which he wrested pon him an enthusiastic staff including Father J. Bryan tifical status from Rome. The grateful Protestant Hehir. Bernardin utilized the NCCB with unrivaled community 40 miles northwest of Chicago, where mastery, continuing when, as Archbishop of the seminarystands on 950 acres, changed its name Cincinnati, he was elected its president. to Mundelein, . Moreover, Mundelein Bernardin's style was to serve as innovator, made Chicago a seed-bed of social conscience, en whilewith delicatemurmurs soothing relationships couraging a popular pro-labor auxiliary bishop, with Rome—creating no waves while pursuing his Bernard Sheil, playing host to Dorothy Day's first liberal agenda. Kennedy describes these years well, House of Hospitality, Baroness Catherine de when the Cincinnati archbishop worked with the Hueck's Friendship House, an international Eu- apostolic delegate to the U.S., Archbishop Jean charistic Congress, and welcoming labor advo Jadot, to name "younger, conciliar-minded bishops cates Bishop John Lucey and Father John Ryan. in top diocesesthroughout the country"—^men who Mundelein was a close associate of President "might have been personally sympathetic to even Franklin Roosevelt. Indeed an FDR confidant, more radical transformations" but who, with Thomas Corcoran, was a house guest the night Bernardin's guidance, refrained from challenging Mundeleindied. The two were planning a strategy "positions which the aging Pope, Paul VI, had de for FDR to send a permanent emissary to the Vati fended many times." can. But Bernardin's elevation to Chicago almost Frpm the standpoint ofadministration, finan failed because of the exuberance of a close col cial sttength, and cohesion—though not democra league, Chicago's sociologist, columnist, and tire cy—it has been downhill for the Chicago archdio less novelist, Father Greeley. As Kennedy describes cese since Mundelein. His successor, Samuel Cardi it, Greeley, who was engaged in a duel with Cody, nal Stritchwas more personable but flawedby mas while preparing his memoirs unaccountably fanta sive inattention to financial detail. Theft ofsome $i sized in audio-taped reflections about a putsch in million by a staff aide resulted in the cardinal's which Cody would be removed and replaced by "promotion" to Rome, wherehe diedshortlythere Bernardin. The typed transcript of zojooo words after. Liberals cheered Albert Cardinal Meyer for was somehow transported either by error or, as his fight for the schema on religious liberty at the Greeley later charged, by theft, to the hlotre Dame , but he died shortly there Magazine, wherethe reflections werepartiallypub after of brain cancer. lished. Bernardin was keenly embarrassed, but kept Then camethe most controversialprelate of all, his cool until the storm blew over. Rome was con John {Patrick Cardinal Cody, who sought to re vinced that Bernardin was not the sort to become store Mundelein's preconciliar power. Autocratic involved in a silly dump-the-cardinal enterprise and insensitive to personal relationships, Codycon when his own likelyappointment was so near. On

46 Crisis July-August 1994 t- &53 Cody's death in 1983, Bernardin was installed as in order to listen and counsel. Permission was curt Chicago's archbishop, and later made cardinal. ly denied. The cardinal renewed his appeal. Hav Understandably, ex-confidant Greeley was ing again denied the cardinal permissionto attend, kept at arm's length. The cold shoulder earned en therump group whooped through a resolution, 52 mity from Greeley, whowrotein hisautobiography to o, signifying its determination to utilize general {Confessions ofa Parish Priest, Pocket Books, absolution. 1987), "it is not unlikely in my judgment that sex Citing a shortage of priests, Bernardin is push uality, indeed perverse sexuality, will be to the ing to install laity (mostly women) as day-to-day Bernardin archdiocese of Chicago what financial heads of parishes. A requirement that applicants corruption was to the Cody archdiocese of Chica must have a master of divinity degree eliminates go. I hasten to add that I do not question the Car most, if not all, of Chicago's 613 male deacons. dinal's own sexual orientation." When charges of The chanceryacknowledges that up to 90 percent priestly pedophilia arose, Greeley was unsparing of qualified applicants will be women, mostly ex- of hiscriticism of Bernardin's handlingof the prob nuns. At the same time, Bernardin is rigorouslyen lem. Bernardin later adopted many of Greeley's forcing mandatory age-70 retirement of priests. sound recommendations, and the two dined colle- The strategy radically changes not onlygenderbal gially lastyear incelebration of Greeley's sixty-fifth ance bur the philosophical formation of the birthday. Church. "He can dine with Andy all right," growled a Memories of the old, confident Church, exert pastor sympathetic to Father Anthony Brankin, ing legitimate authority, not the authoritarianism "but not with us. If he'd only discover what's real of Mundelein, are as hazy as the Chicago Fire. But ly going on in this archdiocese." from thegrey ashes of a ruined, burned-out city in 1871 there arose a greatcity with huge stretches of Hitchcock's thesis is that the cardinal does land which ultimately supported a matchless archi know fully what's going on and views the tecture. Some of those who witnessed untended difficulties as an opportunity for further flames lapping at the hallowed church structure change. Bernardin, always the diplomat, delivers would like the experience repeated in Chicago carefully sanitized homilies, eyes rooted to the Catholicism. ifr text, presiding over evident chaos with model decorum. But in some instances, his leadership is vacillating. Earlier this year, the cardinal asked CRISIS WINS ^ his chancellor. Father Thomas Paproc- CCatholic Press Association Awards for 1993-1994 ki, to dispel confusionover general ab- solution by writing a letter for the car dinal's signature to clarify this growing FIRST PLACE FOR "BEST SHORT STORY" practice in which a priest gives absolu "Betrayal: Father Jason's Double Life" tion to all at one time, with no oppor- CPACPAjudges praised"Betrayal" as "the story of a man with an invent tunity for private confession. The archdiocesan publication, The ed vocationi and a cynical ministry masking a secret homosexuality. New World, explained it this wayon The ideology is loaded to the right, and the overload may put some March 6, 1994: "This year Cardinal peopleoff. Still,it's a veiy gripping story, very nicely written." Bernardin, in an effort to clarify the "Betrayal" was an pseudonymous creation—by Eusebius. church's teaching and pastoral consid erations involved, took the bull by the THITHIRD PLACE FOR "BEST PERSONALITY PROFILE" horns and, so to speak, wrote a letter "TheThe C/Catholicas CONSERVATrve; Russell Kirk's Christian Humanism' to all the priests of the archdiocese. 'Au By Gregory Wolfe thorization for imparting general abso- lution ... is not given in the archdio- The. CPA^ citation declared, "This profile on Russell Kirk and his Christian humanism is unblushingly celebratory of Kirk andthecon Predictable resentment flared from servatism he represents. Though one may debate the article's conclu priests who wished to continue general sion, it is impossible to fault its scholarship or Wolfe's writing absolution. After some dispute about style." what Paprocki had said, a rump meet ing of priests was called. Father Hel- The awards were announced at the CPA's 1994 annual meeting in late May. This marks the first time Crisis was entered in Catholic frich, who was close tosome ofthe par Press Association judging, and marksa milestone in the nuigazine's ticipants, says that the cardinal called participation in Catholicjournalism. one of the leaders and asked to attend

July-August 1994 Crisis 47 ing platform battles over issues such be running as "very conservative ty "has always been to build a per as abortion had become a regular Democrats." Apparently so. manent infrastructure. We're looking four-year occurrence for conference 20 years ahead, not two years." attendees. "Platform fights don't However, a number ofestablish work," he said, suggesting that mod Press Critics in ment Republicans are making it erate Republicans focus on nominat Glass Houses... clear that this is not necessarily a ing a candidate who agrees with frightening prospect. For example, them. The Media Research Center has although the Young Republicans has Putting th^ecandidate before the documented the following two days always had a strong contingent of platform wilt be a more effective way in the life of a great American news social liberals, several GOP leaders of regaining control of the party, he paper. went out oftheir way at a recent YR suggested. In 1980, "progressive" The Los Angeles _ .1 — conference in Wash- Republicans split their votes Times writes of Rush ington to attack the between John Anderson, Howard Limbaugh on June Baker and George Bush ("the pro- 29: "Giving him his - gious right. choice, voodoo economics George due, Ti-uthman Arianna Huffing- Bush," he dryly noted). This allowed appears to be factu- | I ton, the wife of Rep. conservatives to unite behind Ronald ally right at least as 6a': MichaelattackersHuffingtonof the reli- Reagan. often as he's wrong. — a pro-choice, pro- This time around, "progressives" Hitting 50 or 60 per- ^ gayrights Republi- must plan ahead and establish a cent of your shots 9^^ ^ I can running for the process so that next year they will makes you a star in L I >•; Senate in California unite behind a candidate. Green basketball. However, § *• ^ ^ ^ against incumbent suggested scheduling a mini-conven- that's unacceptable I Dianne Feinstein — tion for moderates in 1995 to pre for a self-defined ora- pare for the next presidential cam cle whose trustwor- paign. thiness is taken for ^ Green — who used to represent granted bya hefty M I who comes out and New York's 14th District in Manhat number of Ameri- I professes theirfaith tan, which has the highest household I in God or brings God income of any congressional district The Times writes — declined to single out a favorite, of itself on June 30; but mentioned California Gov. Pete "President Clinton 1 GOP chairman Wilson and Massachusetts Gov. BiU made comments Limbaugh: Fact orfiction?yrfiction? Haley Barbour was Weld as potential nominees. about radio and TV even more emphatic, personality Rush Limbaugh to a St. describing Democratic criticism of Louis radio station, not a meeting of religious conservatives as a "Democ Spare the Rod, radio talk show hosts. In addition, rat Christian-bashing campaign" Spoil the Convict Fairness & Accuracy in Media is which attempts to distract attention located in New York, not Washington. from Bill and Hillary Clinton In Florida, gubernatorial hopeful Both facts were incorrectly reported through "a cynical, orchestrated Jack Gargan is taking populism to in Wednesday's Calendar." effort to try to attack conservative new heights. The term-limits advo Christians," quipped Barbour. cate is challenging Gov. Lawton "I guess if my party had lost Chiles in the Sept. 6 Democratic pri Republicans Attack every election, I'd want to change the mary and has been telling audiences subject too." that he supports public caning. He Religious Right's Attackers But he went on to say that the also claims to want to bus illegal Copies of liberal journalist Sidney campaign also was an effort to "deny immigrants to Washington and dump Blumenthal's New Yorker article, people through, frankly, a campaign them in federal offices. According to "Christian Soldiers," were distrib of religious intolerance." The GOP the St. Petersburg Times, Gargan uted at July's Conference for a chairman claimed the campaign "is "insists he is winning and blames the Republican Majority. Blumenthal, an already backfiring on them, and media for not spreading this news archdefender of Bill Clinton, argues some of their own people are already more diligently." that religious conservatives "pose an repudiating." At first, Gargan planned to run as uncomfortable political quandary" At the same time, Barbour used an independent, but after three for other Republicans who will feel his denunciation ofthe Democrats to months of effort his supporters had obliged to "define themselves in rela repair any tears in the famous obtained only about 40,000 of the tion to the growing movement." Republican Big Tfent. "We're the con 196,255 petition signatures needed In fact, it is looking more likely servative party, but we're a broad, to qualify him for the ballot. As a that the religious right will be a mainstream and diverse party," he result, Gargan decided it would be major force in this fall's election — enthused. "And I don't admit our cost-effective to pay the S7,300 filing and perhaps beyond. Blumenthal diversity —I brag about it! It's one of fee for the Democratic race. dourly notes that the Christian Coali our great strengths!" Barbour coun At the time, Gargan said it had tion and its allies "are conducting a seled the assembled youthful Repub been "tough choosing whether to long march through the Republican licans to understand that "Bill Weld run as Republicans or Democrats," Party" and quotes Christian Coali and Pat Robertson agree on a lot but that he and running mate Jim tion Executive Director Ralph Reed more than they disagree on." King had decided that they would as saying that the movement's priori By Michael Rust Augusf ?5, 1994 Insight