Ono Ekeh was an employee of the U.S. Bishop's Conference. Ekeh was also founder and moderator of the Catholics for Kerry e-mail discussion list. Unfortunately, his participation in the latter activity ended his employment. The U.S. Bishop's Conference has the right to fire anyone who is involved in any sort of political or social activity they don't approve of - which includes, it seems, supporting the "wrong" candidate for president.
Joe Feuerherd writes for the National Catholic Reporter:
Ekeh's support for Kerry was well known among conference employees, though no one was aware of his role as list moderator. "I have three huge 'John Kerry for President' stickers on my car," said Ekeh, "and when Kerry would win a primary people would come by and congratulate me." Ekeh said he was careful to separate his job from his Web activities, which he conducted on his personal time.
Following [Deal] Hudson's column [Hudson is "publisher of Crisis magazine and a key player in the Bush campaign outreach to Catholic voters"], said Ekeh, the pressure mounted. In a Feb. 25 column, conservative columnist William F. Buckley termed Ekeh an "apologist for Senator Kerry's inanimate disapproval of abortion." The secretary in Ekeh's office was fielding phone calls from Catholics who wanted him fired. At the March 9 meeting, conference officials asked Ekeh to resign and offered him a severance package. He agreed. "Given the work I had done for the bishops, [the controversy] created an atmosphere where it was not going to be productive for me to continue working there."
Body & Soul comments:
Here's why I think Hudson is trying to influence the Bishops: The USCCB is currently "preparing a document critical of all Catholic politicians who vote against church doctrine." That sounds like a threat to a pro-choice Catholic, but it isn't necessarily. As the Crisis article notes, the pope has spoken of abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty as “the great civil rights issue[s] of our time.”
But a paper that suggests that it's wrong to vote for a politician who supports abortion rights, but also wrong to vote for a politician who believes rabidly in the death penalty, and prosecutes wars that can't be justified on any moral grounds the bishops can imagine, would not be helpful to Karl Rove. ... [S]o we're seeing a move from the Catholic right to suggest to the bishops that they have gone too far with their liberal nonsense, and that it is time to return to the most important moral issue -- protecting fetuses. When Ono Ekeh was forced out of his job, they won the first skirmish in the cultural war.
Ekeh supports Kerry in large part because he believes that Kerry is the candidate who best represents Catholicism's social teachings. What this story seems to suggest, however, is that conservative Republicans can get such a person fired because adherence to Catholicism's teachings on matters like abortion (which Kerry won't legislate) is far more important. So, if you work in any way for the Roman Catholic Church, you probably shouldn't do anything active to support Kerry's candidacy for president - or at least do so anonymously. Otherwise, your standing in your church could be in trouble.
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